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Comment by allturtles | Hacker News Reader

I'm seeing a bunch of comments along the lines of "it's not that expensive to go to the movies/baseball game if you just don't buy any food or drinks."

I feel like what we're seeing across a wide range of industries is a business model where the 'bare bones' experience can be had for a somewhat reasonable price, but a variety of things that used to be considered a standard part of the experience (popcorn at the movies, a soda or beer and hot dog at the baseball game, an assigned seat and a carry on bag on the airplane) are now 'extras' with highly inflated prices and fantastic profit margins.

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I know it's a cliché to blame all the world's problems on wealth inequality, and that a lot of accusations of wealth-inequality-problems can be reasonably blamed on other things...

But this one is definitely wealth inequality. They're probably making over half their revenue on "whales" that make up only 10% of their audience, but they don't want to ignore the rest of their audience because (1) they need to continuously convert casuals into whales or their audience will eventually just die off (2) word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective form of marketing, and there just aren't enough whales out there to keep something like MLB going all on their own.

I always get an uneasy feeling when I think about this. It’s like I know we’ll point to this later as the clear-cut sign that something was going wrong.

The most profitable business model is no longer “sell to consumers who can afford it.” Sure, freemium is great for the people who can’t afford it, but it reminds me of a feel-good news story about a kid that sold lemonade to raise money for their own cancer treatment. Immediate consequences are good. Actual implications are horrifying.

Indeed. We've been told that the current economic system is providing better access for all, but when we point out specific cases when that is not the case we're then told it's providing better quality to fewer people as if that's what we were originally promised.

> They're probably making over half their revenue on "whales" that make up only 10% of their audience, but they don't want to ignore the rest of their audience

That's probably not true for revenue, but "half" may even underestimate the ratio for profit. The world is full of those business where nearly everybody is a net positive, but the business itself is only viable because a few people make them much more massive.

Anyway, they still want to serve all the rest 90% of the people because they make for 20% to 50% of their profits. That is a very relevant amount of profits, that one just don't give up for no reason.

Even McDonalds had "whales" (yes I know that sounds horrible in context). In the 80's, they were very aware of customers who frequented the restaurants 2-3x a week. Of course, they didn't call them whales, instead using "Super Heavy Users," as if that's less offensive.

I disagree with your random choice of causes. I would argue it's that there are more people now. While before X number of people were so into the limited number of Y, you are now competing for Y with 2X people, it Y is more valuable to them than to you. If we had twice the number of Disneylands/Pro-sports teams/Y's, prices would definitely go down.

It's this + wealth inequality.

The increased population growth means that an event that had to be affordable for a median income, now needs only be affordable for a 75th percentile income. Since median household income is around $68k and 75th percentile is 122k. A 75th percentile family can spend $50k on season tickets for a sports team, and still live an otherwise median income lifestyle.

If wealth inequality wasn't so extreme, then such large price caps wouldn't be economically viable.

The Disneyland example can't be blamed on wealth inequality right? Disneyland can only host some number of people at the same time, if we were all billionaires, it still wouldn't expand the capacity of Disneyland.

If Disneyland today can fit 100 guests (example numbers) and there are 50 willing to pay $100 for a ticket and everyone else will pay $10, the optimal pricing will be somewhere below $100 to fill the park.

If there are 500 willing to pay $1k for tickets, they should charge $1k or more. The others are now priced out.

I feel like so many businesses are just focusing on the whales without realizing that part of what made them successful before was that everyone could've been a "Whale".

Like, it seems so much more enviable to have 1000 regular "fish" that all pay a moderate amount than to try and squeeze every dollar out of 1 whale. But instead our economy is so terribly skewed that we try and give a cheap option to the "minnows" while trying to make a "luxury experience" for a handful of "whales".

It doesn't serve anyone really, but we're so stuck in this trickle-down mindset that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I went to a rock festival this weekend with a lot of bigger rock names from the 00s and 10s. Three day tickets were $200-ish, not /awful/ but a bit pricey.

One draft of Bud Light was $12. A little take-out sized noodle box was $15. Tater tots with cheese was $12. Grocery store freezer-grade chicken tenders and fries were $25.

It was absolutely nuts.

>One draft of Bud Light was $12

most are probably aware of this, but a 12pack of budlight costs $12 from walmart and a 24-pack costs $19

You either suck it up and pay inside, or you chug 5 shots of vodka in the parking lot before entering. You'll still probably pay for beer inside, but you won't mind as much.

You could always sneak a fifth inside in your underwear. Or just mix it in a water bottle.

People need to be more willing to break the rules. It’s not as if big corporations care about you, why should one care about them?

My usual movie theater recently had a high school age kid staffing the ticket booth when you walk in and a brand new sign saying "no outside food or drinks." I used to just carry by hand a water bottle and some snacks or put it in an old grocery bag. This recent visit, I was told outright "no, that's not allowed, leave it in your car."

I was really surprised, been going to this theater for probably 5+ years now and this was the first time they'd complained like this (maybe the kid just felt he had to enforce the rules more than usual, not sure).

So I just went back to my car, took everything out of my bag, stuffed it all under my shirt/into my pockets like I used to 10-15 years ago, walked back in. No complaints.

Honestly 80% of the time, anything I bring in will beat whatever they sell anyway.

And FWIW, the last time I bought a bottle of water there for $7 or whatever, I found out during the movie it had already been opened/had a broken seal, so it was a waste of money.

Meanwhile this last time I brought in a bottle of water I bought at the store for maybe a dollar, sealed, etc. No problem. Shrug.

Yeah, we pregamed too. We had a shuttle, so no need to worry about endangering others.

The festival had a campsite too, which said "NO PILLS EXCEPT THOSE IN A PRESCRIPTION BOTTLE WITH MATCHING NAME" and about 100 other things they banned such as liquor. This being the first time I've been to an overnight rock fest, I obliged (other than taking some legal edibles).

I've never been more wrong in my life. The amount of hard liquor in the campground was astounding, and (no surprise) the amount of weed and plastic containers of alcohol snuck in was substantial, too.

They also banned moshing and crowdsurfing, per the signage around the festival. Almost every single band encouraged pits and crowdsurfing.

>"NO PILLS EXCEPT THOSE IN A PRESCRIPTION BOTTLE WITH MATCHING NAME" and about 100 other things they banned such as liquor.

As someone who's passingly familiar with a small local festival's management, I'd be willing to bet that those rules are being required by the festival's insurance company. Of course, if they actually cracked down on the drugs/alcohol, they'd have a lot less people show up next year (and management knows it).

I guess you can justify this if you just think of the price of concessions as part of the overall experience. It's really a $300 ticket but you get to drink 5 beers and have some bar food in the meantime.