Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies: And Other Pricing Puzzles (Hardcover)

by Richard B. McKenzie (Author)
Key Phrases: rebated products, male wage premium, popcorn prices, University Hills, Southern California, Home Depot (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
With exhaustive research and a wry sense of humor, University of California, Irvine professor Richard McKenzie probes the pricing questions that consumers so often fail to ask in Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies. By distilling the effectiveness of commonly-held strategies, McKenzie illuminates the logic in the seemingly illogical and shakes the foundations of prevalent pricing myths. Are we really fooled by prices that end in 9? If holiday clearance sales are about excess inventory, wouldn't retailers hire better buyers the next year? And why do coffee shops offer free WiFi? Fans of Freakonomics will enjoy McKenzie's entertaining analysis, as you may never look at sales, coupons, rebates - or movie theater popcorn - the same way again. - Dave Callanan


Review
Anything we think about every day is important. And who goes a day without thinking about prices? But prices are more important than most people realize. If you are interested in reducing pollution from cars, or not being fooled into paying too much, or too little, for products, or in just getting the best deal on popcorn at the movies, you will benefit from knowing more about prices than most people do. And there is no easier, or entertaining, way of finding out more on how and why prices are important than by reading McKenzie's fascinating book Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies, And other Pricing Puzzles. And are people really fooled by all those prices that end in 99 cents? You'll be surprised. -- Dwight Lee, University of Georgia, 2008-01-25

This book is about more than popcorn prices. McKenzie uses clear economic reasoning to explain so many things that are otherwise puzzling. He also shows that the federal government's rules for getting on airplanes have caused more deaths than the terrorists caused on 9/11. How does economics show that? Read, be entertained - and learn. -- David R. Henderson, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, 2008-03-21

This is one of the very best books on pricing. If you are looking to understand the economics of the world around you, you can do no better than to start here. -- Tyler Cowen, George Mason University; economics blogger of Marginalrevolution.com, 2008-02-27

Truly liberating. Using a series of fascinating enigmas we've all encountered in our daily lives, Richard McKenzie reveals how the real economic world works. Highly readable. Extraordinarily enlightening. -- W. Michael Cox, senior vice president and chief economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, 2008-02-23

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (May 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387769994
• ISBN-13: 978-0387769998
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #80,782 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Information Treasure Trove --for the Already Informed, July 9, 2008

By	Ink & Penner "geMack" (Illinois) - See all my reviews

--This book tells us more than we ever wanted to know about prices.
--Indeed, here's probably more about prices than we ever thought there was to know!

If you're a casual reader who's just trying to catch up on what's going on around us, the going could be slow and tedious. However, if you're a university prof, serious economics student, or a marketing or merchandising strategist ready to dive below the surface of pricetag information, you'll probably find this book information-stuffed, no doubt interesting...perhaps fascinating, even fun and easy to read.

"Why Popcorn Costs So Much...," valuable as it may be, is just not for a light afternoon's read at the beach. Consider one of McKenzie's opening paragraphs on price adjustment: "One of the unheralded advantages of prices is that through market forces, they capture the advantages and disadvantages of property, in the process giving a market value to the advantages or disadvantages. Prices adjust until buyers are more or less indifferent between properties." [Page 33] --Or an explanation of standard pricing with 9s [as in $4.99]: "From a strictly economic perspective, if there were no cost to buyers considering rightward digits, and there were only gains from allaying the unexpected expense of paying the rightward digits, then there would be no reason for buyers not to consider all digits equally, no matter how high the price. There would be no reason then for the just-below prices...." [Page 183] --Oh, come on, Mr. McKenzie! Isn't there an easier way to say all this!? Re-reading has been SOP for this reader throughout the book.

Occasionally, though, pages do make some sense (topics on coupons, on rebates especially), but this still is not a consumer primer for smart buying. Minor economics tech-talk and cold theory abounds. Never an easy read for the uninitiated, the author seems satisfied explaining things in 40 words when the average consumer-writer might say it in 20. --With one exception: McKenzie (mercifully) includes a section of "Concluding Comments" at the end of each of his 13 chapters, amounting to a nice summary of every chapter's topic. So, here's a hint for the reader: scan or skip over the heart of the chapters and head for the summaries! They're short and understandable. Beyond that, it quickly gets a little more complicated than expected.

--And forget the back cover PR blurb (!) about not needing "a degree in economics to enjoy this fascinating book. Just an armchair and an inquiring mind," it says. True, you won't Need advanced econ to get thru it, but: this surely could be one of the entries on your economics booklist as you trek on toward getting that degree. [Especially if you're registered in Professor McKenzie's class, I suspect.] "Fascinating"? --Overstating it some.

As you "read" this work, note how many times the author refers to "his economics students," and how he's obviously comfortable using lecture-speak in and out of the classroom. He includes a vague chapter on university housing. Too, he offers many references to [presumably university] "textbook pricing." This book is definitely "higher-ed" slanted. Naw...for those not already schooled in some level of economics, it's not an easy/interesting book to get through.

Finally, do ignore McKenzie's current efforts in media interviews to help make this book sound simple, consumer-oriented, reader-friendly. He chuckles his way through some talk-show-host's questions, often providing answers in short quips, quick explanations, and simple clarifications... not even close to how his book is organized. [--And I got this one based on what he said on the radio recently.... Bet the talk-show hosts never read a single page of it.] Matter of fact, the pop-look cover-design (and clever title) invites a fast bookstore buy...but if you'd rather this edition not just collect bookshelf dust, try the library instead/first. It'll likely be found in the business, science or technology section.

--And I'm Still Not Sure why we get nicked big-time for popcorn at the movies. --A generous Two-Stars as a book for the "ordinary" reader, like myself. Four-Stars for the more economically advantaged. It gets a weak Three-Star average.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Agatha Christie of Economics?, May 31, 2008

By	Dwight R. Lee (Dunwoody, GA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you have seen or heard McKenzie being interviewed about his book on TV or radio, you might think that his book is about nothing more than the price of popcorn. He does provide an interesting explanation for the high price of popcorn that is very different than what almost everyone believes. But the book uses simple economic reasoning and examines lots of facts to explain the pricing of a host of different products and services. And he does so in an engaging way, with many chapters written as economic mysteries in which McKenzie begins by presenting the common explanation for a pricing policy (for example, ending prices with a 9), pointing out the problems with this explanation and then challenging readers to see things differently by leading them to a more compelling explanation for the way prices are what they are. I'm not sure this makes McKenzie the Agatha Christie of economics, but it does help make this an enjoyable as well as informative book about prices--something we all have an interest in.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars much fun to read - and much to learn from it, May 30, 2008

By	Nicolaus Copernicus - See all my reviews

This book is really the best I know for solving many everyday puzzles on pricing. When you have a look at the table of contents, do not put the book aside because you think you already know all the answers: there is much more to it than what you think in the beginning.
With respect to entertainment, it keeps up with "Freakonomics", but with much more economics reasoning in it! Nevertheless, you don't need to be an econ major to understand it (but it certainly would enrich your knowledge as well)
A good book for your night table as well as every econ and business student's desk.