An update on recent technical problems and more from the admin: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/250292/on-technical-difficulties-mod-coverage-and-other-things/p1?new=1
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Spectral Swallow
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Registered User regular
So for the last year now I've been buying a childs ticket($5) instead of an adult ticket($9) at the theater, I finally got busted today, and when I confronted the manager about WHY a child's ticket would be less since children tend to talk more, and occupy the same space. He couldn't give me an answer(I didn't really expect him to, I was just being an ass). So here's my question, what the heck can we do about it? I personally think it's all kinds of bullshit for kids to be charged LESS, what about you? Agree, disagree?
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How do they even get into movies?
Why? Old people deserve some succour.
I think fighting old people is more socially acceptable than fighting children.
I think.
Yeah. Which is why we should protect old people. :P Especially since we've finished being children, thus they don't matter anymore; but we will definitely be old people, so we should make sure they have cool stuff. Plus, they're quiet at the cinema.
Oops, I would have sworn I typed 'manager' but yeah, that's who I bitched at. The entry levels can't do shit about it. But the manager was one of those idiots that thinks his job is the be all end all. One of those people that really thinks what they're doing makes a difference.
I'm a manager at Target and I know for a fact nothing I'm nothing. That was the big thing, was just how the guy acted like a douche.
His acting like a douche probably had something to do with a grown man trying to rip his theater off.
In addition, why shouldn't he take his job seriously? I'm well aware of how meaningless my job is, but I still do the best job I can and if that means I have to be a douche to assholes, so be it.
There are times and places to bring that sort of thing up. Doing it right after you've been scamming the theater out of money isn't it.
Actually, as Thantanos said it is a method of price discrimintation varying by customer. Price discrimination is used to counter the normal consumer advantage from consumer surplus to increase profits.
Basically, there are people who are people who are willing to pay more than the theoretical equilibrium price for a good where the supply and demand curves meet each other, but they pay the same if the market does not differentiate between customers. But with working age adults being more likely to be willing to pay more for a movie than children and seniors, the movie theaters are able to differentiate the prices between the groups to match the optimal levels for the different price points and thus increase revenues.
More direct methods of price discrimination tend to be rather unpopular with consumers, with some exceptions including if spending more has a certain 'hipness' value associated with it. It is much more difficult for a competative market to have a scheme of price discrimination than it is for an uncompetative market.
It is what Cat said. Kids don't pay for their own tickets. I, as a father of two, have to pay more to see a movie thatn a single person or a couple without kids. I'm either paying a baby-sitter, or paying for two more tickets. Also, there's a general societal tendency to view children as not quite full members of society ("minors") and hence the value of them getting to do pretty much anything isn't the same.
Perhaps the target for price dicrimination is the family, but that is not especially relevant to the point it is price discrimination varying by customer class. You can take it up with my prior economics prof if you think otherwise.
Hell, what Cat described is price discrimination.
Isn't it more expensive for families to go to the movie theater by virtue of the fact that they're a family, and not a lonesome adult?
That's.
Um.
Do you go to Denny's and tell them it's your birthday, or order a kid's meal?
And then you have senior meals and specials. Even at McDonalds.
Also consider the fact that theatres rarely sell out the theatre except on opening weekends of major, hotly anticipated films. By charging less for kids, they aren't displacing adults.
I took cheaper as meaning something other than what you intended, as in cheaper versus the cost for someone with no family.
I used to have to snag a nickel or two from the wishing fountain to get enough to keep me off the street in the middle of the night so I could watch Forest Gump instead of Joe Hobo
Because they want to make money and charging kids less gets them more money.
Welcome to the economy.
Does squirting water from a squirt gun at RHPS count?
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
The basic idea is, having a tiered $5/$8 pricing based on age will increase their profits over charging $5 to everybody or charging $8 to everybody.
You might challenge them to try it and see, but playing with pricing is a tricky mental game that might alienate customers in the long term.
Here's a pretty good article which explains price segmentation. (for the software market, but still useful in a general-knowledge sort of way)
Um, because the theater wants to make as much money as possible? You know so that they can pay their employees & their stockholders, expand and make more money, etc? It's called capitalism, I believe. They set their pricing policy to what they think will maximize their profit.
ie. A 3/4 full theater of patrons paying $10 is better than a full theater paying $5. But if you can fill 3/4 of it with ppl paying $10 and the other 1/4 with ppl paying $5, that's even better.
This is like saying "why can't everything be the price I want it to be?" and that leads to communism. Do your colors run red?
I wonder what the OP thinks about the fact that every person on an airplane pays different fares than the person next to them.
EDIT: So beat