[lit-ideas] Re: Providing a fair wine and tasting
- From: "John McCreery" <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 23:05:44 +0900
On 1/13/07, Paul Stone <pas@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
At 11:44 PM 1/12/2007, you wrote:
>Actually, the reason you need never worry about sending a wine back
>is because that wine will be used as the "house wine". I agree that
>the $300 wine most likely wouldn't pass a taste test without the label.
Most things that are "really expensive" are NOT that good... In other
words, a set of Yamaha drums that cost 4000 is NOT 5 times better
than a Pearl entry set that is 800, but GOD does it sound great when
you play it. A motorcycle chain that costs 100 bucks does NOT last 5
times longer than a 20 dollar version. A 200 dollar bottle of wine is
really good, but it's not TWENTY times as good as a regular bottle of
10 buck "rotgut" [as mike calls it]. If I had the money to afford the
yamaha drumset, I'd buy it. If I could get the expensive chain, I'd
do it and if I could afford cases of 2400 dollar wine, I'd probably
stock a few, but it's not really a matter of proportionate worth,
it's just the cost of doing business.
Paul is on to something here. Most of the time, most of us assume that
prices are proportional to some natural quality of the item being priced.
The price at which a good is sold is no more or less than a measure of what
people are willing to pay for the item in question.
A 200 dollar bottle of wine may taste perceptibly better than a 20-dollar
bottle of wine, but that consideration is secondary to the fact that supply
and demand have intersected at 200 dollars for the first bottle and at 20
dollars for the second. If the 20-dollar bottle is identified by
connoisseurs as equal or better in taste to the 200 dollar bottle this
should, assuming equal supplies, drive up the price to 200 dollars or more
(or conversely result in a lower price for the 200-dollar bottle). The
tricky bit is that in real, as opposed to hypothetical markets, it takes
time for the information to spread about the great value the now 20-dollar
bottle represents. The stock may be exhausted before the price has time to
move. A redesigned label and larger marketing budget may accelerate the rise
in price. Another tricky bit is that while 200 dollars a bottle may seem
outrageous to someone with income X it may, in terms of marginal value
relative to income, be only a small purchase to someone with income Y.
Cheers,
John
--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
http://www.wordworks.jp/
Other related posts:
