Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] those of you waiting for a Fry's or BestBuy in Columbia...

[Kmicic <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Jonathan King wrote:

>     Visit_rate = (p + (1-p)*vr_ng).
 
> Hey, this even works to predict things about any highly selective
> market.  Why are waiters and maitre d's in places with exceptional
> food often really annoying?  If they weren't, then more of the wrong
> sort would go there, and the next thing you know "all you can eat
> catfish" would be on the menu.  Why are the prices so high?  The
> standard argument is that it's because they can get away with it,
> and that's true; in fact, though, it might be necessary to have
> outrageous prices to keep the selectivity filter up.  Why only
> 8 tables?  If they had more, then the probability of ordinary folks
> blundering into the place goes up, and they aren't ordering the foie
> gras.  In most cases, I wouldn't argue that these places
> *intentionally* try to super-limit their businesses, but the ones
> that maintain their original levels of quality/interest/whatever
> will end up being the ones that at least blunder into
> hyper-selectivity.

This is a clever analysis. But it doesn't fully describe many
phenomenona. One such phenomenon is existence (and commercial success)
of places like Ragtag Theatre, where they'll show movies which no
commercial theatre in town will dare, and at the same time they're
playing One Hour Photo along with all the mass slaughterhouses. Of
course you might argue that Ragtag's sole secret is the fact that they
don't charge arm and leg for beer/soda and let you carry your own in...
In more general terms, your model does not account for any positive
efforts on the part of management to educate the "non-geek" public into
sophistication, which can also raise non-geek visitation levels without
the place giving up its character. 
The example of restaurants is completely flawed imo. You can serve good
food without going at length to overcharge or insult your customers, or
without lowering yourself to the "all you can eat whitefish" level. I
recently had a chance to sample a few such establishments in Chicago. 

Paul 

PS: In case you're wondering, yes, I DID get the joke, I'm just too
tired to write an equally funny rebuttal.
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