Spotted this in the supermarket a week or two ago:

We could do a psychological dig here and get into some whole “be wary of who your friends are, and what their motives might be.”  But screw that.  Let’s just appreciate this on the surface level that all the students’ friends are alcohol companies.  Hah.

Saw this post titled “Seriously.  This should be illegal.” on Kotaku, a video gamers’ blog:

Commenters are furious.  “How could BB charge good money for something so simple!?  I could do this!  They could charge 20% of that and it’d still be profitable – this costs them nothing!”

Nobody ever said the internet populous was brilliant (however good Wikipedia turned out to be), but anyway, there’s a lot of reading between the lines that justifies the price.

The thing about service professions is that they universally have high margins per sale.  You think the guy cutting your hair couldn’t do it for half as much?  20% as much?  Hey – all he’s doing is working a pair of scissors, right?  I could do that!

What the unassuming public thinks you’re buying here:

1. Guy comes to your house,
2. Connects some cables,
3. Powers the system on to download updates.

What the actual consumers of this product are buying:

1. The personal, undivided attention and time of a trained professional,
2. The guarantee that you won’t screw something up that’s very important for your kids,
3. An excuse not to read the instruction manual full of jargon,
4. The use of their own time to do other things, like make $130.01 an hour.

It’s easy for everyone on a blog – a video game blog, no less – to lampoon Best Buy for shamelessly inflating prices.  What they don’t realize is that Best Buy, although they’re an electronics giant, gave up on internet- and computer-savvy consumers a long time ago as their core market.  Best Buy is still around (and Circuit City isn’t) because of, ironically enough, their service.  People above 50 swear by it.  Any time my Dad need something electronic, the first thing he does (after calling and asking my opinion) is mention that he’s going to Best Buy.  Sometimes, I get calls from my parents while they’re already in Best Buy.

My parents (not exclusively, but figuratively) are Best Buy’s core customers.  My generation buys a TV, computer, or game system because the technical specifications meets our high standards at the best price.  Best Buy can’t do this – they have storefronts to pay for while TigerDirect is in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere.  The 50+ generation buys a TV to impress their friends and coworkers and a game system to amaze their kids.  I can’t imagine asking my Dad to set up a Nintendo Wii – even if I walked him through it over the phone.

What’s an extra hundred bucks to see your kids’ jaws drop as everything’s powered on for the first time and works perfectly?

I’ve been dealing with a lot of different local bars over the past few months in working for the magazine.  Everyone’s got their own idea for a Happy Hour – some time of day or week when food or drink are half-off  or somehow otherwise discounted for the prudent customer’s convenience.  I’ve seen some with a very obscure, particular hour that I don’t think anyone has any chance of making.  And then I’ve seen some where the hours are happier more often than not.

You guys I’m sure know by now that I draw a lot of inspiration from Seth Godin, whose big thing (or, one of his many) is being remarkable.

Tying it all together: I’d love to see a bar with an “Unhappy Hour.”  Good deals on drinks all the time, except if you’re there from 7pm-8pm, you pay four times as much.  Do some over-the-top advertisements: “Don’t come during Unhappy Hour!  Everything’s super expensive!  You’ll have the worst time ever, but only for a limited time!”  Perhaps you could even reward your brazen patrons for throwing caution (and cash) to the wind with a free T-shirt or giveaway if they buy during unhappy hour.

Might not make sense, might do more harm than good to the bar’s overall rep and brand.  But I bet you’d definitely find people start talking about you.