$19.95 USD is the price the average person will shell out for just about anything. [I base this on my own experience and on a lifetime of watching commercials for mail-order crud]. If the price is anything less, say $15.99, the mark... er, prospective buyer will feel the goods really must be worthless. Any more, and the buyer suspects that the price is jacked up no matter how many "free" deal-sweeteners are thrown in. Besides, if the product *is* garbage, it's a lot easier to rationalize blowing "less than twenty" dollars [plus sales tax and probably S&H...] than it is to say, "Oh well, it was only twenty-seven ninety-nine."
Now, my question is, WHY is this the mental threshold? And when did it come to be? Twenty dollars doesn't cover my average trip to the farmer's market, but before inflation (and, presumably, cable television ads) it wasn't exactly play money. What was the going rate for "exclusive offer" toys, gadgets, and elixirs on 1940s radio, or 1960s magazines? And what would that correspond to in today's money?
Thursday, July 22, 2004
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