welcome! jeremy freese is a professor in sociology at northwestern university. he finds blogging to be a good diversion from insomnia and a far better use of time than television.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
from boston: there goes my life savings
Yikes. In a moment of raspy weakness, I opened up the minibar and started drinking a bottle of Evian. Now I'll never be able to afford a condo. Oh well, might as well have some of these M&Ms, too.
8 comments:
Anonymous
said...
If you'd like to get your money's worth, you can re-fill the bottle with tap water. Per the bottler's instructions, you must then write a bold, deep purple, "UN," in front of the Evian.
if jeremy was willing to drink tap water, wouldn't he have done that to begin with? i certainly would never purchase anything from the minibar. you might as well sign over your first born kid. i'd sooner stick my head into the sink and drink from the tap than even open the door of the minibar to see what was available.
One time I stayed in a hotel with an electrinic something-or-other in the minibar, so we got charged for *moving* the baby Bailey's to see what was behind it. That was hard core.
I adore the minibar. I know, I know, it is completely and utterly shameless to spend $3.50 on a Snickers when hunger looms everywhere. However, there is something about paying that much for the item that elevates the status and pleasurability of the bar. It instantly propels the food item into a more coveted category. I find myself savoring every bite instead of my normal nonchalant mode of consumption.
Yes, it is a well know fact that to tack a larger price tag on a commodity increased its desirability. Consumers woudl be outraged at paying $1.25 for a pint of tap water, but readily spend that much on Dasani, from Coke, which recently had to confess that it was, in fact, tap water. There was outrage over this, but I cannot remember where this happened, and what the eventual outcome was. Just think of how much people pay to eat snails :)
it happened in the uk. dasani was then yanked from the rest of europe too. there was also that thing of it having illegal levels of bromate, but hey...
8 comments:
If you'd like to get your money's worth, you can re-fill the bottle with tap water. Per the bottler's instructions, you must then write a bold, deep purple, "UN," in front of the Evian.
if jeremy was willing to drink tap water, wouldn't he have done that to begin with? i certainly would never purchase anything from the minibar. you might as well sign over your first born kid. i'd sooner stick my head into the sink and drink from the tap than even open the door of the minibar to see what was available.
let's not even think about the M&Ms.
Go for it! What is money for anyway? Have yourself a smorgasbord!
-Henry
One time I stayed in a hotel with an electrinic something-or-other in the minibar, so we got charged for *moving* the baby Bailey's to see what was behind it. That was hard core.
Dennis Miller once pointed out that "Evian" spelled backward is...
I adore the minibar. I know, I know, it is completely and utterly shameless to spend $3.50 on a Snickers when hunger looms everywhere. However, there is something about paying that much for the item that elevates the status and pleasurability of the bar. It instantly propels the food item into a more coveted category. I find myself savoring every bite instead of my normal nonchalant mode of consumption.
Your Web M.
Yes, it is a well know fact that to tack a larger price tag on a commodity increased its desirability. Consumers woudl be outraged at paying $1.25 for a pint of tap water, but readily spend that much on Dasani, from Coke, which recently had to confess that it was, in fact, tap water. There was outrage over this, but I cannot remember where this happened, and what the eventual outcome was. Just think of how much people pay to eat snails :)
it happened in the uk. dasani was then yanked from the rest of europe too. there was also that thing of it having illegal levels of bromate, but hey...
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