Expensive Worms

Mitch is on vacation with the family and stops by the tackle shop to see an old friend. The owner of the local bait shop tells him the worms he sells are twice the price by the lake as they are in town. People who are already at the lake probably aren’t willing to drive back to town to save a few cents, so the bait shop can markup the price and exploit this arbitrage opportunity. From an elasticity standpoint, this implies that people fishing at the lake are insensitive to the price of worms, or we would say their demand for worms is inelastic.

See more: arbitrage, elasticity, inelastic, markup price, price discrimination

Diapers for a Baby

Cam and Mitchell are on their way to Costco for some diapers, but Mitchell is surprised that they purchase items at Costco. He questions when this started happening and Cam jokingly acts like he means to act of purchasing diapers. Cam implies that the new baby has caused an increase in their demand for diapers. It turns out that Mitchell really likes Costco!

See more: demand, elasticity, necessities, preferences, quantity demanded

Diapers for a Year or Two

When Mitchell realizes how cheap items at CostCo are, he suggests getting enough for the next two years. When he realizes how many diapers that is, he thinks about getting a shed to store them all. When people face steep discounts on prices, they respond by buying more (law of demand), but how much more they decide to buy is based on the elasticity of demand. In this case, Mitchel appears to be a very price sensitive buyer even though the items are really necessities.

See more: complements, demand, elasticity, income effect, prices, quantity demanded