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How are you 'destroying your customers[sic] health'? Cookies and Milk are perfectly healthy in moderation - and if a customer chooses to over-indulge, that is

by smanek 18y ago

How are you 'destroying your customers[sic] health'? Cookies and Milk are perfectly healthy in moderation - and if a customer chooses to over-indulge, that is their business alone. Remember personal responsibility?

Tichy 18y ago
At least cookies are addictive (sugar), in general, I would not agree to the "perfectly healthy" notion - I am not a physician, though. Also, I think as a cookie shop owner, you will want your customers to eat as many cookies as possible. I want to see the shop owner deny entry for everybody who is too heavy? Don't think it would happen. How many cookies per customer would be ok, you reckon? Because that number could be factored into the business plan nicely.
- smanek 18y ago
  It isn't the shop owner's problem to stop customers from eating too much. It's the customer's. The health risks of over-eating are fairly well understood; I think the person eating is best qualified to do the cost benefit analysis for themselves. You may have a case if he were selling to unsupervised children who can't make these sort of decisions for themselves - but adults can. Even if sugar were physically addictive, and I doubt that it is, that doesn't magically absolve a consumer of their responsibilities. We're still humans with free will. Frankly, if a restaurant tried to figure out how much food I 'should' eat I would refuse to do business with them - it's just insulting.
  - Tichy 18y ago
    To each their own - all I am saying is that I would not want to base my business on selling unhealthy food. I would not want to sell cigarettes, either. The talk about customer responsibility is all good and well, but the fact remains that the "stuff industry" is exploiting human weaknesses all the time to make people buy stuff they shouldn't. I can't really blame them, just want to point out that customer responsibility does not necessarily work out so well. I guess if I shoot somebody, it is also their responsibility of being in the path of the bullet. Edit: just thinking about it some more. I think it is also in the responsibility of the merchant not to sell crap to their customers. Sure, legally probably nobody could touch you if you sell crap. You can indeed say it was the customers choice to buy crap. But in general, humans expect a certain amount of fairness in dealings with each other. You can probably get away with selling cookies, because customers are not yet broadly aware of the health implications. I wonder what it is like to be a producer of cigarettes these days, though. I could imagine that many people would react negatively towards such a person. What I mean is: society ultimately tries to enforce people being nice to each other, so in the long run selling crap might come back to you.
    - smanek 18y ago
      Fair enough - if you don't want to sell something unhealthy that's, of course, your perogative. I guess I always see facilitating a trade between willing participants as a good thing. As long as I'm selling something that people want, everyone is better off and I'm making the world a better place (in the pareto efficiency sense).
      - Tichy 18y ago
        Apparently what people want is not always good for them. That is for another discussion, though. I don't really know why that is the case. It's also interesting in the light of advertising. So first you make people want something they did not originally want, and then you make a win-win trade because now it is something they want? Or is it not so win-win, because your ads distorted reality? (Note, this is not meant as an counter-argument, I am simply interested in this).

by smanek 18y ago

Tichy 18y ago

At least cookies are addictive (sugar), in general, I would not agree to the "perfectly healthy" notion - I am not a physician, though. Also, I think as a cookie shop owner, you will want your customers to eat as many cookies as possible. I want to see the shop owner deny entry for everybody who is too heavy? Don't think it would happen. How many cookies per customer would be ok, you reckon? Because that number could be factored into the business plan nicely.

smanek 18y ago
It isn't the shop owner's problem to stop customers from eating too much. It's the customer's. The health risks of over-eating are fairly well understood; I think the person eating is best qualified to do the cost benefit analysis for themselves. You may have a case if he were selling to unsupervised children who can't make these sort of decisions for themselves - but adults can. Even if sugar were physically addictive, and I doubt that it is, that doesn't magically absolve a consumer of their responsibilities. We're still humans with free will. Frankly, if a restaurant tried to figure out how much food I 'should' eat I would refuse to do business with them - it's just insulting.
- Tichy 18y ago
  To each their own - all I am saying is that I would not want to base my business on selling unhealthy food. I would not want to sell cigarettes, either. The talk about customer responsibility is all good and well, but the fact remains that the "stuff industry" is exploiting human weaknesses all the time to make people buy stuff they shouldn't. I can't really blame them, just want to point out that customer responsibility does not necessarily work out so well. I guess if I shoot somebody, it is also their responsibility of being in the path of the bullet. Edit: just thinking about it some more. I think it is also in the responsibility of the merchant not to sell crap to their customers. Sure, legally probably nobody could touch you if you sell crap. You can indeed say it was the customers choice to buy crap. But in general, humans expect a certain amount of fairness in dealings with each other. You can probably get away with selling cookies, because customers are not yet broadly aware of the health implications. I wonder what it is like to be a producer of cigarettes these days, though. I could imagine that many people would react negatively towards such a person. What I mean is: society ultimately tries to enforce people being nice to each other, so in the long run selling crap might come back to you.
  - smanek 18y ago
    Fair enough - if you don't want to sell something unhealthy that's, of course, your perogative. I guess I always see facilitating a trade between willing participants as a good thing. As long as I'm selling something that people want, everyone is better off and I'm making the world a better place (in the pareto efficiency sense).
    - Tichy 18y ago
      Apparently what people want is not always good for them. That is for another discussion, though. I don't really know why that is the case. It's also interesting in the light of advertising. So first you make people want something they did not originally want, and then you make a win-win trade because now it is something they want? Or is it not so win-win, because your ads distorted reality? (Note, this is not meant as an counter-argument, I am simply interested in this).