6 ms·

Opportunity cost can be a big thing. You could be working for money instead of doing something which doesn't increase your wealth.

dazc 5y ago
Like driving around from store to store comparing products and, often, not even coming back with what you went looking for...
- eplanit 5y ago
  It's amazing that now a whole generation has not had that experience (at least to a far, far lesser degree), and probably doesn't realize that that's how it was.
  - xyzzy123 5y ago
    There are some distinct but comparable Internet shopping experiences. Every so often I think about buying some thingy or other, then get lost in a rabbit hole comparing all the options and sifting through fake reviews. Sometimes I'll "come to", having wasted 45 minutes, close all the tabs, realising I never actually needed the thing anyway.
benjaminjosephw 5y ago
Using money as a way to evaluate the worth of how you spend your time carries a huge set of biases with it. Should I put a monetary value on playing with my kids so I can justify it against making an extra sales call? As a metaphor an "opportunity costs" is helpful for thinking about the value of time but it becomes an ideology in itself if you take it literally.
- xyzelement 5y ago
  > Should I put a monetary value on playing with my kids so I can justify it against making an extra sales call? I think we do that implicitly. You would probably love to play with your kid all day but you chose to make some sales calls so you have money to support the family. But you don't make all the sales calls you could make so that you have family time. So while sure we don't put a monetary number on our hours explicitly, we do have points at which selling our time is and isn't worth it.
paulcole 5y ago
Most people can’t trade one hour of the time when they’re not working for $10.
mikepurvis 5y ago
Could you, though? Even gig work at $10/hr is not exactly something most people are set up to just opt into for the tiny slices of their day that would otherwise be "trip to grocery store." I agree that the convenience of Amazon does create value for customers and that it makes sense to try to quantify that somehow; otoh that convenience also manifests negatively in things like unneeded purchases and comparison shopping paralysis. So I think the math on it is indeed a bit suspect.
- gowld 5y ago
  Why take a trip to the grocery store for yourself, when you can shop for someone else, to make $10 that you can use to pay someone else to shop for you?
  - mikepurvis 5y ago
    Or the other side of it, which is to see shopping as an experience and part of life, rather than something purely transactional where you pay money and receive goods. Though I suppose as big box and discount retail has eaten the lunch of specialty stores, malls, and so on, many of those other benefits (discovery, browsing a curated selection of products, trying things out/on, conversing with a knowledgeable salesperson, etc) have faded somewhat. But on the far end of all this, I'd expect the only brick & mortar stores who are going to "make it" against online retail will be those who can not just promise and deliver on these extras, but also persuade their customers that the extras are worth paying for, whether that's via higher prices, a direct patronage model, or the ability to offer an exclusive paid product not available online.

dazc 5y ago

Like driving around from store to store comparing products and, often, not even coming back with what you went looking for...

eplanit 5y ago
It's amazing that now a whole generation has not had that experience (at least to a far, far lesser degree), and probably doesn't realize that that's how it was.
- xyzzy123 5y ago
  There are some distinct but comparable Internet shopping experiences. Every so often I think about buying some thingy or other, then get lost in a rabbit hole comparing all the options and sifting through fake reviews. Sometimes I'll "come to", having wasted 45 minutes, close all the tabs, realising I never actually needed the thing anyway.

benjaminjosephw 5y ago

Using money as a way to evaluate the worth of how you spend your time carries a huge set of biases with it. Should I put a monetary value on playing with my kids so I can justify it against making an extra sales call? As a metaphor an "opportunity costs" is helpful for thinking about the value of time but it becomes an ideology in itself if you take it literally.

xyzelement 5y ago
> Should I put a monetary value on playing with my kids so I can justify it against making an extra sales call? I think we do that implicitly. You would probably love to play with your kid all day but you chose to make some sales calls so you have money to support the family. But you don't make all the sales calls you could make so that you have family time. So while sure we don't put a monetary number on our hours explicitly, we do have points at which selling our time is and isn't worth it.

paulcole 5y ago

Most people can’t trade one hour of the time when they’re not working for $10.

mikepurvis 5y ago

Could you, though? Even gig work at $10/hr is not exactly something most people are set up to just opt into for the tiny slices of their day that would otherwise be "trip to grocery store." I agree that the convenience of Amazon does create value for customers and that it makes sense to try to quantify that somehow; otoh that convenience also manifests negatively in things like unneeded purchases and comparison shopping paralysis. So I think the math on it is indeed a bit suspect.

gowld 5y ago
Why take a trip to the grocery store for yourself, when you can shop for someone else, to make $10 that you can use to pay someone else to shop for you?
- mikepurvis 5y ago
  Or the other side of it, which is to see shopping as an experience and part of life, rather than something purely transactional where you pay money and receive goods. Though I suppose as big box and discount retail has eaten the lunch of specialty stores, malls, and so on, many of those other benefits (discovery, browsing a curated selection of products, trying things out/on, conversing with a knowledgeable salesperson, etc) have faded somewhat. But on the far end of all this, I'd expect the only brick & mortar stores who are going to "make it" against online retail will be those who can not just promise and deliver on these extras, but also persuade their customers that the extras are worth paying for, whether that's via higher prices, a direct patronage model, or the ability to offer an exclusive paid product not available online.