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I'm not sure the dismissal as obvious is warranted. Yes, it's obvious once you break it down into those terms, but you're waving away the part that's not so obv

I'm not sure the dismissal as obvious is warranted. Yes, it's obvious once you break it down into those terms, but you're waving away the part that's not so obvious: that offering a product that's easy to make and patrons want can be economically disadvantageous enough for a business to decide not to offer it. You've filed that under "business reasons", but the specific business reason is the whole point. Still, it seems to me like this shows a severe lack of creativity on the part of the business. A smarter way to do it would be to offer the Turkish coffee alone at an outrageous price that would deter people from ordering it and sitting around. Then you offer a deal where it's reasonably priced if ordered with a meal. That way 90% of the customers you want are happy, and the customers that take up tables for hours go elsewhere.

tedunangst 13y ago
See also: "Please take my money. Why won't you let me give you money for this thing I want you to sell me?" In this instance, I'm not sure raising the price even solves the problem. You'll just get old men ordering meals and pushing the food around their plate for hours.
- princeb 13y ago
  > I'm not sure raising the price even solves the problem. Priced correctly, it should. if coffee buyers sit around long enough to deny a second ground of customers a table to sit at, the appropriate price for a coffee could be something like, the original price of the coffee + the average amount earned from a single group of customers. for example if the coffee original costs $5, and the typical table holds 2 persons earning you about $7 each, then the appropriate price for a coffee (unbundled) is maybe $19. if someone decides that $20 coffee is worth it, then it makes no difference to you that you sold him the coffee and let him sit around for an hour without another table of customers coming in. if not, he will not be there, and you could now host another table of paying customers.
  - YZF 13y ago
    Some people ordering coffee aren't going to sit around for a lot more. So the nominal cost of coffee would be the price where offering coffee or not offering coffee yield the same profit and we can't really tell where that is. On the other hand, maybe having expensive coffee on the menu will impact other buying decisions people make, it's perfectly possible that coffee at any price will have a negative impact on profit. It's not a simple question of supply and demand because of the mix and crosstalk.
  - mistercow 13y ago
    Well tedunangst's point, which is worth considering, is that the customers who hang around will bypass the whole raised price scheme by ordering an actual meal and getting the discounted price. But that's still avoidable by having the discount structured so that you just can't get a Turkish coffee without paying some minimum amount, determined by trial and error to make it nonviable for retirees to purchase and then sit around all day. With that scheme, however, it becomes more complicated to work out what price makes it worth it for them to actually just sit around, because you also have to factor in the cost of the food they're wasting.
jasonkester 13y ago
Substitute "Turkish Coffee" with "Game of Thrones" on this whole comment thread, and maybe we'll learn a bit about the thought process at HBO. It'll take some doing to construct a reason why people downloading a single tv episode are analogous to old men hogging a table though...

tedunangst 13y ago

See also: "Please take my money. Why won't you let me give you money for this thing I want you to sell me?" In this instance, I'm not sure raising the price even solves the problem. You'll just get old men ordering meals and pushing the food around their plate for hours.

princeb 13y ago
> I'm not sure raising the price even solves the problem. Priced correctly, it should. if coffee buyers sit around long enough to deny a second ground of customers a table to sit at, the appropriate price for a coffee could be something like, the original price of the coffee + the average amount earned from a single group of customers. for example if the coffee original costs $5, and the typical table holds 2 persons earning you about $7 each, then the appropriate price for a coffee (unbundled) is maybe $19. if someone decides that $20 coffee is worth it, then it makes no difference to you that you sold him the coffee and let him sit around for an hour without another table of customers coming in. if not, he will not be there, and you could now host another table of paying customers.
- YZF 13y ago
  Some people ordering coffee aren't going to sit around for a lot more. So the nominal cost of coffee would be the price where offering coffee or not offering coffee yield the same profit and we can't really tell where that is. On the other hand, maybe having expensive coffee on the menu will impact other buying decisions people make, it's perfectly possible that coffee at any price will have a negative impact on profit. It's not a simple question of supply and demand because of the mix and crosstalk.
- mistercow 13y ago
  Well tedunangst's point, which is worth considering, is that the customers who hang around will bypass the whole raised price scheme by ordering an actual meal and getting the discounted price. But that's still avoidable by having the discount structured so that you just can't get a Turkish coffee without paying some minimum amount, determined by trial and error to make it nonviable for retirees to purchase and then sit around all day. With that scheme, however, it becomes more complicated to work out what price makes it worth it for them to actually just sit around, because you also have to factor in the cost of the food they're wasting.

jasonkester 13y ago

Substitute "Turkish Coffee" with "Game of Thrones" on this whole comment thread, and maybe we'll learn a bit about the thought process at HBO. It'll take some doing to construct a reason why people downloading a single tv episode are analogous to old men hogging a table though...