Guilt
Yes, that's right. I am guilty of question-spotting. I am picking four economics topics to study for the essay paper this Wednesday and memorizing - yes, memorizing and regurgitating - essay plans for all of them. If at least one of them doesn't come out, I'm. (I see no need to complete that sentence).
I am also guilty of subscribing to rampant consumerism and endorsing Harry Potter hysteria by planning to pre-order Order of the Phoenix. This means, yes, that I am getting the hardcover copy. I hate that. Publishers release the hardcover copy about 4-6 months before they release the paperback, to exploit all those suckers (like me) who just have to read the book when it comes out. This goes for Terry Pratchett as well. There is absolutely no motivation for it except pure profit. And since I am additionally guilty of taking time off from economics revision to write this entry, I'll redeem myself by observing that this marketing ploy is obviously a weasel case of price discrimination, as the demand curves for abovementioned suckers (me included) are a lot more inelastic than those saner folk who have the patience to wait until they release the paperback. RM79.90 for a hardcover, RM39.90 for paperback. It can't possibly cost THAT much more to give the book a slightly tougher cover. BAH.
Marketing strategists feel no guilt.
[03:45PM Update] And what is with the "79.90" and "39.90" business, anyway? Do marketing strategists actually believe that they are fooling anyone by using numbers that are almost as close to "80" and "40" as they can be without actually being "80" and "40"? Do they really think that people will look at the price tag and say "Oh, RM79.90, wow, that's quite cheap", but if the price tag read "RM80", people wouldn't buy it? Like people will automatically round 79.90 down to 70, or something. And it's all moot anyway, even if the book cost RM100 there'd still be suckers who bought it. Like me. All it does is a) use more ink for the price tags (RM79.90 as opposed to RM80) and b) leave the consumer/sucker with a 10 cent coin which they'll probably just put in those little small-change-for-charity glass boxes that those marketing strategists conveniently place right at the counter, so you end up paying RM80 anyway. Or else it's a psychological attempt to make you feel better at getting something back from your RM80. Even if it's just 10 cents. Either way, it assumes that consumers are stupid. Are we??
Well, I'm guilty of planning to buy a hardcover book for twice the price, just because I want to read it as soon as possible. I must be.
Classical economics, anyone? Rational consumers, my ass.