Angelo writes:
Sometimes, there's a situation I call the "Chesapeake Bay Seafood House Factor." Back in the 1980s, we had a restaruant chain named Chesepeake Bay Seafood House. They didn't have a buffet----but it was all you could eat, and the server would keep bringing food to your table. Here's the thing: Prices started at $4.99 for all you could eat haddock. For 5.99, you could get all you could eat fried clams and haddock. $7.99 would give you all could eat catfish, clams and haddock. $10.99 might have added flounder. $13.99, crab. $17.99, lobster. So in other words, if you paid the top price, you'd get it all----anything on the menu, as much as you want. And the funny part is that just out of college, my friends and I would go, fully intending to just get the $4.99 haddock deal. But we'd sit at the table and say----geez, for only a dollar more, we get clams. Then we'd be ready to spend the 5.99----and rationalize that for only $2.00 more, you'd get catfish, which was really good there. By the time you knew it----the increments would have us close to the top of the menu. With watches or with anything else----once you're comfortable at a price point----if they offer you a little more for a little more money----you talk yourself into it. Before you know it, you're spending three times as much as you were last year. I mentioned guns----and it's the same with those. You get walked up the ladder---a little more for this feature. A little more for that feature----and all the sudden, the $795.00 pistol you were planning on is $1795.00.
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