Popcorn and Pop King

 There's a Tim Horton's Donuts ad in Canada (or used to be) in which a couple of kids are selling lemonade for $10.00 a glass. A potential customer happens by and says, "My stars! Ten dollars?" Or something like that. The kids then shrug and say, "Hey, supply chains..." 

We laugh but this takes place in real life everywhere we buy things, including at Tim Hortons. What we don't see in the add is the stupid customer actually BUYING the ten-dollar lemonade thus enabling the children's chicanery and encouraging more of it in their peers. Soon Boy Scouts (whose oath includes honouring God, helping other people, and being morally straight) are selling little bags of popcorn for 20 bucks. OR MORE!

I know, it's largely a donation so they can be forgiven. But they claim about 70% is donation. Is it? 

Where have I seen 20-dollar popcorn before? Oh yeah, just last night I went to see "Michael" in the theater. It was the first movie I've gone to since October of 2024 when I went to a scary movie with my American friends. I didn't buy any popcorn then and I didn't buy any last night. I talked with one of the people I went to the movies with last night who said that the prices of everything at the theater concession were, "WRONG!" I had this conversation with her as she purchased popcorn and a drink for heavily unreasonable markup. I guess, like the movie we saw, (which didn't include three of the Jackson kids (Rebbie, Randy, and Janet), pretended "Off The Wall" was his first solo album when it was actually his FIFTH, insinuated MJ laboured over and then finally wrote "Thriller" in a burst of creativity, lied that there were no black artists on MTV and they weren't playing "Thriller" until Walter Yetnikoff called up and threatened them (which probably didn't even happen at all), minimized Joe Jackson's abuse and the disastrous plastic surgeries his nickname for Michael "Big Nose" led to, and, although he was in his 30's by the end of the movie and both women and men were shown in audiences swooning over him, absolutely nothing about his odd sexuality was included) we are just expected to ignore bitter reality and just enjoy the popcorn/movie anyway. And WE DO! That's the strange part. Isn't it? 

Anyway, if you like his music and dance moves, go see Michael. If you like documentaries, don't. He's portrayed as flawless in this movie and it's a good bit of fun for fans who already believe in his unearthly qualities. Wait, wasn't there another movie like that?

At any rate, back to popcorn. It costs theaters roughly 50 cents to make the large vat size of popcorn they sell at the theaters. That includes packaging, labour, oil, salt, and buttery flavoured topping. Add labour and it's about a buck. So selling it at $15 represents a 1500% markup. In what universe is that reasonable? Yet we are stupid enough to buy it. Well, most of us are.

I was in a local pawn shop the other day. The proprietor, a large lady covered in tattoos, proudly announced that they pay about 25% of the value of items they buy. While considerably more reasonable than the movie theaters, is this reasonable? Let's have some fun. I'm your buddy and I brought over a six-pack of beer so we can watch the game and have a few pops. Even though I bought it, if I were to drink 4.5 of those beers and leave you only 1.5 what kind of friend would I be? 

There exists a level of reason in almost every financial arrangement we enter into and it's pretty universal. It goes into the shitter at the very mention of "business." People get away with an awful lot in the name of business, don't they? "Personally I'd give you a couple grand for your old car but my business can only give you fitty bucks." We've all seen this and probably experienced it. Why we put up with it is a mystery I'll never understand. 

The recent gas price hikes allegedly caused by the Straight of Hormuz shenanigans are another example. Before the US or Canada had any shortages whatsoever of gas, the prices skyrocketed. It's a common market phenomenon driven by "anticipation of future supply constraints." The stock market is just guessing! Don't take my word for it: 

"That LITTLE portfolio you have." What a dick! 

So what you pay for something is not always supply and demand or anything like reasonable pricing. It can just be speculation. And if you have the power to CAUSE speculation by, for instance, selling or buying stock in bulk like the above dude and many other people like him with far too much money, or maybe a person with far too much power who can, for instance, close a Straight or start a war, you can anticipate speculation and price hiking, buy stock in advance of your actions before the speculation and price hiking, and have an easy way to make money for yourself and anyone else you let in on your stock manipulation scheme. 

Here is a BBC article on some of the market-moving statements that Trump has made that were regularly and predictably followed by massive investments that made money for him, his family, and his Mara Lago golfing buddies. And if you think the price of oil will go down once this is over... 

Will he get busted for this? Of course not! Nobody ever does, why would the president? Why not? It IS against the law. There's even a name for it. Insider trading. But there's another name for it that seems to - ahem - trump them all: business.

So back to the Tim Horton's kids. Are they any different? Nope. They're just finding whatever reason they can to charge outrageous amounts of money for their product. Who can blame them if the public is clueless enough to buy their product?

So what's the solution? We know that prices will never go down so the best we can hope for is a moratorium or price freeze at least on products essential to human survival. Well anyone who suggests such a thing is met with reasons why that can't happen that are on par with the reasons for inflation in their lack of truth and/or creativity. My personal favourite and perhaps the most traditionally effective is that good old serviceable scareword SOCIALISM. But there are others.

If you freeze prices there is no incentive for competition in the marketplace and capitalism will be hamstrung. To that I say maybe capitalism needs to be hamstrung. There comes a time in competition when things become overcompetitive and inevitably cheating is the result. That way the bad win and the good lose. Sound familiar? It's the very state of business today. We need a referee or a gym teacher who will call the game and say, "If you can't play fair, you can't play at all. So for the rest of the class we'll do passing drills, shooting drills, skating drills, and calisthenics. Maybe next class we can try a genuine game situation but only if you behave." 

What do you reckon? Any chance that'll happen in our lifetimes?