Will You Pay 10X?

If I asked if you would pay 10X for something that you could buy for 10 times less elsewhere, I have a very good idea of what your answer would be, "Heck, no!  Who would do that?"

But, you see, we do it every day.  I watched my wife do it and with nothing but a little shrug and laugh made the payment.  And, believe me, she is thrifty.  What in the world would she pay 10X for? 

The answer: a banana.  She buys bananas in a bunch at the grocery store for 0.19 per banana.  But on this day, before boarding a plane at SFO she paid $1.82 for one banana.  She is not alone.  We do the same with a cup of coffee.  We can buy a pound of coffee for what one venti latte can cost. And the same is true of all of the food ingredients that we can make a meal at home versus eat out at nice restaurant. The irony is that we only do this with low cost items. For everything else we comparative shop and only allow a small markup. 

This is the new dilemma for those industries (especially food) where the DIY, grow it yourself market is booming. If what we produce or make and sell doesn't feel like there is enough "value" (or in the case of bananas and coffee, convenience) we will forever be chasing the lowest cost. 

As we create and think about our businesses, finding greater value and offers for the consumer allows for higher price point ratios between what they expect and what they will pay.

(For a further faith-based application of this post you can visit here)