Saturday, November 1, 2014
Variety Bags of Chocolates: Just for Halloween?
OVER AT THE BUSINESS LAW PROF BLOG, Professor Ann Lipton (Duke Law) has an interesting post about chocolate, which on the day now known as "the day after Halloween" (formerly "All Saints Day") is particularly relelvant. Professor Lipton quotes chocolate makers as noting that much of their increased business has come from the introduction of variety bags, which they they say drives increased consumption via the "Chinese Buffet" principle -- people want more variety. She disagrees:
But people buy big bags of smaller candies for a reason: To distribute. And in that context, they like variety not because they get bored with one flavor, but because as a Halloween candy-giver, you want to give trick-or-treaters a choice. You never know which kid will hate almonds or love dark chocolate or which kid (uh, kid, yes, we'll go with kid) treats peanut butter cups as a meal replacement. Variety packs are an easy way of making sure you offer the best treats in the apartment complex no matter who shows up at your door. I'd rather buy two variety bags than 10 bags of different single-type candies just to give trick or treaters a choice.
Professor Lipton's point is that consumers do not themselves value the choice, but use variety bags only in an instrumental sense. In other words, an Almond Joy lover will buy Almond Joys for herself, but will buy variety bags for third parties whose preferences she wishes to accommodate but which cannot be determined in advance.
My own empirical observation, however, is that her explanation may be too simplistic. My study subject, my son Jack (15) will purchase varietey bags throughout the year for his own consumption. He does this even when the bag is known to contain certain kinds of candy that he does not like (e.g, jaw breakers) and will have to either throw away or (worse) give to his brother. He values the variety in the Chinese Buffet sense. On the other hand, at Halloween Jack will distribute candy not based on what he thinks the recipients like, but on what he does not like. Thus, if we buy a whole bag of jaw breakers along with the variety bag, he will happily hand every kid a jaw breaker, even the really little ones who don't have teeth yet.
In other words, Professor Lipton's question is both interesting and important, but it clearly needs further study.
Fortunately
UPDATED: To add missing link. Mea culpa.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/cannabis_law/2014/11/variety-bags-of-chocolates-just-for-halloween.html