I experienced a random act of kindness this weekend. It was quite nice and made me ponder the economic implications.
Geoff and I were at the checkout line in the grocery store (…by an odd set of circumstances - Geoff at seventeen isn’t exactly the grocery shopping type). As happens on the odd time that Geoff and I go shopping together - the groceries included a few items that don’t normally make it into the cart when someone more responsible is in charge. So, as we’re waiting our turn, the lady ahead is going through a little file of coupons that she has with her. She selects a few applicable coupons and hands them to the clerk. Then she looks over our groceries on the counter, flicks through her coupons a bit more and puts a coupon for $1.50 off the frozen pizzas that the boy has added to our cart. She mumbles something, turns and leaves, almost before I had a chance to thank her.
The checkout clerk rings in our groceries, and applies the coupon. Wow, like finding money!
We’ve never really gotten serious about coupons in our household. Lyndsey’s quite careful about meal planning and pays attention to the weekly grocery specials. But coupons have always felt like a little too much work. (And to be honest, I can barely make out the fine print).
I’m not sure if this small incident will change our minds about using coupons - but the social and economic aspect of that lady passing along the coupon really interests me. I’m thinking she wasn’t a big frozen pizza fan. So she didn’t clip that coupon for herself. I’m thinking she clipped it because it was a decent discount and she wanted to get some utility from it. From her point of view, the value she got from providing that random act of kindness obviously was greater than the marginal cost of clipping and carrying the coupon.
Where it gets interesting is when the transfer of value becomes more about economics and less to do with kindness. Consider:
- My daughter was telling me the other day about an incident in a school parking lot where someone leaving a spot wanted to sell their unexpired ticket to someone coming in for half price. The other party thought they should get it for free and it almost came to blows,
- I’ve wondered about those refillable popcorn deals where you just present the empty bucket for a top-up (do patrons ever fill up on the way out and pass it on?),
- …and what about golf balls at the driving range. I don’t know about you - but half a jumbo bucket is usually plenty for me. I’d easily sell the second half to someone else.
Obviously the problem with transactionalizing these transfers - is that it subverts the economic assumptions built into the prices. Presumably parking lots make assumptions around pricing based on consumers utilizing less than the maximum utility available on their ticket. Same for coupons, popcorn and golf balls. I’m guessing that random “acts of kindness” are incidental and don’t signify. But imagine if you were to really leverage and transactionalize this.
What about coupon exhange sites and even gift card exchange sites? The latter is an idea that I think is fantastic. More on this later….