Thursday, January 08, 2009

On Toys


Saw this at Toys R Us last night. List price is $184.99!!!

Who would buy this for their precious brat?

And how much freakin' money did these Star Wars movies make for George Lucas?

Every little Lego set for the movie is around $40 and the cheaper ones have six legos in them. My kid is going without.

I also saw at the store a motorized 2009 Cadillac Hybrid for $350. At that point it was time to leave.

[My kids have a motorized John Deere tractor that only cost about $40 at a yard sale - plus another $75 for battery and charger. It gets them from point A to point B just like the pricier Escalade. We drive clunkers in my family!]

If you think about the ideal product to sell, it would be anything for *rich* people.

After targeting the flush demographic, sell them an indulgence, sell rich people toys for their kids.

I asked the store manager at this particular Toy R Us how Christmas sales were....she said they were pretty good but her store was a company anomaly.

Note that people in Naples are pretty darn wealthy.

Will Durant wrote, "Those who cater to vanity seldom starve." Indeed.

By the way, I think I found where I want to live after I hit the lottery (a few times). I'd like to live in the Pine Ridge section of Naples.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its always better to cater to the wealthy. Duh. Would you rather sell Kia's or BMW's? I cater to the wealthy too-though not immune I figure we are better off than most companies.

I can't verify it, and I can't remember it exactly but something like the wealthiest 20% of the population spends 80% of the money. I think I'll go after the top 20 thank you.

Slow out

CaptiousNut said...

Ironically, not long ago the banks *realized* they made all of their money (80%?) off wealthy customers. Then they went on a spree to get rid of all those minuscule deposit accounts - or at least slap them with *fees*.

Now today all the deleveraging, over-leveraged banks are wishing they had greater deposit bases.

The high end is great in normal to booming times for sure. However, those are the days of yore!

Anonymous said...

Smart money, IMHO, is not to get rid of the small $ but just devote more time and effort the big $. Stupid is as stupid does-rather than try to find an efficient way to make those customers profitable-cut expenses, etc, they charged them right out the door. Sent them all to credit unions and local banks. Schmucks.

Slow out

Small $ is why I put so much effort into my website. They are still profitable and they round out the peaks and valleys.