Selling Things for Fun and Profit

Yesterday on the train a man got on with a big box of fruit snacks and announced he was selling them — two for $1. Later, on a different train, another man got on with another box of fruit snacks, and announced he was selling them for $1 each. Though the box of fruit snacks retails at $40, it can be purchased on Amazon for $18.95, with free shipping if you spend $6.05 more (buy two?). There are 80 packs of snacks in a box, which at $1 each means $61.05 in profit, and at two-for-$1, $21.05 in profit, which means the guy doing the two-for deal would have to sell three times as many fruit snacks to make the same amount of profit. But maybe he sells them faster because they are cheaper? But then also he has to figure out where to stash the other boxes of fruit snacks while he sells down on this one, and that sounds stressful.

I didn’t see anyone buy any fruit snacks.


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