Thursday, May 22, 2008, 10:51 PM
I remember how excited i was to see this poster at Cathay until i saw the following:Terms and Conditions• $6.00 per ticket from Mondays to Fridays, for any movie before 6pm at any Cathay Cineplexes• This promotion is open to all Primary, Secondary and Tertiary students in Singapore• This promotion is not valid on Public Holidays and the Eve of Public Holidays• Each student pass is valid for 1 discounted ticket only•This promotion is not valid with online / phone / corporate / block bookings, other discounts and promotions at Cathay Cineplexes. • The Management reserves the right to alter the terms of this promotion without prior notice.Then i saw an even cheaper bargain which unfortunately does not apply for me.
Similarly, it had the following texts in very very small font ( i wonder if the senior citizens can actually see):
Terms and Conditions• For Senior Citizens aged 55 and above• NRIC to be presented at Box Office to enjoy discount• Offer is valid on Mondays to Fridays, excluding Eve of Public Holidays and Public Holidays• Offer is not valid for movies screening at the Picturehouse• This promotion is not valid with other promotions / discounts at Cathay Cineplexes• The Management reserves the right to alter the terms of this promotion without prior notice
Hence, my evaluation may be slightly biased. SLIGHTLY.MY EVALUATION!
- This is a form of price discrimination. It is the practice of charging different prices for the same product or for different units of it when such price differences do not result from differences in cost. Whether you are old/young, guy/girl, pretty/not pretty, hwachongian/rafflesian, you take up one seat and the cost is the same.
- Local cinemas have COLLUDED to launch this promotion. EVERYWHERE THE SAME.NO NEED TO LOOK FOR CHEAPER BARGAINS. This means MONOPOLY POWER
- The "cartel" segmented the markets. Mainly, adults, students and senior citizens. these markets have different PED. Students have generally lower income(pocket money) than adults , hence demand is price elastic for students. Senior citizens generally do not love Brad Pitt or Tony Leung as much as adults and students do, hence are less willing to buy a ticket to watch movies( or pretty faces) at such a high price.
- The movie ticket cannot be resold from one market to another because they check your ID cards.
- Since the primary aim of price discrimination is to generate more revenue and higher profits for the monopolist than when a uniform price is charged, we should not be overly excited by such promotions (i was not an economics student back then, which explains.)
- terms and conditions ensure that this primary aim is reached and the monopolist exploit us and they ensure we do not exploit them instead.
- cleverly, the cartel specifically, especially, intentionally, purposely, indicated that the promotion is not valid on weekends and public holidays when most of us have more time and have more impulse to watch movies.(PED less elastic)
- they also made the promotion to be valid for students only before 6pm on weekdays when most of the students are mugging or having their ccas(PED elastic)
- not forgetting to earn all the money from booking of seats through internet or phone calls, the promotion is not valid with online and phone bookings. which means we don't get the best seats.
- GV's price discriminations are only valid at cinemas where PED is less elastic (ulu places like jurong point, tiong bahru)
*personal conclusion(economically unsound): TERMS AND CONDITIONS ALWAYS APPLY. Monopolists minimise consumer surplus.*
ziqin :D
I remember how excited i was to see this poster at Cathay until i saw the following: