The Born Loser by Art and Chip Sansom for August 05, 2015

“Unlimited Data Transfer! (cappedat50gbpermonthnocarryover)…”

The tavern owner will be happy.

TANSTAAFL.There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.Robert Heinlein..Someone, Somewhere, Somehow is Paying for it..As a for instance, buy a shot of Whiskey.There are 32 Shots in a Quart of whiskey.Most bars budget 2 of them for “Spillage”, so they expect to Sell 30.At $5 per shot, that is $150 per Quart.If that Quart was the Good Stuff, you might have to pay $20 to $50 for it. The Really Good Stuff, up to $120, but then you’d charge $10 per shot, so $300 per quart in sales..What it amounts to is that your “Investment” in the Whiskey gets you a 300% Profit margin..Now, toss out a “Free Food” buffet and most people will end up spending at least $10 bucks on drinks while stuffing their faces. Those drinks cost you about $3 – $4 to pour. And the Food on the Buffet, well it’s an unusual person who can stuff much more than a Pound of Roast Beef, potato salad, etc, into his gut.So, if you can find the Beef at Wholesale and get it for about $4/Pound, you served the Cheapskate custome $4 in Booze, $4 busks worth of Food and are still at least $2 bucks ahead..Now, add in the money you got from the people who are Not cheapskates who spend $20 to $50 bucks each, you’re doing pretty good..Oh, yeah, the Beer Drinkers. You probably paid a bit under $2/Bottle for most of it and sold it for $5, so there’s a pretty good margin. Keg Beer has an even Better Margin so, again, you’re making Money on all but the Worst Cheapskate with a tapeworm.