I was once again the victim of a monopoly; the Girl Scouts and their delicious cookies. Here exists the true monopoly; a restriction of supply (cookies available only once per year), and a higher-than-market price (based on equivalent cookies available at Wal-Mart).
Every year around this time, an addiction forces me to place cookie orders well in advance of delivery. Sitting by the door in the interim while waiting for my Do-Si-Dos to arrive, I am reduced to a Pavlovian dog; salivating every time the doorbell rings.
Due to my addiction, my demand is purely inelastic. I can only thank the Girl Scouts for selling their cookies at $3 a box. I would certainly pay more, much more. I am the consumer, helpless before the monopoly.
Shouldn’t the feds do something about this? Shouldn’t this pernicious monopoly be Shermanized? Or, at the very least, can’t the Girl Scouts be forced to sell cookies all year long? You laugh, but the Thin Mints jones are real, and vicious.
Of course, a federalized solution would mean bland cookies sold by a scowling apparachik wearing a faded Babushka. So, I dare not look to the feds. I could purchase a year’s supply, but then I wouldn’t have cookie time to break the mid-winter blues.
Well, my cookie order finally arrived this weekend. And, after a half-gallon of milk and a box of Do-Si-Dos, all is forgotten. Until tomorrow, when the empty box is all that is left until next year. Anyone know where I can score some Trefoils?
