FAKE RONJAN!!Off-Topic Tuesday: how much is your penny candy?
I love The Simpsons. I want to write about The Simpsons. And I don't want it to always be sports-related. And since Chris stopped doing our last Tuesday segment, we have an opening in the schedule. And so we begin Off-Topic Tuesday, an irregular segment to give us a forum to do Useless Non-Sports Analysis.
I'm going to start with a quick one. In Homer and Apu, it's clear that the Kwik-E-Mart is overcharging its customers. Observe the following exchange, via SNPP:
Man 1: I need one 29-cent stamp.
Apu: That's $1.85.
Man 2: I'll have $2.00 worth of gas, please.
Apu: $4.20.
Martin: How much is your penny candy?
Apu: [cheerful] Surprisingly expensive!
You'll notice that Apu never actually answers the question! How much is it?!
Well -- let's take what we know and try to model it! This is actually pretty easy -- we have just 2 price conversions in the dataset, so I'll just apply a linear relationship. Here's what you get:
So it looks like the Kwik-E-Mart is taking in a flat fee of $1.45 for each purchase, and then it adds a 37% surcharge on the item price as well. Net -- penny candy would be $1.47 (after rounding) if purchased in one transaction.
No wonder Apu still works there. Even though he holds a doctorate in Computer Science from Springfield Heights Institute of Technology, the sheer margins pulled in by the Kwik-E-Mart ensure that he's paid competitively!
-rj