Most interesting. A related insight: people will often not think much about what they pay in a social context, but be brutally penny-wise in non-social contexts.
This explains why restaurants can have huge margins, but coffee shops rarely do. It's normal to see people working alone at a coffee shop for hours after paying $1.99 for a coffee. Such behavior is uncommon in a restaurant -- the common script is to go out with friends or on dates to eat socially. A restaurant can charge more for ambience and service. $$$$ coffee shops on yelp are at the level of Starbucks.
Excellent piece. The idea of the expensive hobbies is actually something that I had not thought of and is certainly another very interesting vector for offering services people will pay for.
That was the big idea I came up with when I was trying to get outside of B2B. Consumers buy stuff all the time - America's economy is built on that! So if we can't make something that American consumers will buy, what does that really say about software entrepreneurs?
This explains why restaurants can have huge margins, but coffee shops rarely do. It's normal to see people working alone at a coffee shop for hours after paying $1.99 for a coffee. Such behavior is uncommon in a restaurant -- the common script is to go out with friends or on dates to eat socially. A restaurant can charge more for ambience and service. $$$$ coffee shops on yelp are at the level of Starbucks.