

The New Economics of Summer Camp - wallflower
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/business/summer-camps-are-facing-new-economics.html?hpw

======
mgkimsal
$9700 * 900 kids is over $8 million.

Salaries are $1 million (for 500 people? most must be part time volunteers or
getting paid minimum wage for those 2 months).

Food costs are $500k

Maintenance of $700k.

Even rounding those up, that's $3mil. There's $5mil per year left for the
capital investment stuff they need to do. I'm assuming they're paying off
earlier purchases. Certainly there's a lot of marketing they need to do well
in advance of the next summer, but it really seems like a pretty good profit
for 2 months of service.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
Insurance is expensive as well!

~~~
mgkimsal
Good point. I can't imagine is $3-$4 million though. But I might be wrong.

------
jaysonelliot
I love the quote from Michael Eisner: "“Nobody fails summer camp, a nice
respite from winters of fortune and misfortune at school."

Hopefully parents can get over their obsessive drive to make kids "achieve"
something every time they leave the house, and just let camp be camp.

No smartphones, no video games, just kids in the woods getting up to some
trouble and fun.

------
anishkothari
That's some very good press. It should give them a nice boost for the rest of
the year.

