Rent 2 Get 1 Free

Of course after a store opened for business yesterday, I knew there would be more stores opening today. And I was right. The kids came in immediately and put out their open signs. The entrepreneur from yesterday even had a new "special" for his book rentals...Rent 2 Get 1 Free!

As I saw open signs pop up and kids gather the books that they brought to school in hopes of renting, I realized how many stores we had open. I was fully aware of each and every store because each child asked me for tape for their open/closed sign. Anyway, the kids started to notice this as well...and wondering who was going to rent books if everyone was operating a store of their own.

Here came our economics lesson...if there are so many competitors that nobody is left to buy, what happens? Well, in our case it didn't cost thousands of dollars to open their stores, so they decided that they were closed for today. Next economics lesson...Advertising. When I finally allowed the kids to open their stores and shop around, I saw them setting out their books for display, I heard kids saying, "World Records Books", "Newest Edition of Inside the Longhorns", "You get the CD with my version of the Wimpy Kid book." etc. They were also making deals about how much they would charge for the rental in order to beat out a competitor. I expect that some will have a list of their inventory by tomorrow, unless I just missed it today.

Did I mention that the original book rental store now has a salesperson who helps the owner? She works behind his desk with him when there are customers and helps manage his profits, inventory, and disorderly customers. I overheard that he pays her 1 ticket for every 3 books he rents. Clever on both of their parts...she earns tickets without her own inventory and he has help in renting out more books per hour.

I was fun to sit back and watch them run their businesses, figure out how to multitask, and try to attract the most customers.