Review: Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies by Richard McKenzie

THERE are unseen forces that dictate the prices of goods and which standard economic theory doesn’t account for, and this book sets out to expose them. McKenzie suggests the obvious reason why popcorn is more expensive in cinemas (monopoly pricing), or why so many prices end in .99 (consumer gullibility), is generally the wrong one. But he raises so many alternative and often hard-to-test theories that you’re left floundering in a sea of ideas and desperate for solid data. Still, it makes you think about why things cost what they do, and is bound to transform your experience of spending money.…