Following on from the previous post, one might ask whether, by making a transaction at a given place and time, that is, humanly speaking, buying, for example, a carrot at Lidl at 5.50 pm on a Saturday, do we really achieve our aim at the LOWEST COST, as I stated previously? After all, immediately after leaving the store, we may meet a friend who will say that he bought a carrot in Carfour one zloty cheaper than in Lidl. Hardly anyone knows that the prices of the same goods in different discount stores in the same city differ, sometimes even quite significantly. Many things could therefore be bought somewhere else cheaper. This is true, by the way, not only of goods in discount stores, but – in general – of all goods in all places where they are traded, both wholesale and retail.
Well, yes, all this is true, except that this truth does not falsify the thesis posed previously. First of all, just looking for information about how much something costs in many places requires spending time and energy on it. This makes sense when one wants to buy a single commodity of relatively high value, but not necessarily when it comes to buying several different ones, and certainly not when one is shopping for many different small everyday goods. Secondly, everyone takes into account in such a case the TOTAL COSTS of the purchase and the time required to do so. Third, one has to reckon with the fact that any of the needed goods, although cheaper, will happen to be missing when – guided by the lower price – we already arrive, or that a particular size, color, cut, quality, etc. will not be available. Fourth, it is not only the price that matters when making a decision, but also non-measurable factors such as convenience, aesthetic impressions, the attitude of the staff, the atmosphere of the place, the possibility of additional services, a place to park, and so on. All of this together influences the decision we make to make a particular purchase at a particular place, recognizing SUBJECTIVELY that this choice is THE BEST IN THIS CONDITIONS. The so-called objective conditions are irrelevant to such an assessment, as they inherently do not take into account any of the non-measurable factors I mentioned earlier, including the risk of failure for any reason.
To be cont’d.