I agree with a lot of what you said in your article. I especially liked your quote about paying for clear vision:
“I wear contacts everyday and I am willing to pay the price for them because I value clear vision and no headaches more than I value the money I pay for eye insurance, optometrist appointments, and the contacts and glasses I own.”
I’m going to optometry school in the fall and it is always cool to hear about people’s relationship with their vision and if they are corrected or not, but I think you bring up a great point about how you value a product. As someone who already has very good vision, I would not be willing to spend lots of money on contacts to make it just a little bit sharper. However, people who really struggle to see are happy to pay that money because the glasses or contacts are worth more to them.
I also think your anecdotes about working for a boutique do a great job of summarizing what the price consumers pay conveys about the production journey the product their buying endured. At any step along the process from factory to warehouse to truck to boutique, there could be complications or increases in price that affect the price of the product. If the price of fabric increases, that will be reflected in an article of clothing. If the price of gas increases, the price of shipping will increase, which will be reflected in that same article of clothing. The number that the consumer sees has so much more to the story than what meets the eye. I hadn’t even considered the costs of things like electricity, water, and manpower in the store like you mentioned. There is also quite a bit of uncertainty that comes with selling a product which can be factored into the price. I’m sure fashion changes relatively often and that can be detrimental to a boutique that has a lot of stock that has gone out of style. You almost have to prepare for this uncertainty by baking in some guaranteed losses into the prices of the goods so you’re covered in the event that some clothes do not sell quickly or at all. A business owner has to be privy to these sorts of decisions to truly maximize profit while also selling their product at an amount that customers are willing to pay.