13
The Price of Steak

Tom was a shopkeeper. He had asmall corner shop. It was open from seven in the morning until eleven at night and sold many different things. Tom worked hard in his shop but he had a good business and he was happy.

Then a supermarket opened across the street. The supermarket was ten times the size of Tom's shop. The manager of the supermarket wanted to take Tom's customers away from him. He found out what Tom's prices were and then made his lower than Tom's.

People quickly stopped buying things from Tom's shop. They bought everything from the supermarket instead. Soon Tom's business was very bad and he was angry.

“It's not fair, ” Tom thought. “I must do something to teach that supermarket manager a lesson.”

The price of steak in the supermarket was $5 a pound. Tom put a sign in his window,“Steak.4 point 50 dollars a pound.”

The next day the price of steak in the supermarket was 4 point 25 dollars a pound. Tom changed the sign in his window. “Steak. $4 a pound.”

An hour later, the sign in the supermarket said, “Steak. 3 point 75 dollars a pound.” Ten minutes later the sign in Tom's window said,“Steak. 3point 50 dollars a pound.”

Five minutes later the sign in the supermarket said, “Steak. 2 point 50 dollars a pound.” Twenty seconds later the sign in Tom's window said, “Steak. $1 a pound.”

The manager of the supermarket ran across the road into Tom's shop. “This price cutting must stop, ” he said. “Steak is costing me$4 a pound. I'm selling it at 2 point 50 dollars a pound. I'm losing money every minute! ”

“I'll stop cutting all my prices, ” Tom said, “if you will stop cutting all yours.”

The supermarket manager agreed, and the two men shook hands.

Tom smiled. He had not lost any money on steak. He did not sell steak.