Discovering My Inner Economist

The family was talking yesterday about why the lobster rolls are better at the Fishnet in Blue Hill than at the Bagaduce Lunch in Brooksville. People were bringing up micro-causal factors -- lobster to bread ratio, quantity of mayo, etc. I, however, equipped with having recently read Tyler Cowen's Discover Your Inner Economist had a macro-level explanation at hand. The Bagaduce Lunch as a very scenic location directly adjacent to an interesting reversing waterfall. Fishnet, by contrast, needs to make due with an uninteresting location in the non-picturesque part of Blue Hill.

Under the circumstances, nobody would go to Fishnet unless the food was reasonably compelling. Thus, given that the Fishnet has been in business for years, one should assume that its food is superior to that offered at superficially comparable, but better located, fried seafood outlets. At any rate, this insight mostly seemed to bore my family, but I think this sort of thing is interesting.

Comments

But couldn't Bagaduce charge an even higher margin if they produced an equal quality product in addition to having a location advantage? Are you saying that Bagaduce's maximized profit point was an inferior product sold for less?

Posted by crack | August 17, 2007 3:32 PM

cue "elitist" trolls in 3..2..1...

Posted by cleek | August 17, 2007 3:37 PM

Quote: At any rate, this insight mostly seemed to bore my family, but I think this sort of thing is interesting.

Matt, that last sentence could very well be the story of my life.

Posted by Shane | August 17, 2007 3:39 PM

Wait, then why do hot dogs taste so much better at the ballpark?

Posted by tps12 | August 17, 2007 3:40 PM

Dammit, now I want a lobster roll

Posted by Dan Miller | August 17, 2007 3:44 PM

Wait, then why do hot dogs taste so much better at the ballpark?

Methamphetamines.

Posted by Garrett | August 17, 2007 3:52 PM

My foodie husband has a rule of thumb that you should not eat at any place on the waterfront, because t's always going to be overpriced relative to quality.

However, there is a top of the market exception--ie, if it has an amazing view in a very competitive "amazing view" market, somebody may have gone for broke and tred to capture the top of the marketv in terms of food quality and view.

This is why you always assume the waterfront restaurant food will suck, unless you've been told otherwise from a reliable source. And no matter what, you're gonna pay more than you should.

Posted by anonymous | August 17, 2007 3:55 PM

The price should be all about how much meat is in the roll. A lobster roll should cost about $15 per half pound of lobster meat on the roll, given what lobsters go for these days. (Belle Isle Seafood in Winthrop, MA, for example, has an incredible lobster roll featuring a half-pound of claw, tail, and knuckle meat with just a minimal amount of mayo and lemon juice. Best in Boston. $17.) And the meat ought to be coming from decent-sized lobsters, not just cheap chix and culls. It is bewildering that the myth of big=tough still persists. The best meat I ever had was from a 15-pounder.

Posted by tinisoli | August 17, 2007 3:58 PM

Wait, there's a switcheroo here. Your family went for an explanation of what it was about the lobster rolls that made them taste better. You went for an explanation of why it was that the restaurant made them that way...or rather, why they had to make them that way in order to stay in business, whether or not the connection between the quality of the roll and their profits was transparent to them.

Posted by Doug | August 17, 2007 3:58 PM

This is why you always assume the waterfront restaurant food will suck, unless you've been told otherwise from a reliable source. And no matter what, you're gonna pay more than you should.

By that I assume you mean more than you should for the food alone. If you value the view then you are probably paying darn near the going rate for the food and the view. If you're overly worried about the price don't order any drinks.
http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/drinking-strate.html

Posted by crack | August 17, 2007 3:59 PM

The best meat I ever had was from a 15-pounder.

Where, Chernobyl?

Posted by Daniel Munz | August 17, 2007 4:04 PM

You weren't a marketing major, were you?

Posted by Steve Sailer | August 17, 2007 4:07 PM

Ah! La vie folle de libéraux-limousine...

Posted by Gregorio | August 17, 2007 4:34 PM

Matt, I empathize with your experience with your family there. Now see if you can put yourself in my shoes- reading about lobster rolls (yum)... economics, ok, intriguing.... "interesting reversing waterfall"!?! Whaaaa!?!? That's worth a click-through. Yet when I do, it's, what, the contact info for the restaurant? Is this what you meant to do? I mean... I'm not in Maine, I don't think most of your audience is, and at worst I would expect to see that link for the restaurant name. When you link off of "interesting reversing waterfall" I want to see the youtube video of this magical reversing waterfall! C'mon! You're talking up the view and your link gives us no sense of the view! Anyway... not in Maine, but just in case anyone else is interested in seeing a reverse waterfall, regardless, here's a video
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/740040/reverse_waterfall/

Yeah, I know it's probably not reverse in the same way, but I can't be sure since Yglesias' link tells me nothing!

Gripe! Gripe gripe!

Posted by Matthew Barney Gumble | August 17, 2007 4:34 PM

Sorry to be a pedant here -- OK ... I'm not sorry, I'll admit it -- but MY's explanation is not at all as to "why the lobster rolls are better at place X rather than place Y" (and certainly not how they are better), but rather as to how the place with the worse lobster rolls can stay in business even though another place has better lobster rolls.

If I wasn't so farchadat right now, I'd go off on a long tangent as to what this confusion says about the interpretation of economic data ...

Posted by DAS | August 17, 2007 4:43 PM

I love the juxtaposition between the previous post about how 401(k)s and the mortgage interest deduction just help the rich and this one about the relative merits of different lobster rolls available near your family's summer home in Maine. To steal a line from Dennis Miller, "If the symbolism were any more obvious, Andrew Lloyd Webber would write a musical about it."

Posted by Fred | August 17, 2007 5:07 PM

So nu, Fred? Because MY ain't poor he can't point out that 401(k) deductions (even if they do help the middle class) don't help those of us who are makin' much below the median income? So, Fred -- if MY weren't so well heeled (or at least his family weren't so well heeled), would you then complain that his comments about the 401(k) deductions were motivated purely by self-interest?

I guess ya can't win, can ya?

AIFAC, my only concern about this post on the relative merits of different lobster rolls is what a nice Jewish boy like MY is doing eating lobster rolls.

A merry Shabbos to everyone! Even the lobster eaters out there :)

Posted by DAS | August 17, 2007 5:14 PM

"Wait, then why do hot dogs taste so much better at the ballpark?"

I have to say, for precisely the same reason - watching a baseball game without binging on ballpark junk food is, to me, a lot like watching paint dry without being tempted to huff the fumes.

Posted by Jon | August 17, 2007 5:42 PM

I echo the "bait and switch" comments, but I would summarize thusly: Matt's family was arguing about why Fishnet lobster rolls are better, when Matt inveighed with additional evidence that they are better (or at least that they are widely perceived to be better.

Posted by Ben | August 17, 2007 5:43 PM

cue "elitist" trolls in 3..2..1...

I wish I could rise to the task, but parodying what already seems like a parody is beyond me.

What I'm curious about is that they put mayo on them. Is that the regular mayo, like Wonderspread or whatever it is? Or, is that some sort of "special" mayo we proles can only dream about?

Posted by TLB | August 17, 2007 5:57 PM

DAS,

"So nu"

This redundancy again? Doesn't "nu" mean "so"? Bad Jew.

Listen, Matt can comment on whatever he likes. It's a free country. But his affluent background is relevant here, because if he came from a middle class background, he would have never written about 401(k)s being a benefit for "the rich"; instead, he would have been able to think of several examples of neighbors' parents, etc. for whom 401(k) plans and home ownership facilitated by the mortgage interest deduction were a ladder to economic success.

Posted by Fred | August 17, 2007 6:13 PM

Of course, it's redundant. Nu? That's a problem how? ;)

Anyway, I'm not that bad a Jew ... the sun's not yet down, and I have some time before Friday night services start ...

OK ... I see your point. I thought you were going down the "oh noes ... rich people shouldn't care about the poor" route. While many of us liberals tend to get a bit guarded when the "limousine liberal" card gets played (what's wrong with noblesse oblige), the comments regarding 401(k) plans only being for the benefit of the rich does show the degree to which there are class biases that do interfere with the ability of some to make appropriate calls about who benefits from what policies.

That being said, as was discussed on that thread, the point about "401(k) deductions" and such helping the "little guy" does depend on your definition of who is the little guy, which also shows a bit of class bias, does it not? In order to benefit from such deductions, you need to be in a position where you aren't living entirely hand-to-mouth ...

Posted by DAS | August 17, 2007 6:24 PM

Your family is right, it is boring.

Posted by bt | August 17, 2007 6:38 PM

Matt, it's "make do," not "make due." You write pretty well, otherwise I wouldn't make myself obnoxious by pointing this out.

BTW, has anyone read "Hard to Swallow," by B.R. Myers, in the September Atlantic? He says that lobsters can, indeed, feel pain when they are boiled. Also, they make an awful racket trying to scrabble up the side of the pot.

I love lobster, but I have to do some hard thinking. I've already given up octopus. When it gets to chicken, I'll be in real trouble.

Posted by Hal | August 17, 2007 7:02 PM

"Is that the regular mayo, like Wonderspread or whatever it is?"

Wait, there's a mayo brand other than Hellman's?

Posted by mad6798j | August 17, 2007 7:17 PM

Coming from the same guy who cast aspersions on suburbia and Taco Bell parking lots and comments about the "American intolerance belt", yeah, it's hard not to make comments about elitism, Red/Blue, etc.

Nevertheless, I sympathize. I cannot get Homo economicus and the miniature Tyler Cowen out of my head.

Posted by Klug | August 17, 2007 8:11 PM

So I just ate at the Fishnet a while back (living in Maine has its perks) and I have to say that the food has been good for ages. We always head there for the lobster rolls. I don't know about that crazy other place you name, but damn, the Fishnet is fine eats.

I think it's like good German beers. They figured out the recipe in 1352 and haven't tried to change it since. The American, swith a paltry 2 decades of the brewpub tradition resurrected, simply can't make a decent pilsner. You get easy-to-make IPAs, but real tradition, now that's found somewhere else.

Same with the Fishnet. Fine eats, all the time.

Posted by mac | August 17, 2007 9:08 PM

What's your "inner economist" got to say about the peanut butter sandwiches and turkey hot dogs I've been reduced to eating lately?

"Business is bad?"

Duh!

"Eating out" for me is eight bucks at Burger King maybe once a month if I'm lucky. (Not that I would call Burger King being "lucky.")

And you're talking 401(k)'s?

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | August 17, 2007 11:04 PM

I eat crabrolls, which are better at the Fishnet too. I've driven all over the Blue Hill Peninsula and tried them all and Fishnet is the best. I don't know about the view theory. Bagaduce is a great, but the bugs will eat you before you get your roll. Country View closed. I agree with mac. Its just good, all the time (and less mayo and no filler).

If you want to play economist, explain why you can't get New England style hot dog rolls in Baltimore. They are a clearly superior product, with or without view, in or out of a ballpark.

Posted by Peter Driscoll | August 18, 2007 12:59 PM

I'd like to hear an analysis of the difference between the fried clam rolls at the Fishnet and the 'duce. Yes, Country View ( or as we are fond of calling it, The Pew) DID close - quite a shock, for us regular summer folks. And so did Eatons - Matt - do you have any idea what happened there?

Posted by Lindy Brownell | August 19, 2007 10:01 AM

Bagaduce Lunch used to be very good, all round, but especially the clams. But that was decades ago. Even with the scenery, they didn't coast when it came to quality. They do a much greater volume of business during peak months now, which along with management changes, has probably had an impact on their quality. The Fishnet is always good. Now, if you want a really exceptional haddock sandwich, go to the Bayview in Penobscot.

Posted by Rob Janes | August 19, 2007 12:00 PM