Price the Pelican Picks the Number

At the front of the Sunny Lane stand stands Price, a big friendly pelican with a long orange beak and a huge stretchy pouch under his chin. Into that pouch he tucks his chalk, his eraser, and the big wooden SIGN. Price has the job everyone argues about: choosing the number that goes on the sign. How much should one cup of lemonade cost?

The new helper had a bold idea. “Let’s charge 5 cents!” he said. “Everyone will buy!” Price tilted his long beak thoughtfully. “They would,” he said, “but remember — each cup already cost us money to make. If we charge less than it cost, every cup we sell loses a little. Sell a hundred cups and we’d go home sadder than we started.”

Then the helper swung the other way. “Fine — two whole dollars a cup!” Price chuckled, his pouch wobbling. “Now we’ve gone too high the other way. Walk past a stand charging two dollars for lemonade, and you keep walking. Nobody buys, so we earn nothing at all.” He smoothed the sign with his wingtip. “The number I want lives in the middle.”

So Price thought it through, calm and fair. Each cup cost about 20 cents to make. “Cover the cost first,” he said, “then add a little bit more so the stand does well — but not so much that we scare our friends away.” He chalked a number onto the sign and held it up proud: 60 cents a cup. Not too low. Not too high. Just right.

Say it with Price, out loud: “Cover the cost, then a little bit more — that’s the price for your store.”

The helper looked at the sign and grinned. “Fair to us AND fair to them,” he said. Price nodded, pleased that the helper had felt the balance for himself. That feeling — a little on each side of the scale — is exactly what a good price feels like.

That is Price’s move. Don’t grab the first number that pops out. Start from what each cup cost you, add a little bit more so your stand can grow, and stop before the number gets so big that your customers walk away. Cover the cost, add a little — and hang the sign.