Case Study Starbucks: Price Discrimination

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Starbucks Case. Price Discrimination 1. Briefly define elasticity in your own words. 1 mark. Elasticity is the degree of reaction that determines how a change in price of a particular good leads to a change in quantity demanded or/and quantity supplied for the same good or for related goods. Elasticity is also related to a change on people’s income and how this affects quantity demanded. It is said to be elastic when there is a strong reaction to the change and Inelastic when there is not a strong reaction to the change. 2. Why is it important for consumers to understand elasticity? 2 marks. Understand elasticity is useful and important for many reasons. First of all, preferences and tastes exist in society which gives to consumers something called “Choice”. This factor affects directly the elasticity of almost every item, excluding monopolistic ones like oil or electricity in which we have less margin of action to find substitutes. For the rest, as consumers, we need to understand that the more variety of choices we have, the strongest our reaction to the change in price will be. Therefore, we could choose the perfect product that will respond to our needs of preference and price. Elasticity is also important for consumers because it varies depending on the type of product and the amount of money accorded to it. In the type of product we could find commodities but also luxuries. Commodities are items that we use everyday like milk or bread and luxuries are items that we buy to satisfy our unlimited wants but that don’t have an everyday use. Elasticity for commodities is also directly related with choice and how closer and faster we can find substitutes for a particular good. If we are able to replace it, then the demand is more elastic. For luxuries it is the contrary, demand will be more inelastic if price changes because it is more difficult

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