The Economics of Popcorn

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| The Economics of Popcorn | ORVILLE REDENBACHER-CONAGRA FOODS | | Lucy Kamau | 3/4/2011 | | A big name in popcorn was Orville Redenbacher. Born in Valparaiso Indiana, he developed an interest in popcorn at an early age and starting experimenting with it as a teen. He graduated from Purdue, where he continued his research on popcorn. At age 44, he bought a seed company and at age 63 he started his popcorn company. His “gourmet” popcorn came out in 1971 when he was sixty four years old. He died at age of eighty eight in 1998 drowning in his bathtub. One thing his life showed is how great success in business often comes late in life after years and years of trying, success requires great perseverance and patience plus ingenuity. Popcorn has been the all American snack for hundreds of years. Demand for popcorn has remained steady throughout the years with a peak in the 1990s. In the 1980s sales increased with the introduction of microwave popcorn. Today the industry produces about 9 million pounds of corn in 23 states, including Indiana where Orville Redenbacher tuned his passion popping corn into one of America’s favorite delicacies. Supply and demand is perhaps one of the most fundamental concepts of economics and it is the backbone of a market economy. Demand refers to how much in terms of quantity, of a product or service is desired by buyers. With demand, comes the quantity demanded, which is the amount of a product people are willing to buy at a certain price; the relationship between price and quantity demanded is known as the demand relationship. Price of the good, price of other related goods, consumer tastes and consumer income are what affects demand. Supply on the other hand, represents how much the market can offer. The quantity supplied refers to the amount of a certain good producers are willing to supply when receiving a certain

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