Why Ice Cream Sellers Stand Next to Each Other Instead of Spreading Out • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Ice Cream Sellers Stand Next to Each Other Instead of Spreading Out

#11

Post by lionhearted » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 2:17 PM UTC

nailer wrote: post #5

Many browsers and OS combinators suffer problems when Java applets are automatically launched. Please add a [JAVA] tag in future.

Huh, you're right, there is Java in there - I had no idea, it looked like simple image files. Couple questions for more savvy people -

1. Why would the author do that for static images?

2. Is there any way I can see that going forwards to warn people? I'm running Chrome/Win7, and didn't even notice.

I looked up the source and there it is -

But it really makes no sense why the author would do that - it's just a straightforward, somewhat boring image. Thoughts?

Re: Why Ice Cream Sellers Stand Next to Each Other Instead of Spreading Out

#12

Post by zaidf » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 2:18 PM UTC

TrevorJ wrote: post #8

There is a game theory course on itunes U that covers this more in depth during one of the first lectures - worth taking a look at if anyone is interested in delving deeper into this sort of thing.

Link?

Re: Why Ice Cream Sellers Stand Next to Each Other Instead of Spreading Out

#13

Post by _pius » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 2:21 PM UTC

martian wrote: post #3

The application to politics is especially relevant: "Anthony Downs noted that Hoteling's model could explain political competition. ... As with the ice cream sellers on the beach the political candidates will choose a political position that is virtually the same as their opponent's. Furthermore the candidates will be driven to select the political position of the median voter." This jives with gut intuition, that in…

This is already well studied and modeled as the median voter theorem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_voter_theorem

Re: Why Ice Cream Sellers Stand Next to Each Other Instead of Spreading Out

#14

Post by Asmodeus » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 2:24 PM UTC

While the walking distance is not optimal, there is an upside. The ice cream vendors will be driven to differentiate their ice cream lines, and the beach dwellers will be able to comparison shop without walking halfway across the beach.

Re: Why Ice Cream Sellers Stand Next to Each Other Instead of Spreading Out

#15

Post by axod » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 2:32 PM UTC

Our local town has about 6 Mobile phone shops all in a row, in the same street - something that's quite common to towns.

I guess the other point is that it encourages customers to shop around. If they can see 6 shops in a row, they'll likely go into a few of them and see if they're getting the deal they want.

If those 6 shops were all over town, each one would get far less custom, since a visitor would likely only go in one of them.

Re: Why Ice Cream Sellers Stand Next to Each Other Instead of Spreading Out

#16

Post by olliesaunders » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 2:38 PM UTC

axod wrote: post #15

Our local town has about 6 Mobile phone shops all in a row, in the same street - something that's quite common to towns. I guess the other point is that it encourages customers to shop around. If they can see 6 shops in a row, they'll likely go into a few of them and see if they're getting the deal they want. If those 6 shops were all over town, each one would get far less custom, since a visitor would likely only go…

They'd get fewer customers through their doors but not necessarily less customers buying.

Re: Why Ice Cream Sellers Stand Next to Each Other Instead of Spreading Out

#17

Post by axod » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 2:42 PM UTC

olliesaunders wrote: post #16

axod wrote: post #15

Our local town has about 6 Mobile phone shops all in a row, in the same street - something that's quite common to towns. I guess the other point is that it encourages customers to shop around. If they can see 6 shops in a row, they'll likely go into a few of them and see if they're getting the deal they want. If those 6 shops were all over town, each one would get far less custom, since a visitor would likely only go…

They'd get fewer customers through their doors but not necessarily less customers buying.

Sure, so I guess there's 2 alternatives:

1. Be all over the town, and rely on marketing to get people to come to your shop and not the others.

2. Be all in the same street, get more walk in customers, and rely on good salespeople and good deals to get the sales.

I'm guessing that they've found 2 to work better than 1. Also means they can take advantage of each others marketing.

Also I expect once a street becomes 'known' for something, it'd be silly to set up a shop anywhere else for that thing. For example Tottenham Court Road is where you go for Computing/tech shops in London, so that's where most people go if they want tech.

Re: Why Ice Cream Sellers Stand Next to Each Other Instead of Spreading Out

#18

Post by randomwalker » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 2:52 PM UTC

In the pg essay "It's Charisma, Stupid" http://www.paulgraham.com/charisma.html he says Opinions seem to be divided about the charisma theory. Some say it's impossible, others say it's obvious.

I was in the "it's obvious" camp, but I had a sense of deja vu as I was reading the essay. I have the vague feeling that I found it obvious not because I had figured out on my own, but because I'd read about it elsewhere.

This article brought it back to me. Back when I was in high school, some popular math book that I read (don't remember which one) had this as an example of how simple mathematical reasoning can explain questions of great social importance. I remember being impressed.

The other half of it is that many commentators* have noticed that charisma is an important factor in presidential elections, even if they didn't say it was the only one. So I guess at some point I'd put two and two together in my brain, which was why everything in the pg essay looked familiar.

Anyway, that was a long-winded way of saying "thank you for posting this!" :-)

*Scott Adams is one. I recommend reading his blog if you don't already; guised as humor you will regularly find deep wisdom.

Re: Why Ice Cream Sellers Stand Next to Each Other Instead of Spreading Out

#19

Post by martian » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 2:54 PM UTC

_pius wrote: post #13

martian wrote: post #3

The application to politics is especially relevant: "Anthony Downs noted that Hoteling's model could explain political competition. ... As with the ice cream sellers on the beach the political candidates will choose a political position that is virtually the same as their opponent's. Furthermore the candidates will be driven to select the political position of the median voter." This jives with gut intuition, that in…

This is already well studied and modeled as the median voter theorem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_voter_theorem

Nice. Also looks like Probabilistic Voting Theory works in N-dimensional space: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probabilistic_voting_theory

Re: Why Ice Cream Sellers Stand Next to Each Other Instead of Spreading Out

#20

Post by nfriedly » Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 3:00 PM UTC

lionhearted wrote: post #11

nailer wrote: post #5

Many browsers and OS combinators suffer problems when Java applets are automatically launched. Please add a [JAVA] tag in future.

Huh, you're right, there is Java in there - I had no idea, it looked like simple image files. Couple questions for more savvy people - 1. Why would the author do that for static images? 2. Is there any way I can see that going forwards to warn people? I'm running Chrome/Win7, and didn't even notice. I looked up the source and there it is - But it really makes no sense why the author would do that - it's just a straig…

Perhaps it was an attempt to stop people from "stealing" his images.. or perhaps the author just doesn't know any better...