T-Shirt Economics by Ruth Paget
Detroit Tale
Motown Detroit is also known as Detroit Rock City due to major funds generated by white rock bands selling merchandise, especially T-shirts.
Every white Detroiter buys a T-shirt at a rock concert and has a collection of 15 – 20 of them in use at one time. Bars also sell T-shirts in this working class town.
My big sister K. taught me at a young age the following math equation:
10 T-shirts x $20 = $200
T-shirts sell for $30 now, so the new equation is : 10 shirts x $30 = $300
With these new tap credit cards, you can get 10 taps in 15 minutes for $300.
In an hour using tap credit cards, one person can generate $1,200 in sales.
If you have 10 people tapping credit cards in an hour, you could generate $12,000 in sales.
- 40 T-shirts can generate $1,200 in sales.
- 400 T-shirts can generate $12,000 in sales
Stadium shows can generate a lot of money, if you have skilled retail workers running credit card machines.
T-shirts also publicize as rock bands know, so they keep prices relatively low.
I think T-shirts should be marketed more extensively, because they also do not cost too much to buy the basic shirt.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
