The other day I'm driving home and there was a little girl on the side of the road standing behind a card table with a sign hanging off the front which read, "Lemonade Kool-Aid 25 cents." Smiling, I remembered back to summers when I was a kid and tried the same venture, so I pulled over, rolled down my window and said, "One cup please."
The cute little girl smiled at me showing off a full set of braces. As she poured my glass I fished around for a quarter. As I looked up, she was holding out what looked like an incredibly small cup. I was a bit taken aback. It was tiny. It was one of the little Dixie cups kids keep near the sink to use while brushing their teeth. It was this size (see below), but not this cool because it didn't even have a TIE fighter on it.
I handed her the quarter and thanked her. Then I looked in the cup. It was only half full. The little girl skipped happily back to her table waiting for her next customer/victim.
I took my 1/16 gulp of sugary water and pondered my transaction.
After doing a little research, I found that the cup size she used was 3 oz. Filling it only half full meant she sold me 1.5 oz of Kool-Aid for 25 cents. If I'm doing the math right, that means the retail/street value of a pitcher of Kool-Aid is a little over $11, or $5.50 per liter.
Since we Americans don't do the whole metric thing, let me put it in more general terms:
THIS LITTLE GIRL WAS SELLING KOOL-AID AT MORE THAN $20 PER GALLON.
Her overhead: nothing - she probably stole everything from her mom.
And she doesn't pay taxes.
I think I'm in the wrong business.
Stand image courtesy of here.
Cup image couresy of here.
