Why It Takes So Long to Board an Airplane

Although airlines can increase productivity when they board passengers faster, they do not use the most efficient approaches.

Why We Should Look More Closely At the Size of Our Soda

The 6-ounce bottle of Coke was the king of soda when an upstart company called Pepsi-Cola sold a 12-ounce bottle for the same price. The year was 1934 and the price was 5 cents. Pepsi’s competitive strategy has been called brilliant because its biggest costs were advertising, bottling…

Gender Issues: The Real Work Home Tradeoffs

Our Monday gender issue focus I can still recall reading Anne-Marie Slaughter’s explanation of why women could not “have it all.” Published almost exactly 2 years ago in The Atlantic, the article focused on Dr. Slaughter’s decision to leave a high level State Department position in Washington, DC.…

Starbucks Drive-Through Economics

My new Starbucks has a drive-through. If you look at a high shelf near the window through which the baristas hand the coffee and food to drivers, you see a screen with little cars and numbers. Changing from green to yellow…

The Reason the Price of Gasoline Has That 9/10

If you asked me how much I pay for gas, I would say $3.49 a gallon. Actually, though, the sign says $3.499. And that means, because the gas station rounds up, I am paying $3.50.  Doesn’t $3.50 sounds like a lot…

How to Squeeze More Seats on a Plane

An airline seat is really all about cost and pitch. Defined by SEATGURU, “Seat Pitch is the distance from any point on one seat to the exact same point on the seat in front or behind it.” On short haul…