A price has a shoulder

Ask what a customer does when a price moves, and most economics assumes a straight line: raise it a little, lose a little, forever. Real buyers at a farm gate do not behave that way. A price a little over what they expected barely registers; a price twice what they expected is not a purchase anyone makes, however good the honey is. The line has a shoulder, flat near the price people already think fair and falling away fast past it.

That shape is why cheaper does not mean more money. A jar a third under sells a little faster, but every jar of it earns a third less, and the two roughly cancel.

In this game:

• a tenth over the going rate still keeps 85 of the buyers a farm would otherwise have
• a fifth over, 65
• half again, only 15