Why a bargain spreads faster

A price a little under what people expect does not just sell a bit more of itself; it gets talked about. Someone who paid less than expected for something good tells a neighbour, in a way someone who paid exactly what they expected rarely bothers to. An introductory price is not only a discount; it is advertising that costs nothing beyond the discount itself.

The effect is not free money though. Every jar sold under the going rate still earns less than the same jar would have. What it buys back is speed: a product nobody has heard of becomes known faster, and once known it can be priced properly.

In this game a jar priced three tenths under the going rate spreads a class's name 1.3 times as fast as the same jar sold at the going rate.