Chapter 82 The Logic
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In the end, Louis agreed and took Aiden to McDonald’s. He even turned to Freya and asked, “Do you want anything? Or would you prefer something else?”
“I’m good either way. It’s been a while since I’ve had McDonald’s,” Freya replied easily. Honestly, she kind of wanted it too. It had been a long time, and now was the perfect excuse to indulge a little with Aiden.
Then she remembered something they’d talked about earlier.
“Aiden, weren’t you going to ask about the prices in here?”
“Oh, right! Let me go check,” Aiden said, remembering their plan from earlier. He let go of their hands and ran toward one of the nearby shops. Freya quickly followed–there were way too many people around to risk losing sight of him.
When Aiden came back out, his face was full of surprise and disbelief.
“The price of a single bottle of soda is double what it should be! That’s insane! It doesn’t make any sense!”
“It makes perfect sense. It’s always like this,” Freya said. “Especially in tourist spots–stuff gets even more expensive.”
She gave an example. “Like grilled corn–normally it’s four bucks. But at a tourist spot? Ten bucks. Why? Because most customers are one–time visitors. Once tourists leave, they’re probably not coming back. A lot of them didn’t bring food and end up hungry. At that point, who’s thinking about price? It’s not like they can’t afford it, so they just buy it.”
Louis added calmly, “There’s also overhead.”
“Oh, right, and your uncle’s right about that,” Freya nodded. “The corn itself is cheap, and even grilling it doesn’t cost much. But bringing food into tourist areas usually means paying extra to the management. That added cost has to go somewhere, so it gets passed on to the customers.”
“So it’s the same logic here,” Aiden muttered as he rubbed his chin. “That means the ones making the most money are the owners of these attractions. All they need to do is build the park, hire some managers, and they can rake in the profits. And with ticket sales on top of that? That’s a goldmine.”
Spoken like a true Graham, born and raised in a business environment. Freya couldn’t help but admire how fast he caught on. When she was his age, she was probably still playing with sticks.
As the three of them walked toward McDonald’s, Louis spoke casually, as though giving a lesson:
“Then you also need to think about how to get government approval for that land. How you’ll raise, the money to build everything. How you’ll hire and manage the right staff. And how to maintain the operation over time. All of that needs to be figured out.”
Aiden scratched his head. “That does sound kinda complicated. But it’s fine. I’m still young. Once I grow up a bit more, I’ll figure it all out.”
If only it were that easy, Freya thought, shaking her head. Louis had just wanted to help him understand that things weren’t always as simple as they seemed. Actually doing them was another story entirely.
Even someone as capable as Louis had failed once. It’s not like he didn’t understand all this logic.
That just went to show–knowing the theory behind something didn’t mean you’d succeed at it. Too many external factors were always at play. And sometimes, it really wasn’t up to you.
Like that mysterious “main character luck” that seemed to exist beyond all reason.
