Local pricing, or How much will a New Yorker pay?

Cornstalks by front porch

I went to Taft Farms yesterday because I love to decorate the porch with cornstalks, hokey as it is, and with those jewel-like bundles of red and gold Indian corn. I spotted a bunch of cornstalks leaning against the wall around the side of the building. No price, but I grabbed two bundles and carried them to the register. How much? I asked.

Fifty dollars. Each one, said the young man in an emerald tshirt.

Gimme a break. Where do you think Im from? How much are they?

He looked at the other man behind the counter and they laughed. How much? I said.

Oh, right, thatll be fifteen. Plus the apples.

Fifteen dollars is a lot for cornstalks, I admit, but they are gluten free. And free range. And probably organic and if not organic they were definitely grown in some desirable, non-industrial way.

The question that remains, however, if whether they would really have taken a hundred dollars from some New Yorker? And if there really are people who would pay it?

About the Author: Karen Christensen

Karen Christensen is an entrepreneur, environmentalist, and scholar who writes about the many ways women have gained and wielded power. She is the owner and CEO of Berkshire Publishing Group, a former trustee of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Press, a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations, and the founder of the Train Campaign. Subscribe to Karen’s Letter @Substack https://karenchristensen.substack.com or try her Home Ecology newsletter. She can also be found on Twitter @karenchristenze.