Dogging It

Something curious is afoot at a local movie theater. It's a cheap theater, so tickets are three dollars most days and half that on Tuesdays. Of course, cheap theaters as much as first-run ones depend on their concessions to make a profit. They say most of the ticket price goes to the studios, which is why they gouge you on the food. A soda and popcorn will run you as much at this place as it would at a fancy theater.

That's not true of everything on the menu, though. For whatever reason,, the theater sells a hot dog for just a dollar. Sure, you'll say- hot dogs are cheap food with meat barely fit for humans. That may be so, but there's no way they are cheaper than popcorn or soda. I have been trying to solve the mystery of how or why they sell the hot dogs for so little, and I cannot say that I have come up with a really satisfying answer.

One of my ideas may be right, though. Maybe the hot dog is a loss leader. Most people will insist on something to drink with a hot dog, and there you go from spending a dollar to spending six. I am content to drink from the water fountain or wait until later, but then I'm not like most people. I can hang up until a plane lands to drink rather than shelling out such exorbitant sums. Still, the loss leader theory may be something.

Maybe the hot dogs really are substandard. I assume them to be typical hodgepodges of acceptable meats like beef, pork, chicken and turkey, but horse meat is legal these days. That would explain much. It would also account for things if the inventory of hot dogs was perpetually about to expire, and I could believe that. I just don't know it any more than anything else I can guess. Until I know, I'm happy to eat them. I hope I never find out.