Publisher Description
Lemonade Stand is a game for kids (and some adults) that requires addition, subtraction, and multiplication maths skills, but it's also a business game, as it teaches children, in a simple way, about concepts such as profit and loss, and supply and demand.In this game, you are the owner of a lemonade stand in a busy park. Each day, after receiving the weather forecast, you must set a price for your glasses of lemonade for that day, in the hope of making a profit. (NOTE: This game uses British pounds and pence as its currency).Although this game may seem simply, it can teach concepts such as: Supply and DemandOn sunny days, the demand for lemonade is high, and people are prepared to pay more for it (up to a point). However, on a cold, rainy day, there just isn't the demand for lemonade, no matter how cheap it is.Profit and LossEach glass of lemonade costs a certain amount to produce, therefore, it must be sold at a higher price than that in order to make a profit on each glass. However, as well as the cost of the lemonade, there are also fixed costs or overheads. These overheads would include things like renting the plot for your lemonade stand in the park. Unlike the cost of the lemonade, where you're only being charged for each glass you sell, the cost of the overheads must be paid even if you don't sell a single glass.Peaks and Troughs of BusinessAs there are always fixed overhead costs to be paid, regardless of whether you sell any lemonade on a particular day or not, it's impossible to make a profit on rainy days when there's little demand. Therefore, the children must learn how to accept and minimise their losses on the rainy days (the troughs), and then try to make up for those losses on the sunny days when business is booming (the peaks).The Risks of a Limited MarketAlthough sunny days seem really good for your lemonade stand, it still only has a limited market size. This market size would represent the maximum number of people who visit the park each day, and although it might fluctuate slightly from day to day, it's never going to exceed a certain amount. Therefore, the children must learn that no matter how cheaply they sell their lemonade, once they reach the limit of their available market, their cheap price is probably just going to be losing them potential profit, not creating extra sales.The Power of Customer ExpectationsYour customers have their own idea of how much they think a glass of lemonade from your stand should cost, and your regular customer, Eileen, will reflect the feelings of the majority of your customers. The higher you price your lemonade above what the customers expect it to cost, the less glasses you'll sell. It should also be noted that, obviously, customers are prepared to pay more for lemonade on a hot day than they are on a rainy day, but if it gets too expensive then nobody will buy it at all, even if it is a scorching hot day.The Customer isn't always rightAlthough Eileen might grumble about your lemonade being a bit more expensive than she expected it to be, that doesn't always mean that the price should be lowered. The limited market and fluctuating number of potential customers each day means that it's sometimes better to upset a few customers and make a profit than try to keep everybody happy with low prices and risk losing profit because it was "a slow day for business"....and more.