Jennifer Sharpe knows how to sell Girl Scout cookies. In fact, she managed to sell 17.323 boxes for $3.50 each! (see full story)

As she said: “I know how to get people to buy more,” said Jennifer, a sophomore at Edsel Ford High School . “If they buy two boxes and they hand me a 10, I’d be like, ‘For 50 cents more, you can get three”

Why is this trick likely to work (it reminds me a bit of the movie paper moon)?  Why is it likely to work better than simply offering people to buy 3 packages for $10.50

First, it is possible that making an initial offer below $10 (compared to one above $10) causes more people to be willing to buy — so it increases the market size.

Second, it is possible that once people had out their $10 they don’t think about the change they are about to get and as a consequence Jennifer’s offer of “just another 50 cents” does not register as another $3.50 for another box!

In any case, I suspect that Jennifer’s trip to Europe (which is what she collected the money for) will give her new ideas about new approaches to framing.