Virginia Postrel [blog] has an article on Reason Online about christmas tree lights and what they say about the economy. But what struck me was the price she gave for a 100 bulb strand of christmas tree lights: 2 dollars and 44 cents.

$2.44!? What, does she live in California or something? Here in the Minneapolis metro area, a 100 light string is retailing for $1.62, at Target and Walmart. It’s $1.67 at the local hardware store.

At that price, it can be cheaper to throw the lights out with the tree than to get them off of there, assuming a person has more renumerative uses of their time. When I was growing up in the 80s, I heard of people throwing the lights away with the tree, and it seemed horribly extravagant. Now it seems… almost practical.

Something else: I suspect that 100 light string from Walmart uses less power than a 35 light string of the older lights. It’s anecdotal, but I can plug five of those 100 light strings together and they will all light, but if I plug in four 100 light strings, and then my 35 light string, it won’t work.

(HT: Instapundit)

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 20th, 2003 at 10:02 am and is filed under economics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.