Analyzing the business practices of Parkside Miniature Golf, the deal they offer seems like a good one. As a result of getting a hole in one on the last hole, you are rewarded with a free game of golf. And with the slacker employees that they hire and merely a reliance on honesty, the free game cards are passed off rather quickly. The cards also seem to go because of the surprising simplicity of the 18th hole.
Yet, this practice of handing off miniature golf cards in exchange for a hole in one is a manipulation practice for the racketeers of Parkside Whispering Pines. Commonly, a group attends these miniature golf courses looking to have fun in a social setting. Of course, if you are just mini-golfing by yourself, that's cool too. Although I would have enough free passes to cover all of my friends, I doubt I would give them my passes. Therefore, out of the four people that are going to play golf, only one has a free pass. I ignore the inordinately high prices but my friends are forced to pay them. I'll suggest mini-golfing as an activity because I have the free pass. However, my friends continue to keep the course in business.
Meanwhile, the cost of keeping up a mini-golf course is practically nothing, perhaps taxes are the only thing that the course needs to pay. Therefore, they are able to profit through enticing consumers with free passes to continue to come back to the course.
Furthermore, on my ticket there is also an add for the diner located next door. Given a free pass and after a round of golf when I'm usually famished, the diner becomes a beacon of sustenance for my withering body. The free pass thus influences me to go the diner as well.
In my town the miniature golf place (we only have one) is extremely cheap to go to. They also hand out free passes for a hole in one on the 18th hole, but when I asked my friend who works there, he said no one ever remembers to bring them along. Since the place is so cheap, most people don't go through the trouble of trying to find an old free pass before going. Instead they just pay the four or five dollars. Where the mini-golf store really makes its money though is the ice cream place you have to walk by to leave the course. In the summer when the weather is nice, and therefore it is an ideal day to go mini-golfing, customers almost always want ice cream after an hour or so out in the sun. The ice cream, however, is extremely overpriced, but it sounds so delicious on a hot day that people don't seem to mind. The store manipulates us into buying expensive ice cream, after enticing us into a cheap game of mini-golf, and makes its money.
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