.50 Cents or Brilliant Commerce

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The infamous shot cost .50 cents.
And why does the worker look miserable?
I figure for .50 cents she should at least smile.
Over the weekend, we visited the Fortune Cookie Factory in China Town. The "factory" (and it was barely more than a hole in the wall) was pretty cool. You could get fresh cookies right off the "line" and the old man offered a taste of the fresh cookies off a plate. While standing there and watching the women take nothing more than dough that resembled pancakes and wrap them up into that cool fortune cookie shape, I decided to take a picture for my client's travel blog. I pull out my iPhone and gamely snap away at which point I am informed with a quick point of the old guy's finger at a sign that it's .50 cents per picture. I couldn't help but laugh -- he got me. I had already taken the photo. I love it, though, the temptation to take a picture led to a quick .50 cents for the factory. Other tourists were more than willing to pony up the nominal fee. I bet these folks make a killing off people snapping pictures (mind you with their own cameras) and charging .50 cents just for the "privilege". You have to love commerce! Now all I have to figure out is how to get people to pay for the "privilege" of merely visiting my oh-so-fabulous blog -- and off to retirement I go LOL.

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