Kathy got back at me about a detail I didn't expect.
Where we last left off:
Broke the silence.
"I had a couple people but only like 5 winners the whole fair"
So...about five winners over ten days, and at least one of them were a prize-hunter besides me. I also won two prizes, so like...maybe only four people won?
If so, man, I have to believe the public has done better in the past. Poor the public.
Also, the game-runners were saying previously they make about seven hundred bucks a day through the game. They played ten nights. ~$7,000 estimate then during the fair, right. Each of these stuffed animals could sell for $100+ individually -- I've seen similar items in person at Rite-Aid for $120 plus I have seen one of my donations go for $476 in a fund-raiser -- and I know they have bulk prices straight from the makers to lower these expenses. I heard in the past they could cost the fair as low as $15 each to buy in this way, but I haven't verified that. Still, that tells me the fair made ~$6,400-$6,925 to then split their other costs like wages.
That's ~$1,280-$1,385 the fair made per stuffed animal they lost.
That's ~256-277 attempts for a prize with $5 per try...and ~384-416 attempts per prize with $10 for three tries.
Can I tell you something? They're doing fine, even with me coming in to win. That's a lot of profit margin they're making on most of these, and these are numbers that already include me winning my prizes quickly and having at least one other prize-hunter there. Vary the estimates as you see fit, but money's being made.
And Kathy's boss said they didn't have enough prizes to "give away" or even sell. Don't tell me there couldn't have been a reasonable price. This was a rejection based on my skills, not some business acumen or supply-side struggles.
Just worthy to note.
I hate to disagree but I guarantee their profit margin is way lower than you think.
You aren't including transport fees, days off between fairs (where theres 0 income), lodging cost for the employees. Not to mention things like taxes etc.
Remember this is basically a business. Would you have the same kind of reaction if you went to build-a-bear or target and asked for stuff animals to donate and they said no?