Theme parks are saturated with advertisements… EVERYWHERE. Their goal: to get the park visitor to spend as much money as possible. Today I went to Universal Studios: Hollywood, and before I even walked into the park, I knew exactly what I wanted to eat for lunch thanks to the HUGE poster with delicious food on it right next to the ticket line.
As soon as I walked inside, someone took my picture and gave me a slip of paper that would later lead me to see the picture that was taken and try to convince me to pay $20 for a key chain with the picture and the park logo on it. After I got through that, another person asked me to sign-up for their new credit card so I could save money around the park and get a free bag.
Aside from people trying to persuade me to buy things, there was product placement all around the park. At one restaurant, all the umbrellas that were by the tables had the Corona logo on them, at another one, there was a HUGE picture of a nice, refreshing Coca-Cola.
The best trick theme parks have is when they offer things like “souvenir cups” or “special meal deals.” At Universal, they offer “All You Can Eat” passes, where you pay $25 for a pass that lets you eat all day long. What they don’t tell you is that drinks are not included, and that you can only use the pass at certain restaurants. So you end up thinking that you’re going to save ’sooo much’ by buying the pass, where in reality, you wouldn’t have spent $25 on food anyway. Same thing with the souvenir cups… you pay $8 for a cup with 75 cent refills.. and end up refilling only once. That’s a waste… but by presenting products to park visitors with the illusion that it will help the visitors save money, the park makes MORE money.
Basically, places like theme parks are the best at taking your money in clever ways. It’s up to you to decide if what you’re buying is really worth what you’re paying. With souvenir shops placed every couple of steps, and all those “special deals,” you really have to be on the lookout to be able to differentiate between real deals and full on scams…. Good Luck!!
-Sali.
July 15, 2008 at 2:32 pm
that is so true. Theme Parks make a killing with all their prize games, the food, their souvenir cups. The worse part, they only have like 4 spots to buy soda, but the park is filled with soda machines that sell 20 ounce soda bottles for 6 dollars. they make a killing.
July 21, 2008 at 4:08 am
it is For this reason that I eat before going to a place like this. Your post reminded me of one time when I went to Subway. A man was signing up people for credit cards. The idea was If you applied for one, You would get a free lunch. I did it but when they called me, I said I did not have enough money in my bank acount which was the truth.