Death comes to us all. Life's but a walking shadow | Here in the US we are accustom to using only price to allocate a scarce resource. Those with the most money or willing to pay the most get the product. But there are examples that are both fair and yet not arbitrary.
My daughters are currently studing Japanese in Japan and because they are down to earth girls they have been visiting the food markets to buy things like fresh fish etc. which they clean and prepare themselves. In the course of one visit to a very large fish market they happened upon this interesting situation.
A fish merchant was butchering a fresh tuna cut by cut in front of a large crowd. As he prepared each piece he would hold it up for inspection and ask who would like to purchase this piece for a certain price. The many willing purchasers would all raise their hands and then all simulatenously play "Rock, Paper, Scissors" with the merchant for several rounds. Those who lost were out. Those who won continued to play. When the number of winners reached a small managable number they would play against each other until there was one remaining winner. That winner got to purchase that portion of tuna.
This process continued until the whole tuna was sold. The process was orderly and surpisingly rapid.
I suppose you could game the system if you collude with the merchant and knew what his pattern of play was going to be but in the end you still need to prevail over other participants.
Just something I thought you might be interested in. |
A one approach to selling a scarce commodity.
