Tom’s Bistro’s soft opening didn’t go well, so he thinks it’s time to quit. Even though Ron recommends sticking it out, Tom is phased by the sunk cost fallacy; he loves quitting! April comes to the rescue and convinces him to at least try a full opening.
See more: behavioral, costs, entrepreneurship, firm decisions, production, sunk costs, variable costs
Ben was fired from public service, but eventually accepted a job at an accounting firm. He’s had a week off in between jobs and decided to spend this free time creating a complex board game called the Cones of Dunshire.
See more: entrepreneurship, funemployment, intertemporal substitution, leisure
Tom fancies himself an entrepreneur and lists off a variety of different business ideas he has. Throughout the series, Tom comes up with different business ideas, but this is just a subset of his ideas that he names during the premier of his alcoholic beverage, Snake Juice. Most of his ideas though are really just variances of other products so Tom is focusing on differentiating the businesses to serve niche markets.
See more: barriers to entry, entrepreneurship, innovation, product differentiation
Tom pranked Anne by putting glitter in her laundry detergent and she decides to return the favor by putting glitter in Tom’s moisturizer. She pitches it as a new product gimmick, but Tom supports the idea of this new product, “Sparkle Skin.”
See more: entrepreneurship, monopolistic competition, product differentiation
Now that the Parks Department is temporarily shut down, Tom starts packing up his office items. With the pending layoff, Tom has the option of seeking out a temporary job or becoming an entrepreneur.
See more: entrepreneurship, government shutdown, job search, layoffs, temp jobs, tradeoffs, unemployment
Economics of Parks & Recreation 