x10003q
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2020
Capital improvements exist for many businesses. They are done to improve the business - increase sales, marketing, cost reductions, competition, replacing old/worn out equipment, etc. On some level it is built into ticket pricing, but you can only charge a certain amount - what the market will bear. If your snowmaking pumps break, you cannot raise pricing on the spot to accommodate your new cost for the pumps. The other side of the coin is that snowmaking has become cheaper to operate over the last 20 years, but ticket prices have not gone down.Seems like nobody's business how you spend your own money. Maybe it's all in fun?
The same amount, or more? Could be either, to some extent it's a choice.
I don't see how investing $XM in a piece of equipment to run the business wouldn't impact the cost of the sport. The biggest differences between now and 1935 are snowmaking, advanced lifts and, for the individual, gear. Maybe insurance too.
The gear is really a choice. You can probably ski on the same pair of skis/boots forever if you want to. But to some extent, if you want to ride lifts, you are going to have to bear the costs of those lifts and snowmaking. You can say that lifts and snowmaking have no impact on the cost of skiing, but to me that's just not credible.
Years ago, I'd heard something about the American auto industry and competitors, that sounded legit, but I never knew if it was true or not. Maybe @Campgottagopee knows. The theory was that one reason American cars were bigger than foreign cars, beyond gas tax, was that the American companies had huge pension liabilities that Japanese companies didn't have. The idea was that with $5000 in pension built into each vehicle that Toyota didn't have to include, the US companies were forced to sell a bigger product that they could bury that extra cost in. If GM built the same Corolla for $5000 more, it would never sell.
IF true, it would be an example of high fixed cost pushing the "manufacturer" to target a luxury market.
If you need to replace a main double chair and you are choosing between a FGQ or a HSQ, there are many variables based on your market and the max you can charge, your ability to pay back the note and your forecasting of better sales with a HSQ.
Skiing is not a viable business in the East without snowmaking and modern chairlifts. For larger areas, there are very few exceptions to this rule (MRG, Smuggs). Even little Plattekill replaced the T-bar with a double chair. I bet that improvement paid off 10x over and Platty still has a reasonable day ticket price.