Kati Kleinhans
Economics
Mrs. Straub
March 15th, 2015
The Economics of St. Patricks Day
On March 17th, people of Irish descent and festive people everywhere suit up in green and celebrate the age old holiday of St. Patrick’s Day. From parades to pub crawls, the economic impact of St. Patrick’s Day becomes more massive every year. Bars and restaurants are one of the most affected businesses on St. Patrick’s Day. An estimated 37 million Americans plan to celebrate the holiday at a restaurant or bar this upcoming year. See this video to learn about how restaurants were impacted in downtown Cleveland, OH in 2013. While traditional dishes like corned beef, cabbage and anything potatoes are extremely important to St. Patrick’s Day, any adult will tell you that another key part of the holiday are the drinks. In 2011, Americans consumed around 4.2 billion pints of beer alone. The average pint of beer costs around $4 when drinking out and the average corned beef sandwich costs around $8-$10. If each of the 37 million Americans purchases one of each on St. Patrick’s Day that totals a whopping 518 million dollars! This alone is a huge bill for just one night. The food and spirits aren’t the only economic impact of St. Patrick’s Day.
The tradition goes that if someone isn’t wearing green on St. Patricks’ Day, you can pinch them. Of the 158 million people that plan to celebrate the holiday this year, 137 million plan to wear green. Speaking of green and tradition, the Chicago river is dyed green annually to celebrate the festive holiday. But what goes into making this happen? Well, 45 pounds of green food dye is used to change the color of the river. The dye is a powdered vegetable based dye that costs alone around $1000. Among this tradition and others, Americans spend around $36 on St. Patrick’s Day related merchandise. If you look at the chart below provided by Wallet Hub, you can get a more detailed explanation of how American’s will spend their day, and how much they will be spending. This year and for years to come I challenge you to think about how your green, is impacting the country’s economics.
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Works Cited
"American's to Spend a Lot of Green on St. Patty's Day." US News. U.S.News & World Report. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.
"Green Beer: 4.2 Billion Pints (and 166 Billion Gallons of Water) on St. Paddy’s Day."Nat Geo Blog. 17 Mar. 2011. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.
"Huge Economic Impact Expected on St. Patrick's Day." Wkyc.com. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.
"St. Patrick’s Day By The Numbers." Wallet Hub Blog. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.
I never knew the affects of Saint Patrick's Day until now, I could imagine that suppliers are going to increase the supply for their food as well a the price, because they know everyone will be in high demand. As everyone is super excited for this once a year event to come around I'm sure those wishing to buy beer, cornbread, and potatoes will be willing to pay more.
ReplyDeleteIt’s very believable that St. Patrick’s day produces a temporary boost in the economy of certain industries, such as food and especially drink. Companies that produce alcoholic beverages probably adjust their supply and/or price to respond to the increasing consumer demand. However, there are probably negative externalities resulting from the festivities of this holiday. Increased motor vehicle accidents could result from the decreased inhibition of intoxication.
ReplyDeleteI am shocked to see how much merchandise people purchase for this holiday. It would be interesting to see the supply demand curve change in the months leading up to this.
ReplyDeleteHey Kati! This was a very interesting article that discusses the economic impact of St. Patricks Day. It made me have to think about how this special day truly impacts the economy. And woah, that is a lot of beer for one day! Do you think people make this day an excuse to drink or are they really celebrating the true meaning of this day. For this day to succeed producers and consumers supply and demand must both increase in able for the consumers to be happy. I wonder if producers raise the prices of beer this day, just so they can gain more profit. But would that truly increase their profit or would they buy cheaper beer from somewhere else? The producers have to compete for the producer's money. Overall this was a very interesting article and you had a lot of good information!
ReplyDeleteI never really paid attention to how much St. Patrick's day has affected our economy. It's absolutely crazy how 158 million people plan on celebrating it this year. I don't think that 158 million people actually care about the holiday, though. I feel like most people use St. Patrick's day to drink excessively on a weekday and not be judged. Anyways, Kati you are extremely awesome and a very talented writer. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting article to read about especially because, when holidays come around, I don't think many people think about how it affects the economy. It was amazing read about how much the dye for the Chicago river cost. All that money to dye the river for just one day seems kind of insane, but since it's a holiday I guess it's worth it. It would also be interesting to see a supply and demand graph for beer or food served on St. Patrick's day to see how that effects the economy.
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ReplyDeleteI've never thought how St. Patrick's day would affect the economy, especially with the amount of beer that is consumed that day. Since so many people drink beer, producers are probably willing to supply more because they know that so many people buy it. But producers of clothing, plates, silverware, etc. probably expect to sell more of their green-colored products around the St. Patrick's Day time and begin to supply a lot of it. You see this in stores all the time, where every other shirt is green for this occasion.
ReplyDeleteUsually too me St. Patrick's Day isn't a huge deal in my family. When I was little my family made a bigger deal out of St. Patrick's Day than it actually was. But scrolling through instagram I can see why people spend a lot of money on green dye. I was seeing green eggs, green bagels, even green beer. The dye costs had to be extremely up in the market and high in demand to dye everything green
ReplyDeleteI don't really think that every thinks about how holiday's affect the economy, especially with the all the presents or consumables that people buy for parties. producers probably supply much more before the holidays so that they can make more of a profit before each holiday.
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