In the article Amazon Effect, Meatball Edition from New York Times, the investigation team attempts to make meatballs using ingredients from Whole Foods market and Walmart. In doing so, they are able to compare the prices of the ingredients as well as to discover which will provide a better taste in meatballs.
The ingredients to make meatballs are complements. The investigation team uses a specific recipe, which is Steak ’n’ Bacon Cheddar meatball. In order to make the exact same type of meatballs, the team has to buy beef, bacons, cheese, eggs, salt, black pepper, onion, and oil altogether; without any one of them, the meatballs may taste different. In addition, since New York Times is one of the most famous news website, hundreds and thousands of people may have read this article—and because people share a love of food, there might be readers who are ready to go to grocery stores to pick the ingredients up to make some meatballs. The business runners, however, may smartly adjust the prices—maybe for bacon, eggs, or salt. Business owners usually adjust the price for the goods that have various complements so they may sell more goods. For example, if the business runner lower the price for eggs, the store will possibly sell more cake powder, bacons, flours, etc. According to the law of demand, ceteris paribus, as the price of good decreases, the demand increases. As a consequent of lowering the price of certain goods, more of its complements will be sold, which will increase the marginal revenue for the business owners.
In addition, there is a big difference between the total price; obviously Whole Foods costs about twice as Walmart due to their higher quality of food—“many of the items were organic, and the eggs came from cage-free chickens”. For consumers who values more of a high quality and health diet, their demand for 365 brand (the Whole Foods’ own brand) is inelastic. Even though they understand purchasing such ingredients at Walmart may help them save money, lower price does not alternate their choice. In contrast, the ingredients in Walmart can be a substitute for many others who care less about the “organic” but a greater deal. The reporters also indicate that “Whole Foods’ organic shredded Cheddar cost nearly three times as much as the Walmart brand, which was not organic”. This may cause a substitution effect, which, many consumers who, even though care about better quality, still do reconsideration if the difference between prices is too much. Those type of consumers may purchase eggs in Whole Foods—because “the price of a dozen eggs at the two stores was comparable”, but they will pick up cheese in Walmart to substitute the organic, but much more expensive, cheese in Whole Foods.
At last, the meatballs made from ingredients from Whole Food won. Nevertheless, the authors mention that “by the end of the day, the distinctions seemed to fade”. Thus, they suggest that the taste has not much difference. In other words, in a general situation, the majority consumers have an elastic demand, and they will prefer to shop in Walmart for it has the lower marginal cost.
21st Century Citizenship 
