Donut Man: With a Twist

What better way to spend a class period than competing to buy donuts from Donut man in the library, while still practicing economics. On Friday December 12th, History and Economics Teacher Mr. Milbrant told his AP microeconomics class that they will be participating in an event, and to bring their dollars and coins. Little did they know that they would be competing for donuts, with the highest bidder winning. 

Before the bidding could begin, rules needed to be established, as well as a reminder of the vocabulary that needed to be known in order to fully comprehend the activity and its purpose. 

A list of the words included supply , demand, scarcity, monopoly, compliments, price floor, collusion, fixed costs, variable costs, opportunity costs, marginal cost, marginal revenue, profit, break-even point, and diminishing marginal utility. The rules of the game listed by Mr. Milbrant were that prices will rise in 25 cent increments (US currency only) until no other bids are given, all sales are final, no food may be consumed until the auctioneer gives permission, and all proceeds will help defray the costs of an end of the year field trip.

Now that all the rules were given, the bidding could begin. Senior Samantha Ghomeshi reminisces on how “everyone was really excited to participate, as donuts were a very good incentive.” However, many of the students were reluctant at first, as they didn’t understand that the donut would not be cheaper than one dollar. As soon as the counselor started to bid and participate, students followed. The competition increased when Mr. Hanson’s class joined the bidding. Now donuts were starting to go for higher prices. The most expensive donut sold was the tiger eye, for an astounding eight dollars! The same event took place with 7th period AP microeconomics, in which students were a little more reluctant to bid on the donuts, but nevertheless were still successful. 

At the end, Mr.Milbrandt tallied up all the numbers ,to see just how much profit he made in each class. Just in the 3rd period alone, the amount of money made was more than enough to cover the cost in how much he spent to buy all of the materials for the day. Overall, all of the students were able to relax a little right before finals yet still learn and apply economic topics that are relevant to the real world. Senior Alyssa Paggao talks about how she was able to get a donut, and “although it was a little more than I would normally pay for it, in that moment, especially during school, a donut sounded like the perfect thing to have, and I was willing to pay any price for it.” School and donuts, nothing is better than that!