A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing - Oscar Wilde
Merriam Webster has at least 4 definitions of value: the monetary worth of something; a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged; relative worth, utility, or importance; something (such as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable. Clearly it is difficult to define value. One thing is clear - it is subjective and relative. What is valuable to me may not be valuable to you. Or what was valuable to me yesterday may not be valuable today. Further still, two products with same monetary value may be valued by me differently. It is confusing. I see value as the gap between cost and benefit. If Benefit > Cost, I find the thing valuable and vice versa. But Cost and Benefit both can be qualitative and highly subjective. For instance, to me the intangible benefits (such as relief from driving and parking hassles) of going around in a cab outweigh the tangible cost it entails over driving my own car. But this equation holds up to a particular level. Beyond that level, the tangible costs may become significantly high over the intangible benefits. I keep judging every product and service on its value proposition, both tangible and intangible be it dinner plans, movies, credit card schemes, flight tickets and what not. After a point, searching for value becomes value dilutive. Spending too much time researching can bring mental, and emotional fatigue and inhibit decision-making.
Nevertheless, there are two things in this world which I find highly under-priced or rather hugely value proposition. These are - newspapers and gyms. (I am sure greater bargains exist, especially in the present era of private equity funded e-commerce environment, but those are short-lived. And they offer only monetary benefits. The ones I am talking about are for the enrichment of mind and body) Newspapers, or for that matter, the entire media industry has an interesting business model. They serve the readers and thrive on readership, but they charge a reader a very nominal amount which does not cover their costs (content, printing and distribution). But the readership drives their major source of revenue and profitability, which is the advertisements (including classifieds, obituaries). Hence, the advertisement revenues subsidise the subscription revenues, leading to a very low fee for the readers. This is a great situation for the reader. I have been an active newspaper reader for more than 15 years. Over the last few years, Mint by Hindustan Times (HT) has been my favourite by a distance. There was a time when I read a lot of The Hindu. While Times of India (ToI) has been a staple at home, I have reduced my coverage of it due to obvious decline in quality. The difference between a Tabloid and a Broadsheet are well documented. While technically, the only difference between these is in size and origin, but now they have metaphorical disparity. A Broadsheet is associated with serious journalism while a Tabloid is associated with eye-catching, racy, lurid journalism. While writing this piece, I was surprised to find out that both ToI and HT are considered broadsheets, for me they deteriorated into tabloids (ToI more so) long back. Still, I hold Hindustan Times in higher regard than ToI (relatively), but the household sticks to ToI.
Anyway, I digress. For me, newspapers have been an essential part of the daily routine. My association with them begins as soon I begin my day - ToI front page, sports page and business page, in the loo or during breakfast depending on when it appears at the door. Economic Times and Mint while travelling to office (I specifically wash my hands on reaching the office to remove the ink). Mint Lounge is read across Saturdays and Sundays. Sundays also see a lot of the ToI Sunday edition, which is reasonably good. I do not like the supplements - Delhi Times is especially nerve-wrecking. And I do not care much for e-newspapers, nothing catches my fancy but a physical newspaper with its ink smell. How much do I pay for these newspapers? Almost Rs. 4500 a year! And in that, the entire family reads. This money gives me reading material which can keep me occupied almost the entire day - I am rarely able to read the entire quota. The sheer extent of information, data, trivia, views, and insights available for Rs. 4500 is mind-boggling and unbeatable, possibly matched only by a library membership fee. I remember a speech by a successful alumni during my MBA, who said that the best advice he had received and the one he wanted to pass to us was that, ‘the best time you can spend in a day is at the library’s newspaper section. That is where you get maximum learning.’
Another similar value-for-money for me is a gym membership. In a medium-status locality in a metropolitan city like Delhi, gym membership can be had for Rs. 1000 a month (even lower is possible). My gym allows me access for 7 days a week for 16 hours a day (almost 440 hours a month). The proportion of opportunity that one gets to work on his health and the price one pays for that opportunity is immense. Especially when one compares with Rs. 500 that it costs for a good dining-out, which would include all things unhealthy - double cheese pizza, chocolate brownie and 2 pints of beer anyone? (healthier food options would be more expensive). In contrast, health is available for Rs. 1000 a month. The low cost of a gym works on the premise of fixed upfront investment and then recovering that over many users who can utilise them only to a particular extent (you cannot gym for more than 2-3 hours a day). That is why gyms would love users who can come between 11 am to 4 pm as those are lean hours.
I agree that there are cheaper alternatives to a gym, such as a jog in open air, or going to a park. In fact many Delhi parks now have those exercise machines without weights, which are called gyms for want of a better word. For a long time, I have run in parks and roads. I was against gym as I thought that it is a waste of money to pay for them when I have free workout options. And I have never subscribed to the thought that once you have paid for the gym membership, invested something so to say, you are likely to abide rather than value something which is free. Another argument against gym was that I had mostly associated it with body-building, muscle enhancement, which was very to my aesthetic sense. But in a fit of frustration over not being able to do much for my health and propped-up by the interest of a like-minded friend, I tried out a gym. In most such things which require overcoming mental, physical and time-constraint barriers, company of like-minded people is a great motivator, especially for the mortally-motivated people like me. And lack of company has been a big dissuader. A jog, run, workout is significantly more tolerable if you are doing it with somebody because two things happen - (a) a sense of competition comes which pushes the adrenaline and (b) one gets distracted away from the physical exertion and boredom. While the friend who joined with me left long back, I have been able to stick to the gymming (alone! A great achievement for me!) for one year, though the regularity is still not what I would want it to be (I read somewhere that it takes 6 weeks to develop a habit so one has to be patient and persistent. It has been true in my case).
For me a gym offers distinct advantages over the free options of physical workout - (a) the range of machines and exercises is very wide, (b) monotony is broken and greater interest is developed by doing a different set of exercises each day, and (c) motivation is readily available from the fellow gymmers. To give an example for the last two points - on many occasions, I have felt tired and gone to gym with the idea of doing a light workout, but ended up doing a complete workout after seeing those around me push themselves hard, or because I could not leave a particular set of exercise incomplete.
I am a very value-conscious customer in every purchase decision. Even when I am splurging or being extravagant (like on eating out or for a play), I am mindful of deriving some intangible gain. Thus, I think carefully before spending the hard-earned penny. Hence I am a pain for all the telecallers who peddle club memberships, investment plans, discount coupon booklets, free credit cards, car helpline, donations etc. because I spend their time by letting them explaining in detail but I seldom buy the product. But when it comes to newspaper subscription and gym membership renewal, I do not think much. I would bargain (obviously!) but I do not think once about whether I want to buy it. Go for them - nobody has ever repented.
