Hasta La Ideas

New York City public schools have a citywide ban on cell phones, and I’d heard there were bodegas that offer daily “storage” to students for a small fee. It’s a good deal for bodegas–assuming they don’t get targeted and robbed–as cell phones don’t take up much space, and the twice-daily student traffic probably provides a modest boost in sales.

A company called Pure Loyalty Electronic Device Storage has expanded on this business model, deploying brightly-painted trucks to schools with metal detectors (where it’s impossible to smuggle a phone in) to serve as mobile storage units. At the Bronx’s DeWitt Clinton high school alone, the truck serves an estimated 500 to 550 students per day. At a buck per phone and with 180 school days a year, that one truck alone grosses roughly $90,000 to $99,000 annually.

When things like cell phones are invented, the inventors are thinking about the device’s functionality and user experience. It’s interesting to see the totally unforeseen and occasionally bizarre economic side effects that crop up when disruptive technologies collide with societal rules.

via kottke and the times

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