Cost/Benefit analysis and the Bryant Park chairs

There are several thousand folding chairs at Bryant Park and by the front of the New York Public Library. None of the chairs are collected or locked up at night: they stay out all the time, a fact that sometimes surprises people. Does it make sense for it to be otherwise? Back of the envelope calculations follow.

Assets
Number of chairs estimate: 3,000
List price $149 per set of two; estimated volume discounted price of $50 each
Total estimated chair asset cost: $150,000

Setup time calculation
Number of chairs that can be set up / collected per person per hour: 600
Number of people setting up / collecting chairs: 5
Time to set up / collect chairs: 1 hour each

Chair setup and collection costs
People involved: 5
Hours involved: 2 per day
Wage per hour estimate: $8
Assume chairs are set up daily: 365 days per year
Total cost of chair setup and collection: $29,200 per year

Chairs replaced per year
Wear and tear: 400 chairs x $50
Total: $20,000

Chairs lost to theft: 5 – 6 per year:
Total cost: $250 - $300

You might quibble with some of the numbers, but the direction is on target. This means that for Bryant Park, there is no economic reason to have people set up and collect the chairs every day. Chairs lost to theft do not even cost 1% of the overall labor, to say nothing of lost use of the chairs at night and I’d even argue, a loss of goodwill. For businesses, trust can be a good value.

The above is representative of some of the work Inticiti does.

On the chair I sat in today, the following plaque:
“Look at all the people”
For 10 years he helped make Bryant Park great.
Mel Kopelman 1926 – 2003.

Thanks, Mel.