Annie the Economist: The Beginning

Dedicated to Alanta. 

Annie loves cookies.  Her parents want her to eat icky things like kale and tuna fish, but she knows that she can eat only cookies and be just fine.  On a Tuesday afternoon, on the way back from school, Annie asked her Dad to stop at Lilly’s, which everyone knows makes the best cookies in town.  Her Dad told her it was too far out of the way.  Lilly’s is on Baker Street, a long walk away from school and in the opposite direction of home.  Why is the bakery that makes the best cookies so far away?! Why couldn’t Lilly’s be right next door to her house?  Then her Dad would never have an excuse to skip going there!

Annie talked to her best friend, Milton, about the problem.  Milton couldn’t come up with an answer.  Her parents were too busy when she asked them.  They are always so busy!  So Annie sat and thought and thought about it.  She didn’t know the answer.

The next day, when she got to visit Lilly’s, she asked the owner Lilly how bakeries choose where to put their stores.  Lilly said the best cookies are made near where the nicest children live.  Annie tried being extra nice for a whole week, hoping that a branch of Lilly’s would open up. But no cookie store opened up nearby.  She was so disappointed that she refused to do her chores, and was given a long time out.  Maybe Lilly had been making fun of her!

She sat and thought more about the problem.  Why wouldn’t a bakery open near her?  Annie compared 11^th Avenue, her street, to Baker Street, where Lily’s bakery is located.  She made a list of ways they are different.

11^th Avenue has lots of lawns, where it is fun to play outside after school.  Baker Street has no lawns.  But why would that explain where cookies are sold?

11^th Avenue is where lots of people walk their dogs.  Lily’s rarely seen any dogs on Baker Street.  But why would that explain where cookies are sold?

The buildings are all small houses on 11^th Avenue. There are lots of tall office buildings on Baker Street.  But why would that explain where cookies are sold?

11^th Avenue is always nice and quiet.  Her Mom talks about how, when she visits Uncle Alexander and Aunt Michaela, she can’t sleep because it is so much noisier in their neighborhood.  Baker Street is always really busy.  Tons of people are walking up and down Baker Street whenever Annie is there.  It’s exciting.  But why would that explain where cookies are sold?

Maybe which street is busy could explain it!  Annie remembered from the summer when she had a lemonade stand how hard it was to sell lemonade when there were no customers nearby.  Annie figured the more cookies a store could sell, the happier the store owner would be.  Suppose half of the people who walk by a store decide to buy something there.  Half of the people who walk down 11^th Avenue isn’t that many, which is why when she had her lemonade stand, she still had three-quarters of a pitcher of lemonade left over at the end of the day.  But half of the people walking down Baker Street would be lots and lots and lots of people.  If those people buy cookies, that would be a lot of cookies! 

Annie liked her idea, but was worried.  She remembered how annoying it was when she was nice for a whole week, and no cookie store appeared nearby.  How could be more sure that cookie stores locate on busy streets? 

Annie decided to look at five streets with cookie stores, and five streets without cookie stores.  If the streets with cookie stores always had more people walking around than the streets without cookie stores, she would feel more confident about her idea.  But how could she get the information she needed to test this idea?  Hmmm.

Finding streets with cookie stores was easy.  She used a computer to find cookie stores in her city, and made a list of the streets where first five are located.  The streets are named Baker Street (where Lilly’s with the best cookies is!), Cocoa Lane, Walnut Loop, Caramel Court, and Main Street.

Annie didn’t know how to figure out how busy these streets are, though, or how to pick the other streets with no cookie stores.  There were so many streets in her city!  Which one should she pick?  She asked her Uncle Noah.  Luckily, Uncle Noah works for the Mayor, and has a list of all the streets in the city, and how busy they were.  Uncle Noah gave her the list.  She picked the first five names of streets on the list. Their names were Aardvark Lane, Abalone Avenue, Ackerman Street, Addington Way, and Aeneas Boulevard.  She used a computer to make sure these streets had no cookie stores. 

She then listed the two streets in two columns on a sheet of paper, using different colored crayons depending on how busy Uncle Noah’s list said they were.  Green means the streets aren’t busy at all.  You could lie down on the sidewalk and nobody would step on you.  Yellow is a sort of busy, maybe a nice place to put a lemonade stand.  Red means a street is SUPER busy, like Baker Street.  It’s easy to get lost on Baker Street if you don’t hold on to your Mom or Dad’s hand!

Here’s the list.

Has a Cookie Store

Baker Street

Cocoa Lane

Walnut Loop

Caramel Court

Main Street

Doesn’t Have a Cookie Store

Aardvark Lane

Abalone Avenue

Ackerman Street

Addington Way

Aeneas Boulevard

Annie looked at the list and saw a pattern.  The colors made it so easy!  So many of the streets are green, meaning not so busy, where there was no cookie store.  Almost none of the streets that have cookie stores were green.  In fact, they are mostly red, meaning they were SUPER busy. 

Annie was so excited that she showed her list to her teacher, who was very impressed.  She asked Annie to give an oral report on her work to class.  At the end of the oral report, what do you think happened?  Annie got the most wonderful gift from her teacher.  A cookie from Lilly’s!