The Economics Of The Pizza Saver

October 10, 2016 in Daily Bulletin

Kelsey McKinney wrote about the pizza saver – an invaluable gizmo that has saved hundreds of millions of people from cardboard infused pizza:

  • The pizza saver was a patent filed by a 46-year-old city councilwoman in 1983.
  • Each saver costs less than a penny to make. But the equipment to produce them on any realistic scale costs about a million dollars.
  • Back of the envelope math indicates that the pizza saver industry brings in $8 million of revenue every year.
  • It’s unclear if the patent owner – who saw the patent lapse in 1993, and passed away in 2005 – ever saw any payments from her invention.

Read more about the pizza saver and what its next iteration might look like at Eater.