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Price tags · Puzzle #14 · Tuesday, October 13

Price tags: the answers

Four questions, each with one true number. Here they are with their answers, how to reason each one out, and where the number comes from. Play today's Price tags.

  1. 1. Summer strawberries: At the US average price of strawberries in August 2026, what would a 12-ounce pint every week of a 13-week summer cost?

    The answer: about $34. Strawberries were cheapest in July at about $2.40 a pint and dearest in January at about $3.08.

    Napkin math
    1. 13weeks of summer
    2. ×$3a pint

    ≈$39

    Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Strawberries, dry pint, per 12 oz. (340.2 gm) in U.S. city average, average price, not seasonally adjusted

  2. 2. A season at Six Flags: How much did Six Flags take in, in total, at its amusement and water parks in 2025?

    Photo: Alton, CC BY-SA 3.0
    Parks
    26 amusement parks and 15 water parks
    Spending per visit
    About $62

    The answer: about $3.1 billion. Six Flags counted about 47.4 million visits in 2025, its first full year after merging with Cedar Fair.

    Napkin math
    1. 40parks
    2. ×1Mvisits each a year
    3. ×$60a visit

    ≈$2.4B

    Source: Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (SEC Form 10-K), Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025

  3. 3. Marvel Entertainment: How much did Disney agree to pay for Marvel Entertainment in 2009?

    Photo: Stan Lee / Jack Kirby / Dick Ayers / Stan Goldberg / Artie Simek, Public domain
    Bought by
    Disney, August 2009
    Character library
    Over 5,000 characters
    History
    Seventy years of comics and media

    The answer: about $4 billion. The price worked out to $50 per Marvel share in cash and Disney stock, for Iron Man, Spider-Man, the X-Men and thousands more.

    Napkin math: Marvel's films were only just taking off in 2009 (Iron Man came out a year earlier), so think a few billion, not tens.

    Source: The Walt Disney Company, Disney to Acquire Marvel Entertainment

  4. 4. A burger for everyone: At the August 2026 average price of ground beef, what would it cost to make a quarter-pound burger patty for every American?

    Patty
    a quarter pound of 100% ground beef, before cooking

    The answer: about $594 million. That's about 86 million pounds of beef, bought at the BLS city-average price of $6.92 a pound.

    Napkin math
    1. 330Mpeople in the US
    2. ×0.25pounds of beef each
    3. ×$5a pound

    ≈$413M

    Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED), from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Average Price: Ground Beef, 100% Beef (Cost per Pound/453.6 Grams) in U.S. City Average

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