Bad Business Models In The Original Legend Of Zelda

I know I’ve been talking about the original 8 bit NES Legend of Zelda for a few days now, but I’m not done yet. One thing I want to talk about is how dumb it is for merchants to sell the arrow:

Let’s think about this. Presumably this guy is trying to make a living by selling things. Let’s ignore the fact that Link is apparently the ONLY customer in the entirety of Hyrule. Ignoring that, one of the items this guy tries to sell for a living is the arrow. However, there is apparently only one bow in existence in Hyrule. Further, once Link buys an arrow, he never needs to buy another. Instead, he just loses a rupee (a gem that is used as money in Hyrule, duh) every time he shoots an arrow.

Does this sound like a good business model? Why base your business around something you can only sell one of? That merchant only has room for three things in his shop. He should really save that room for things he might sell multiple of. At least the bombs run out and link might have to buy (or find) more. The shield too, Link can at least lose that and it is well advised for him to buy another if he does. Not so for the arrow. Bought once, he never goes back to the merchant for it again. Eventually, he finds the silver one and doesn’t even need the one he got from the merchant anymore.

I’m pretty sure that if you went for a business loan and told them 1/3 of your inventory was going to be something only one person would need to buy once, you wouldn’t get that loan. I don’t know much about what the economic state of Hyrule was on a whole, but I can’t think it was good if people were forming businesses like this. It just doesn’t make any sense. No wonder Ganon took over so easy.