So that's at least 4 million dollars made just off butterbeer. Holy cow!
The whole time we were in WWOHP I was just stunned by how much they were making in souvenirs. Absolutely hand over fist.
We don't buy a lot of souvenirs, but we were there during the freeze last month, and finally had to break down and by scarves. None of us liked the cheaper&smaller scarves with the crest on them, so that was over $111 for the 3 scarves. Then a house tie lanyard for me and DS (I loved putting my Tinkerbell pouch under my Ravenclaw lanyard) at 9.95 a pop. We decided that the Butterbeer mugs would work WELL as souvenirs, so each of us bought one with butterbeer (the stand had the ingredients! a bunch of junk chemicals, but none that we actively avoid, WOO!), so that's $30 for mugs (and drinks) plus we bought one more at 3.25.
Keychains, shirts, stuffed animals...just astonishing numbers of souvenirs being sold to people every second, even during a relatively quiet period.
Oh, and of course two wands for hubby and son, so that's another $60 they earned from us.
When you imagine how little they paid for all of those things, especially the resin wands, machine-made scarves, and the lanyards...oh how I wish I were their accountant, to see alllll those numbers!