[snexvibb] Laundromat dryers are market failure

The coin operated dryers at the local laundromat have a timer that increments 6 minutes per quarter.  The electronic timer also has a door sensor that stops the dryer and lets you electronically choose a different cycle (permanent press, cotton, etc.) if you open and close the door.

As one might initially expect (based on greed) the timer keeps running if the door is opened and the dryer stopped, making it less likely a customer will encounter a dryer which still has time on it.  (The previous customer took clothes out early for some reason, maybe in a hurry, or clothes were already dry.)

However, if one laundromat "defects" (like Prisoners' Dilemma), and provides timers that stop when the door is opened (a stopped dryer consumes no resources), then that laundromat would have a competitive advantage, attracting more customers.  But we don't see this happening, so this seems an instance of market failure.

With stopping timers, it might be possible for an adversary to do an unusual denial-of service attack: put lots of money into every dryer.  This makes it inconvenient for a rare customer who wants to dry their clothes for precisely N minutes but isn't be able to be there N minutes after starting.