I read a post from a festival vendor who said the same thing happened to her, and she went back and looked at her numbers after the fair. Her take was that a lower price only hurts you if you're barely breaking even per item, and on a brisket sandwich you probably still have room at $9 with fair traffic. Something she said stuck with me: the price cut gets them to stop, but the food gets them to come back, so the discount is like paying a little to get a shot at a new regular. For the next big day maybe try $9 but watch how many people add a side or a drink, since that's where you can make the margin back up. If the adds go up too, you didn't give up anything.

The "knife fight" part got me because we had a similar thing with Uno last month. My cousin put a 30 second rule on draws and my uncle got so mad he threw his whole hand at the wall, and we still find cards under the fridge. Monopoly with a timer is just asking for trouble though, that game comes with anger built in already.