Say Johnny and his parents stop buy a paticular gas station weekly for gas. On their very first visit his parents get Johnny a bag of chips and a soda. Total cost $3.00. Johnny loves it and eats it all. However in the following weeks, johnny’s parents refuse to buy him the chips and soda.
Why?
Johnny like it and eats it. His parents are well off, plus his snack is only $3.00, so money isn’t a problem. What is the source of the parents resistance?
Johnny was probably a little shit all week and didn’t clean up his room like he was told.
I smell a trap.
However:
Johnny’s parents love him and are concerned that if Johnny gets into the habit of eating chips and soda simply because they are available that he will become obese and have health issues so they are enforcing limits on Johnny until he is able to do so for himself.
How old is Johnny? Does he really have a handle on what $3.00 a week adds up to? His parents might consider using that $150 for something more durable than a snack the kid really doesn’t need.
There are several reasons to resist:
Eating junk food frequently isn’t a good idea
Kids are little shits sometimes and may not always deserve a treat
Even if the kid hasn’t been a little shit, he still needs to get used to the idea that he doesn’t need a treat everytime his parents go to the gas station. If his parents get in that habit, god help them if they break tradition and don’t get him chips one day.
The availability of something doesn’t mean you are entitled to it, plain and simple. When Johnny can buy his own snacks he can do so, but he doesn’t get to decide where and how his parents spend their money.
They’re two minutes from home and Little Johnny can get a soda from the fridge and chips from the pantry for $.50.
StG
A few plausible explanations:
Johnny’s parents look at the nutrition information on the chips and soda after Johnny has eaten it, and decide it’s not something he should be eating.
Between the first and second visits to the gas station, Johnny is diagnosed with some kind of health problem (a couple of possibilities would be juvenile diabetes, celiac disease, or a food allergy) and the chips and soda are not something that he can have with that condition. Or maybe they just found out he’s overweight, and shouldn’t be eating junk food.
The chips and soda the first time was a one-off thing for a special occasion. Maybe it was his birthday, or maybe it was a reward for having done something.
Between the first and second visits, the parents decided to change their family policy on buying snacks from the gas station. This could be for several reasons- health or financial reasons spring to mind.
This is some bullshit, and the above types of thinking is bad for economy. 
I’m still sort of confused. I understand health and discipline reasons. But if those were factors, I would assume they may not buy everytime, but it seems weird to stop buying forever.
Ok, let’s move to adults buying things for themselves. What would stop an adult from buying a certain item? An item they like and that is inexpensive. Indefinately.
Say there’s an adult who likes to hang out at Central Park weekly. There’s a vendor that sells snacks and beverages. Terry buys an iced coffee for $3.00, enjoys it, but nevers buys that or anything else. Why did he stop buying. Again, forever.
Say t
Maybe they think it’s OK as an occasional thing but not constantly. As a child, I knew well that sometimes Mom and Dad would let us get a candy bar at the gas station on road trips, or say yes to stopping at McDonald’s, or what have you. There was no harm in asking once, as long as you were polite and abided by the answer with no fuss. The lesson was, sometimes you get what you want, and sometimes you don’t, and that’s life.
Because he felt like. Just because I buy something once I must keep buying that everytime? I’m an adult not a pre-programmed robot.
I stopped buying snacks from vending machines because I know they are not good for me (high in calories, salt, and sugar, don’t have much redeeming nutritional value), and that’s a simple thing I can do to be healthier. I wanted one today, and there is a vending machine in the building where I work (I wish there wasn’t), but I did not buy a snack there.
I had to stop buying coffee drinks of all kinds when I got pregnant 
Too much caffeine.
Depending on how big the iced coffee is, or what is in it other than ice and coffee, it could be very high in calories. A venti Frappucino has around 500 calories. They’re delicious, yes, but that’s about 1/4 of the total amount of calories you should be consuming in a day.
Terry always hated coffee and was only buying it because an unhealthy obsession with the person making it. Terry had to stop buying coffee after being caught stalking the employee after hours. Terry can’t buy coffee there anymore because of the resulting restraining order.
OR
Terry recently converted to Mormonism.
I’m going to go ahead and assume someone (parent or otherwise) has cut off the OP financially, in which case the reasons may look like this: you’re not entitled to someone else’s money, they may want you to change some things and don’t want to subsidize your lifestyle anymore, or they may not want to throw good money after bad.
t
Because most weeks he’s just not in the mood for an iced coffee? Because he doesn’t feel the coffee is worth $3? Because he decided to give up caffeine? Because he’s on a diet? Because he’s meeting someone for coffee in an hour and doesn’t want to have two coffees in one afternoon?
Because an iced coffee, on that sunny summer day, was a nice treat. But most days aren’t that sunny, and most days the adult doesn’t feel like spending $3 on an indulgence, and something that is a treat once in a while becomes less “special” if it’s a daily thing?
What’s with the idea that because a person enjoys something once, there is some necessity that they continue to do/buy it?
Because the parent been woken up every morning since that first time at the gas station by some asshole honking their horn as they drive by the parent’s house way too early in the morning. And since they aren’t getting a good night’s sleep, they’re taking it out on Johnny.
This is a nice analogy. And it’s definitely true that a gift is nice, but if the recipient takes it for granted and assumes he’ll get the same gift every time, that’s rather greedy, and if it’s compulsory it’s no longer a gift.
I work very very much like that. Every thurs night around 7 I go to my fave bar. I always buy a Newcastle. For three years. I know better not to do this every night. All that alcohol is not healthy and that would cost me $21 per week. But, to do it weekly seems reasonable. Once I step foot inside that bar, I immediately crave a Newcastle. What Ive learned from my marketing courses and training at my current employment, many consumers operate the way I do…supposedly. There’s a reason sames are handed out, to get people hooked. Even drug dealers use this practice.
This is all interesting to me and I would like to pick the brains of non-habitual or one-time buyers.