Which Price is Right? 474
slashdotNum2Big2Register writes "An interesting article at fastcompany about how things are being priced nowadays. The only drawback that concerns me is how each item and price can be connected to an individual. Amazon was already found to be doing this with their prices."
nowadays = September of 2000? (Score:5, Informative)
Hows this for double-talk (Score:4, Informative)
Last I checked... If you want to determine if "site changes" cause increase in purchasing etc you leave the price of a product static. This way you can determine if the increase came from better navigation. The price would be your static variable.
I bet that most people who read this ( not those of slashdot but of the world at large ) would fall for this simple and elegant lie.
Music Industry (Score:2, Informative)
Doesn't work for educated consumers (Score:4, Informative)
PPD (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Journalism ethics (Score:5, Informative)
What I do with Amazon.. (Score:5, Informative)
It's worked very well for me. Some browsers were as much as 30 dollars more than others for larger priced items. That to me would seem like a grey area in the legal system. You aren't allowed to charge varying prices at regular stores based on the customers appearance. You'd see Walmart getting sued left and right if at the registers they charged 15% more because I was wearing a suit and tie as opposed to looking like white trash. Or charging more for black comedy DVD's if you are black, the ACLU would be all over them in a heartbeat.
Re:Not surprising that no one will talk... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Not surprising that no one will talk... (Score:4, Informative)
Pricing below average variable costs means that you are paying an employee more per hour than you bill, as one example. Obviously in that case, you would be better off eating your fixed costs, since you aren't covering them anyway. That act only applies to price discrimination that impairs competition. You have to do it in such a way to close down mom & pops with the goal of monopolizing an industry. Per person pricing for indistinguisable goods are legal, if he is making a profit on all his sales. Rebates would be a good example of this, by using a rebate to catch the highly price sensitive, the retailer can capture both price sensitive sales (at the lower margin), while charging more to those who are less price sensitive. Also the section on functional discounts gives most companies plenty of room to avoid breaking the law.
Re:Use Mozilla... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Music Industry (Score:1, Informative)
to make it a link, type it as <a href="http://www.vh1.com/news/articles/1457874/10
and yes, there is a space between the a and href, it wasn't added by slashdot
for those to lazy to copy and paste [vh1.com]
Re:Another reason not to use IE (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Airline Pricing..and others (Score:4, Informative)
I don't know if it is the case in the USA, but over here in Europe the rules about airline pricing are being rewritten.
Airlines could charge more before basically because they had a monopoly on routes, and agreements between them. So if I wanted, for instance, to fly London to Barcelona tomorrow, there were only a couple of the big airlines that I could buy a ticket from, and they didn't really compete. So I might fly with British Airways or Iberia, and both would charge about £600 for it.
Now there are about five airlines which fly the same route daily, including several budget airlines that have disrupted the traditional model. I just checked on the example I gave above. With British Airways I can fly to London-Barcelona tomorrow for £427. With EasyJet, it will cost me £81.50. I fly between European countries regularly for business, and I don't fly with BA or Iberia anymore!
In Europe the older airlines are really struggling, precisely because the traditional way of pricing seats no longer applies.
Wal*Mart (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Amazons pricing (Score:3, Informative)
Of course, your calculation of $0.75 shipping costs doesn't include the packaging (toss in another few cents) or the cost to support the distribution center - which is quite a bit, considering the technology and infrastructure it takes to turn orders around as quick as you say.
Except you can't... (Score:5, Informative)
Since the selection is random I don't see an obvious way to exploit it, with the possible exception of re-loading to see if the price changes. Presumably Amazon has some system for preventing that (like requiring you to log in).
One of the interesting conclusions from many of the retailers interviewed in the article was that discounts should be smaller, but sooner. That sounds good to me, since in general I'm too lazy and impatient to wait around for the 'big sale', and end up paying higher prices. Maybe that same sentiment is why it works?
-Zipwow
Re:Fleecing the poor (Score:2, Informative)
Sorry, but that's the cover story for fleecing the poor. True, they represent a higher credit risk and therefore have a higher cost for default; however, at some point, the default costs are covered, and the rest is gravy. It's fairly well known that the poor are paying far more than their share.
Look at banking. A significant portion of profit (not simply revenue, but profit) comes from the various "poverty fees" they charge, like bounced check fees. People with money don't pay those fees, because the bank is willing to extend a small amount of credit to their checking accounts to cover shortages. But poor people get screwed in the ass if their checking account is short a few dollars.
Re:Airline Pricing..and others (Score:3, Informative)
The glaring exception to this, of course, is income tax. The richest 1% of Americans account for about 20% of all taxable income, but the pay over 37% of all income tax revenue (Source [ustreas.gov]). That means that dollar for dollar, the rich pay alot more tax than the poor. In fact, the top 50% of wage earners in America account for over 96% of all tax revenue.
Re:Frequent Flyer Miles (Score:3, Informative)
Why bother, use the power of the web and pay less. (Score:2, Informative)
Amazon does charge different people different prices, dumb people who shop there end up paying a lot more money.
Re:Airline Pricing..and others (Score:3, Informative)
This statements lends itself to the way you look at situations. It isn't about making it big, instead it is about making a sustainable positive flow income that one saves. "Big" people are dreaming just as much as those who believe in the lottery or making it to the NBA. Anyone can change their situation in life in America, despite who they know, if they are calculated and persistant.
Re:Fleecing the poor (Score:3, Informative)
Bah! (Score:5, Informative)
I went homeless for several months, showered in friend's bathrooms when I got a chance and washed my clothes (both pair) in the dorm laundromat. I studied in the dining area of fast food resturants because they had the lights on 24x7, a particularly harsh reminder that I was hungry and didn't have enough money to splurge on fast food. I was working, had a job at the local grocery store as a cashier but that money went towards tuition, books, and food with nothing left over for rent.
That was over a decade ago and I have never regretted it. I look at today's homeless begging on streetcorners and I cry my single tear in memory of that semester, then I drive on.
Everybody has a choice. If I did it, no help from anybody, no handouts, no contacts, a minimum wage job, and no welfare (I was too proud to ask, and thought I was above it. Dumb, probably, but everybody has their pride inspired dumb allowance) then anybody can do it.
You (meaning the metaphysical you, not bagging on you in particular) can do it. I know because I did it. It isn't a question of can you do it, it is a question of are you willing.
Willing to pay that 782% interest on a paycheck loan to get you through the week.
Willing to give up television, cable, all of your worldly belongings and possessions to make it happen.
Basically, willing to pay the price today in order to succeed tomorrow. Those of us that did have no sympathy for those who didn't and won't.
It doesn't take a 4 year degree, but a 4 year degree certainly helps. A BS degree doesn't come cheap however, in what you will need to sacrifice to get it in terms of dollars and hours.
To summarize, I have been poor (homeless for 3-4 months qualifies) and I have been rich. Rich is better.
I was a man with no contacts, no power, and no wardrobe. Nobody GAVE anybody a crippling overdraft and credit card bills, those were a choice (and yes, rent is a choice, as is medical attention, warm food and pretty clothes and a vehicle are all choices...) and I lived on $3.35 an hour, 30 hours a week (that's $400 a month.) Granted that was a while back, but that's real life.
I used my skills constructively and guess what, became a self made man. Maybe I am the exception to the rule, but I sure hope not.