4 ms·

> Does this person also expect businesses to disclose their profit margins before he's comfortable doing business with them? Is that really such an unreasonabl

> Does this person also expect businesses to disclose their profit margins before he's comfortable doing business with them? Is that really such an unreasonable demand?

CocaKoala 10y ago
Do you expect a restaurant to give you the ingredient cost and labour cost of your meal on your bill, so you can tell how much the privilege of having somebody cook for you was?
- fragmede 10y ago
  I've thought of that before, and think it would be really great to know. I love to know which restaurant is simply reheating Sysco pre-prepared foods, and which ones are spending extra on organic free trade ingredients. If the food tastes delicious but the chef is underpaid because they're buying more expensive ingredients relative to the less tasty restaurant which buys cheaper ingredients with a larger markup. Though; I've also considered how a reverse BlueApron service might work - you bring ingredients to a chef and kitchen, who then cooks the food for you. My cooking ability, limited to the occasional meal prepared after work is nothing compared to a master chef who's gone to school and practiced their art for every day for years as a job, and I'd gladly pay to see a master at work. (I doubt that particular niche is big enough to sustain a business though because, well, restaurants exist.)
  - CocaKoala 10y ago
    > reverse BlueApron service Like a cooking class, but without any lab work?
jimmywanger 10y ago
> Is that really such an unreasonable demand? Yes. That's how price controls and messed up economies start out. Sometimes profit margins are highly misleading. For instance, the profit margins for software development are extremely high if you calculate them a certain way. ("You're only paying how much for capital and electricity and you're charging me how much?") The main thing is what value the business brings you. They can charge whatever they want. As long as you value their service/goods more than what they're charging you, who cares how much it costs them?
chrisseaton 10y ago
Why do you care what the profit margin is? Either the product or service is worth more to you than the money that they're charging, or it isn't.
- enraged_camel 10y ago
  >>Why do you care what the profit margin is? Because not knowing it creates an information asymmetry and makes it more difficult to make a rational decision about whether to pay for the product or service, or look/wait for alternatives. It's not just about what the product or service is worth to me. It's also about a sense of fairness. I'm OK with a 20% markup on bottles of water at ball games. I'm not OK with a 200% markup, because even if I'm really thirsty, on principle I don't want to pay several times more for it than I otherwise would. So if I knew the exact margin, I can make an intelligent decision between paying for it then, or waiting X hours for the game to end so I can drink the water I have in the car.
  - baddox 10y ago
    I find that attitude a bit strange. Carried to its logical conclusion, you wouldn't want to buy a used car from someone if they received it for free, regardless of how much they're charging vs. market rates. It makes sense to compare a product offering with other offerings on the market, but it doesn't make sense to me to care about the profit margin. What if one firm can offer a product cheaper than all equivalent competing products, but with a much higher profit margin?
    - grandalf 10y ago
      > Carried to its logical conclusion, you wouldn't want to buy a used car from someone if they received it for free, regardless of how much they're charging vs. market rates. Great point. These objections to Instacart are not just bizarrely irrational, they are at odds with how the service economy works.
    - enraged_camel 10y ago
      The point I'm making is that a buying decision depends on much more than just the price you're paying. All kinds of information go into people's decision-making process. For instance, if you knew that the duck-fur coat (or whatever, I don't know if that's a real thing) you are about to buy was made by torturing ducks, you would be less likely to buy it, even if the price, by itself, was reasonable. This is why a lot of companies that sell animal products go to great lengths to keep such information from consumers: because the resulting information asymmetry benefits them. The idea that at the end of the day the product/service is either worth it to you at X price or it isn't is simply wrong.

> Does this person also expect businesses to disclose their profit margins before he's comfortable doing business with them? Is that really such an unreasonable demand?

CocaKoala 10y ago

Do you expect a restaurant to give you the ingredient cost and labour cost of your meal on your bill, so you can tell how much the privilege of having somebody cook for you was?

fragmede 10y ago
I've thought of that before, and think it would be really great to know. I love to know which restaurant is simply reheating Sysco pre-prepared foods, and which ones are spending extra on organic free trade ingredients. If the food tastes delicious but the chef is underpaid because they're buying more expensive ingredients relative to the less tasty restaurant which buys cheaper ingredients with a larger markup. Though; I've also considered how a reverse BlueApron service might work - you bring ingredients to a chef and kitchen, who then cooks the food for you. My cooking ability, limited to the occasional meal prepared after work is nothing compared to a master chef who's gone to school and practiced their art for every day for years as a job, and I'd gladly pay to see a master at work. (I doubt that particular niche is big enough to sustain a business though because, well, restaurants exist.)
- CocaKoala 10y ago
  > reverse BlueApron service Like a cooking class, but without any lab work?

jimmywanger 10y ago

> Is that really such an unreasonable demand? Yes. That's how price controls and messed up economies start out. Sometimes profit margins are highly misleading. For instance, the profit margins for software development are extremely high if you calculate them a certain way. ("You're only paying how much for capital and electricity and you're charging me how much?") The main thing is what value the business brings you. They can charge whatever they want. As long as you value their service/goods more than what they're charging you, who cares how much it costs them?

chrisseaton 10y ago

Why do you care what the profit margin is? Either the product or service is worth more to you than the money that they're charging, or it isn't.

enraged_camel 10y ago
>>Why do you care what the profit margin is? Because not knowing it creates an information asymmetry and makes it more difficult to make a rational decision about whether to pay for the product or service, or look/wait for alternatives. It's not just about what the product or service is worth to me. It's also about a sense of fairness. I'm OK with a 20% markup on bottles of water at ball games. I'm not OK with a 200% markup, because even if I'm really thirsty, on principle I don't want to pay several times more for it than I otherwise would. So if I knew the exact margin, I can make an intelligent decision between paying for it then, or waiting X hours for the game to end so I can drink the water I have in the car.
- baddox 10y ago
  I find that attitude a bit strange. Carried to its logical conclusion, you wouldn't want to buy a used car from someone if they received it for free, regardless of how much they're charging vs. market rates. It makes sense to compare a product offering with other offerings on the market, but it doesn't make sense to me to care about the profit margin. What if one firm can offer a product cheaper than all equivalent competing products, but with a much higher profit margin?
  - grandalf 10y ago
    > Carried to its logical conclusion, you wouldn't want to buy a used car from someone if they received it for free, regardless of how much they're charging vs. market rates. Great point. These objections to Instacart are not just bizarrely irrational, they are at odds with how the service economy works.
  - enraged_camel 10y ago
    The point I'm making is that a buying decision depends on much more than just the price you're paying. All kinds of information go into people's decision-making process. For instance, if you knew that the duck-fur coat (or whatever, I don't know if that's a real thing) you are about to buy was made by torturing ducks, you would be less likely to buy it, even if the price, by itself, was reasonable. This is why a lot of companies that sell animal products go to great lengths to keep such information from consumers: because the resulting information asymmetry benefits them. The idea that at the end of the day the product/service is either worth it to you at X price or it isn't is simply wrong.