4 ms·

I don't believe it's legal to charge different prices to different people for exactly the same product. Changing the price (for everyone) is fine (you could ev

by ekanes 16y ago

I don't believe it's legal to charge different prices to different people for exactly the same product. Changing the price (for everyone) is fine (you could even change the price 5 times a day), or adding a back scratcher and bumping the price by $500 is fine, but doing an AB test where you flip the price back and forth on the same thing isn't legal as far as I know. IANAL.

roel_v 16y ago
How would that be so? How do you 'believe' a factual thing like this? I can charge one guy 10$ for a pie in my bakery shop, and the next guy 100$ because I don't like his face. There is a narrow set of classes on which it is not allowed to discriminate but all else is fair game. I'm not claiming to know this of all jurisdictions, there may be specific circumstances in which this does not hold, but these are the exceptions.
- ekanes 16y ago
  > There is a narrow set of classes on which it is not allowed to discriminate but all else is fair game. You're thinking about laws around hiring. I can't charge you double to buy a VCR in my store because I don't like your face.
  - roel_v 16y ago
    Why not?
nostrademons 16y ago
Don't car dealerships do this all the time? Or small shops in Chinatown that negotiate for tourist souvenirs? Safeway or CVS cards? Google AdWords? Priceline.com? Employee/corporate discounts? Heck, on my recent trip to the Grand Canyon, my sister and I both checked out the exact same rental car through our respective employers, and it was about $30 cheaper through mine, presumably because my employer gives a better corporate discount than her employer. Really, anything where you negotiate the price will end up with different prices for the same item. You're thinking that just because people don't do it, it must be illegal. The idea of "one price for identical items" is a pretty recent invention, dating back to the rise of department stores (Woolworth's, Macy's, Sears) at the turn of the 20th century. It's for economic reasons, not legal ones. They found that it was cheaper to forego the extra revenue than it was to hire all the salespeople needed to negotiate each individual purchase. Charge less and make it up in volume. It also has the advantage of fairness and simplicity, which customers tend to like.

by ekanes 16y ago

roel_v 16y ago

How would that be so? How do you 'believe' a factual thing like this? I can charge one guy 10$ for a pie in my bakery shop, and the next guy 100$ because I don't like his face. There is a narrow set of classes on which it is not allowed to discriminate but all else is fair game. I'm not claiming to know this of all jurisdictions, there may be specific circumstances in which this does not hold, but these are the exceptions.

ekanes 16y ago
> There is a narrow set of classes on which it is not allowed to discriminate but all else is fair game. You're thinking about laws around hiring. I can't charge you double to buy a VCR in my store because I don't like your face.
- roel_v 16y ago
  Why not?

nostrademons 16y ago

Don't car dealerships do this all the time? Or small shops in Chinatown that negotiate for tourist souvenirs? Safeway or CVS cards? Google AdWords? Priceline.com? Employee/corporate discounts? Heck, on my recent trip to the Grand Canyon, my sister and I both checked out the exact same rental car through our respective employers, and it was about $30 cheaper through mine, presumably because my employer gives a better corporate discount than her employer. Really, anything where you negotiate the price will end up with different prices for the same item. You're thinking that just because people don't do it, it must be illegal. The idea of "one price for identical items" is a pretty recent invention, dating back to the rise of department stores (Woolworth's, Macy's, Sears) at the turn of the 20th century. It's for economic reasons, not legal ones. They found that it was cheaper to forego the extra revenue than it was to hire all the salespeople needed to negotiate each individual purchase. Charge less and make it up in volume. It also has the advantage of fairness and simplicity, which customers tend to like.