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The difference between all of those other mechanisms and surge pricing is customer expectations and control. All of the discount systems you talk about are pred

by jprete 3y ago

The difference between all of those other mechanisms and surge pricing is customer expectations and control. All of the discount systems you talk about are predictable, so the customer doesn't need to spend any energy re-evaluating the purchasing decision; they can decide once that they're a regular customer, a discount-only customer, or not interested. Surge pricing makes every single commercial interaction into a negotiated decision. The companies usually do it algorithmically so it costs very little; it's the customers who bear the brunt of the invisible transaction cost, by constantly forcing fresh re-evaluations of the transaction.

tomjakubowski 3y ago
Yeah, it's the asymmetry here of that cost that is the problem. Consumers could fight back if pricing data were as accessible to us as it is to retailers. Leveling that out is part of the datasette philosophy, I think. An important question is how to scale that up so there's a collective effort on consumer behalf to resist this.
- randomdata 3y ago
  The only way to fight back is to cease being a customer. You don't need price information for that. How are you going to "fight back" with price data? If you shift your habits to buy when the price is low – that's what they want you to do! A restaurant is far more efficient (read: profitable) when there is a steady stream of customers all day long, rather than having nobody in the place at 3PM and then a flood of people at 6PM. If a lower price can compel you to eat at 3PM instead of 6PM, that's a win for them.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    > The only way to fight back is to cease being a customer. You don't need price information for that. This is the approach I take. I don't think of it as "fighting back", though, as my goal isn't to change the bad behavior of companies. That's largely impossible. Instead, it's just a stance of pure self-protection. The only way I can protect myself against bad companies is to not engage with them at all.

by jprete 3y ago

tomjakubowski 3y ago

Yeah, it's the asymmetry here of that cost that is the problem. Consumers could fight back if pricing data were as accessible to us as it is to retailers. Leveling that out is part of the datasette philosophy, I think. An important question is how to scale that up so there's a collective effort on consumer behalf to resist this.

randomdata 3y ago
The only way to fight back is to cease being a customer. You don't need price information for that. How are you going to "fight back" with price data? If you shift your habits to buy when the price is low – that's what they want you to do! A restaurant is far more efficient (read: profitable) when there is a steady stream of customers all day long, rather than having nobody in the place at 3PM and then a flood of people at 6PM. If a lower price can compel you to eat at 3PM instead of 6PM, that's a win for them.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > The only way to fight back is to cease being a customer. You don't need price information for that. This is the approach I take. I don't think of it as "fighting back", though, as my goal isn't to change the bad behavior of companies. That's largely impossible. Instead, it's just a stance of pure self-protection. The only way I can protect myself against bad companies is to not engage with them at all.