4 ms·

Why is this new? My local restaurant has "half priced burger night" on Tuesdays. Happy hour is a favorite solution for getting people into the place early.

mitchdoogle 3y ago
I know right? It's just as logical to frame this as reduced pricing at off-peak times, but I guess that's not so sensational. Nevermind that many people would be happy to pay a little bit extra to avoid waiting during peak times.
- catchnear4321 3y ago
  you would think the companies rolling these out would have that level of sense from the get go. turns out, they didn’t, and described it in the sensational way. “dynamic pricing and daypart offerings.” that’s the ceo of wendys - not the media. sure, they tried to awkwardly correct the optics. there may be upsides, but to act like this is purely media sensationalism is to sound quite a bit like jumping too far in the other direction. the why isn’t terribly important. just like the ceo, the optics are off.
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    The optics are price being more reflective of supply and demand. Doesn’t more accurate pricing ensure more optimal allocation of resources? I don’t see why that would be a bad thing.
    - lepus 3y ago
      The optics to the average person are "I'm getting ripped off right after prices already went up way too much with inflation". What you're talking about is the reality.
      - lupire 3y ago
        The optics to the average person that "I'm getting a bargain right after prices already went up way too much due to inflation".
        lepus 3y ago
        If they called it something along the lines of an off hours discount that's what the optics would be. Clearly the fact that people are talking about this in a generally negative way shows that they aren't seeing it as getting a bargain.
        autoexec 3y ago
        > Clearly the fact that people are talking about this in a generally negative way shows that they aren't seeing it as getting a bargain. That's because the same companies who have been jacking up prices for no reason sure as hell aren't looking to do us any favors now. They'll use this to extract as much money from us as they can think they can get away and if we complain about their prices they will blame us for not rearranging our lives to match their random schedules.
      - lotsofpulp 3y ago
        I guess that is true. To me, I think people in the service business, especially back of house in restaurants, have long been getting shafted in terms of pay and quality of life having to work evenings, nights, and weekends for low pay. So prices going up means they must be getting increased pay (because the restaurant business is so low profit margin).
        catchnear4321 3y ago
        > So prices going up means they must be getting increased pay sorry, is this sarcasm? edit: to clarify, there must be assumptions to see price hikes as benefitting the bottom. even to view meager increases as improvement is disingenuous if what goes down is a fraction of what goes up.
    - catchnear4321 3y ago
      you’re confusing optics with facts. the most objective statement of fact can result in absolutely horrible optics.
add-sub-mul-div 3y ago
If that's what it was going to be, that's what they'd call it. We've entered a new era. Dune costs more to see at the theater near me than other movies. The default movies are not discounted. Dune just has an extra fee for being popular.
- bandyaboot 3y ago
  > We've entered a new era. Dune costs more to see at the theater near me than other movies. The default movies are not discounted. Dune just has an extra fee for being popular. That sounds totally reasonable to me.
  - BooneJS 3y ago
    Dune 2 is almost 3 hours long. Why shouldn’t it cost more than a 90 minute romcom?
    - autoexec 3y ago
      You're suggesting we should pay by the minute? I think I'll just keep not going to movie theaters.
      - afiori 3y ago
        if a theater can show a movie half as many times as usual it would make sense to rise prices. At the limit if a movie came out to be 12 hours long then it would objectively cost the theater more to show (both in opportunity cost and direct costs)
        autoexec 3y ago
        I'm told that theaters make their money on food. As long as people are there eating popcorn and drinking soda they profit so it doesn't matter who those people are or what they are seeing. It's not as if theaters pay more for heat, water, and air conditioning if it's the same asses in seats vs new ones.
prepend 3y ago
Because you know it’s Tuesday night and that the price is half off. This way you won’t know the price until you show up so it’s hard to predict the price until you have some sunk costs.

mitchdoogle 3y ago

I know right? It's just as logical to frame this as reduced pricing at off-peak times, but I guess that's not so sensational. Nevermind that many people would be happy to pay a little bit extra to avoid waiting during peak times.

catchnear4321 3y ago
you would think the companies rolling these out would have that level of sense from the get go. turns out, they didn’t, and described it in the sensational way. “dynamic pricing and daypart offerings.” that’s the ceo of wendys - not the media. sure, they tried to awkwardly correct the optics. there may be upsides, but to act like this is purely media sensationalism is to sound quite a bit like jumping too far in the other direction. the why isn’t terribly important. just like the ceo, the optics are off.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  The optics are price being more reflective of supply and demand. Doesn’t more accurate pricing ensure more optimal allocation of resources? I don’t see why that would be a bad thing.
  - lepus 3y ago
    The optics to the average person are "I'm getting ripped off right after prices already went up way too much with inflation". What you're talking about is the reality.
    - lupire 3y ago
      The optics to the average person that "I'm getting a bargain right after prices already went up way too much due to inflation".
      - lepus 3y ago
        If they called it something along the lines of an off hours discount that's what the optics would be. Clearly the fact that people are talking about this in a generally negative way shows that they aren't seeing it as getting a bargain.
        autoexec 3y ago
        > Clearly the fact that people are talking about this in a generally negative way shows that they aren't seeing it as getting a bargain. That's because the same companies who have been jacking up prices for no reason sure as hell aren't looking to do us any favors now. They'll use this to extract as much money from us as they can think they can get away and if we complain about their prices they will blame us for not rearranging our lives to match their random schedules.
    - lotsofpulp 3y ago
      I guess that is true. To me, I think people in the service business, especially back of house in restaurants, have long been getting shafted in terms of pay and quality of life having to work evenings, nights, and weekends for low pay. So prices going up means they must be getting increased pay (because the restaurant business is so low profit margin).
      - catchnear4321 3y ago
        > So prices going up means they must be getting increased pay sorry, is this sarcasm? edit: to clarify, there must be assumptions to see price hikes as benefitting the bottom. even to view meager increases as improvement is disingenuous if what goes down is a fraction of what goes up.
  - catchnear4321 3y ago
    you’re confusing optics with facts. the most objective statement of fact can result in absolutely horrible optics.

add-sub-mul-div 3y ago

If that's what it was going to be, that's what they'd call it. We've entered a new era. Dune costs more to see at the theater near me than other movies. The default movies are not discounted. Dune just has an extra fee for being popular.

bandyaboot 3y ago
> We've entered a new era. Dune costs more to see at the theater near me than other movies. The default movies are not discounted. Dune just has an extra fee for being popular. That sounds totally reasonable to me.
- BooneJS 3y ago
  Dune 2 is almost 3 hours long. Why shouldn’t it cost more than a 90 minute romcom?
  - autoexec 3y ago
    You're suggesting we should pay by the minute? I think I'll just keep not going to movie theaters.
    - afiori 3y ago
      if a theater can show a movie half as many times as usual it would make sense to rise prices. At the limit if a movie came out to be 12 hours long then it would objectively cost the theater more to show (both in opportunity cost and direct costs)
      - autoexec 3y ago
        I'm told that theaters make their money on food. As long as people are there eating popcorn and drinking soda they profit so it doesn't matter who those people are or what they are seeing. It's not as if theaters pay more for heat, water, and air conditioning if it's the same asses in seats vs new ones.

prepend 3y ago

Because you know it’s Tuesday night and that the price is half off. This way you won’t know the price until you show up so it’s hard to predict the price until you have some sunk costs.