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I feel the solution here is to say all price increases (for any service) must be announced at least 2 weeks in advance, and you cannot increases prices more tha
by olliej 3y ago
I feel the solution here is to say all price increases (for any service) must be announced at least 2 weeks in advance, and you cannot increases prices more than once a week.
So you don’t say “you can’t surge prices in these markets, or these conditions”, you just make it so surge pricing (or as it used to be called “price gouging”) is not a viable strategy. You leave open the ability to charge more in times of generally high demand but people know ahead of time, and can schedule around that, and there’s no risk of the standard emergency/disaster gouging Uber and co are so fond of.
This will also stop the gas company BS where there’s a minor disruption and they use that as an excuse to instantly increase fuel prices.
- bdcravens 3y agoThis would be tougher on smaller restaurants, which can't buy raw materials in bulk, and are often subject to local market conditions surrounding produce, etc.
- zamadatix 3y agoDo your local restaurants already change prices more than once a week without notice? If not, how is limiting to that impactful to them? Can't say I've ever seen a local restaurant adjust food prices on the fly based on the price of their last purchase but maybe things are different elsewhere.
- olliej 3y agoTheir suppliers wouldn’t be able to subject them to surge pricing either. That said all the articles about restaurants considering surge prices have been nationwide chains, so not exactly the group that lacks pricing control.
- WeylandYutani 3y agoRestaurants do not provide a crucial service. You can cook at home. I don't think the government needs to interfere.
- zamadatix 3y agoOut of curiosity is that view limited to retail pricing laws or does it extend other types of regulation as well? If it doesn't extend what makes pricing regulation different from other regulation in terms of consumer protection, in your view?