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The thing I find interesting about a lot of things like this is that they feel like a holdover of half the era where negotiating prices was normal: today, for m
by fiddlerwoaroof 1y ago
The thing I find interesting about a lot of things like this is that they feel like a holdover of half the era where negotiating prices was normal: today, for most people in the US, most shopping is just a matter of going somewhere and paying a set price and you don’t argue with the seller to get a better one. B2B transactions still usually involve a negotiation, I think, but it’s basically gone for consumers.
With something like airfares, the business is still doing its half of negotiations: collecting bits of data about the buyer to determine a price; but, crucially, there’s no real way for the buyer to “talk back” and so the process seems arbitrary.
- gruez 1y ago>The thing I find interesting about a lot of things like this is that they feel like a holdover of half the era where negotiating prices was normal: today, for most people in the US, most shopping is just a matter of going somewhere and paying a set price and you don’t argue with the seller to get a better one. B2B transactions still usually involve a negotiation, I think, but it’s basically gone for consumers. Not really. The "negotiation" is still there. Time limited discounts weed out consumers who need something immediately. Coupons weed out people who aren't willing to put the legwork to find them. Loyalty programs and app-based offers (eg. McDonalds) take all of this to the next level by sending targeted coupons based on whatever demographic/behavioral information they can glean from you.
- ghaff 1y agoYeah, but it's not routine. I don't go into Walmart and quibble unlike some Middle Eastern bazaar. I probably do some negotiation at the car dealer (which, incidentally, many people on this board probably hate or with a job offer--ditto). And coupon stuff is mostly pretty low dollar; the grocery store flyers I get go in the trash.
- gruez 1y ago>but it's not routine Retailers often have weekly sales. If that's not "routine" what is? Is it only "negotiation" if it's happening on a per customer basis? Moreover apps with targeted offers is literally doing that. The company is assessing a given customer's willingness to pay, possibly on a daily basis, and sending offers/coupons in response.
- ghaff 1y agoIt's price discrimination in that different people have different tolerances for spending time and energy on hunting for deals. I'm sure not lining up at 6am for Black Friday sales though I may take advantage of a President's Day sale if I need some large electronics anyway. It's not really negotiation as the term is normally used. The process is pretty different.
- gruez 1y ago>It's price discrimination in that different people have different tolerances for spending time and energy on hunting for deals. I never argued it's not price discrimination. In fact I was arguing the opposite, that price discrimination is the same as "negotiation", and it's alive and well in modern times. It might not be "negotiation" in the sense there's two parties going back and forth, but the end goal of negotiation is price discrimination. If coupons and apps do the same thing, does the fact that you're not talking to a salesman really matter?
- fiddlerwoaroof 1y agoIt is completely different psychologically when you’re not determining the price at a personal level in the context of a single transaction.