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> Well, they're all discounts, for starters. And they're subsidized by the revenue made by everyone else. A thousands of coupons start rolling in and meaningfu

by pc86 2mo ago

> Well, they're all discounts, for starters. And they're subsidized by the revenue made by everyone else. A thousands of coupons start rolling in and meaningfully affecting revenue either the coupons go away or the MSRP increases. It's the exact same pig just slightly different lipstick.

ellen364 2mo ago
It doesn't really seem the same. In coupon hunting, I might not want to spend time finding a coupon and decide to pay full price. That's my choice. In surveillance pricing, I wouldn't get that choice, I'd just get a custom-to-me price. I'd have no idea how the company decided to charge me more or less than they charged my friend. And no idea how to change the price I'm offered, so it would be terrible if the algorithm decided to charge me +15% for everything.
- gruez 2mo ago
  >In surveillance pricing, I wouldn't get that choice, I'd just get a custom-to-me price. I'd have no idea how the company decided to charge me more or less than they charged my friend. And no idea how to change the price I'm offered, so it would be terrible if the algorithm decided to charge me +15% for everything. What's the difference between this and the company charging an absurdly high base price, then your discount is "customized" to you? That's basically how universities work with various scholarship and financial aid schemes working as discounts.
Eisenstein 2mo ago
What you are saying is that the amount of money people save getting discounts is made up by increases to the retail price for everyone else, and that this is equal to the extra money that individually priced people would pay or receive or discounts, so its a wash? This assumes that the business would raise prices to make more money from people who they think can pay it and give that back to others as a discount. Do you have evidence this would be the case?
- gruez 2mo ago
  >This assumes that the business would raise prices to make more money from people who they think can pay it and give that back to others as a discount. >Do you have evidence this would be the case? This is pretty standard economics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination
  - Eisenstein 2mo ago
    1. That didn't answer my question 2. Do you have evidence that the we are operating under standard economics when massive personalized data collection is being used in conjunction with AI to individualize pricing per consumer instead of per market segment?
iAMkenough 2mo ago
Now you’re on a list that indefinitely upcharges everyone that uses the “lipstick on a pig” idiom. Utilized by multiple big retailers.
robrtsql 2mo ago
I think I'm more OK with it if the price segmentation happens based on the amount of effort the consumer is willing to put in. I'm much less OK with it if price segmentation happens based on demographics, especially immutable ones.

by pc86 2mo ago

ellen364 2mo ago

It doesn't really seem the same. In coupon hunting, I might not want to spend time finding a coupon and decide to pay full price. That's my choice. In surveillance pricing, I wouldn't get that choice, I'd just get a custom-to-me price. I'd have no idea how the company decided to charge me more or less than they charged my friend. And no idea how to change the price I'm offered, so it would be terrible if the algorithm decided to charge me +15% for everything.

gruez 2mo ago
>In surveillance pricing, I wouldn't get that choice, I'd just get a custom-to-me price. I'd have no idea how the company decided to charge me more or less than they charged my friend. And no idea how to change the price I'm offered, so it would be terrible if the algorithm decided to charge me +15% for everything. What's the difference between this and the company charging an absurdly high base price, then your discount is "customized" to you? That's basically how universities work with various scholarship and financial aid schemes working as discounts.

Eisenstein 2mo ago

What you are saying is that the amount of money people save getting discounts is made up by increases to the retail price for everyone else, and that this is equal to the extra money that individually priced people would pay or receive or discounts, so its a wash? This assumes that the business would raise prices to make more money from people who they think can pay it and give that back to others as a discount. Do you have evidence this would be the case?

gruez 2mo ago
>This assumes that the business would raise prices to make more money from people who they think can pay it and give that back to others as a discount. >Do you have evidence this would be the case? This is pretty standard economics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination
- Eisenstein 2mo ago
  1. That didn't answer my question 2. Do you have evidence that the we are operating under standard economics when massive personalized data collection is being used in conjunction with AI to individualize pricing per consumer instead of per market segment?

iAMkenough 2mo ago

Now you’re on a list that indefinitely upcharges everyone that uses the “lipstick on a pig” idiom. Utilized by multiple big retailers.

robrtsql 2mo ago

I think I'm more OK with it if the price segmentation happens based on the amount of effort the consumer is willing to put in. I'm much less OK with it if price segmentation happens based on demographics, especially immutable ones.