| User Info
| You Didn't Believe The Web Pricing, Did You? in forum [Market-Ticker]
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Ajamesshaw
Posts: 20
Incept: 2011-10-16
United States
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The only thing keeping the internet honest is near-zero margin retailer Amazon. When that model quits working, we are all in trouble.
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Ntb
Posts: 1033
Incept: 2007-10-11
UK - the flat earth middle bit
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Yep. We (as in my team back in my former life) implemented differential pricing based on source of business back in 2003. If you came via a price comparison site you got a better deal than if you came straight to our site. We also had sub-brands with different prices. Before I quit I was looking at the stats to see if there was a case for (customer) platform based pricing.
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Science is interesting. If you don't agree you can f*ck off.
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Medicdan
Posts: 8008
Incept: 2010-02-11
Scottsdale, AZ
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How can they get away with it??? What law are the breaking?
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Genesis
Posts: 130678
Incept: 2007-06-26
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Depends.
In general, none. But there are exceptions.
Robinson-Patman governs discriminatory pricing of "like kind and quality" among commodities. (And this is not "commodities" like wheat, corn, etc; it's any good that is considered a commodity good.)
In the general sense what they're doing is NOT against the law. That's why I commented on it -- that people are "surprised" when they put up with things like 10,000% differentials in medical pricing was the real stunner.
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I don't care if it makes sense -- only if it makes money. -- Me
Bank (n): See scam, fraud and theft. Eat a bankster -- they're low-carb.
What part of "shall not be infringed" was unclear?
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Reluctantdebtor
Posts: 126
Incept: 2010-03-05
ohio
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This is why private discount message boards offer "mini proxies" in each state or relevant region, to get the best price from stores in such online option situations.
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Medicdan
Posts: 8008
Incept: 2010-02-11
Scottsdale, AZ
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Agreed Gen
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Sdbn
Posts: 387
Incept: 2009-09-13
Online
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You've a sheep = You're a sheep
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Harry12
Posts: 22
Incept: 2011-07-05
Ocala, Florida
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Let's not be too hard on him Gen. After all, he IS a journalist.
(He/She)
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Randy123
Posts: 5767
Incept: 2008-09-24
Earth
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What douche shops at Staples online?
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China is the Enemy. Wake Up.
New Normal. Same As The Old Awful.
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Crzymorse
Posts: 1186
Incept: 2010-06-25
Maryland
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That's what passes for journalism now. It is a holiday, maybe he is a backup reporter.
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Attilahooper
Posts: 1919
Incept: 2007-08-28
New York, by way of Montreal Canada.
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The wife was wanting an upgrade to our idiot box (TV). Been hanging onto a 30" CRT for way too long and HD programming is pretty nice to watch. Besides, a flat LCD hung on the wall is better use of space than the mongo TV on the dresser.
Anyway, I was cruising Walmart a week before black friday. Saw the Sceptre 40" LCD at $299. Adding tax to it I kinda hesitated. Not highly motivated to blow c-notes on an idiot box. All along I had to accept cookies and java script on the walmart site, so they knew what I was shopping for.
After looking at what was available locally and on newegg I came back to walmart online for that cheap **** Sceptre the next day. Oddly the price dropped from $299 to $250 ???? I pulled the trigger at $250+tax. Cheap enough.
So, it appears that to me that Walmart was dynamically adjusting the online pricing to promote the sale.
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Crzymorse
Posts: 1186
Incept: 2010-06-25
Maryland
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Off topic, but here is a link from BLS that caught my eye. If I am reading the chart 1 correctly the US economy hasn't had any new growth in employment outside of the healthcare industry for 10-12 years now. http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2011/04/art2.... |
Crzymorse
Posts: 1186
Incept: 2010-06-25
Maryland
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If that assertion is correct, the annual rate of growth in healthcare would be responsible for the majority of the annual change in CPI as healthcare costs are embedded into every industry and passed onto the consumer.
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Chris92346
Posts: 1313
Incept: 2009-03-25
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Differential pricing in healthcare???? nah no such thing could ever exist could it?
A few years ago I suffered from a skin infection. My mom had a similar situation a few month before. I was prescribed a top shelf brand new antibiotic. Incidentally my mom had gotten the same script. I was a cash patient and my mom has insurance. I payed SEVERAL times more than she did for the same scrip through her insurance.
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Movedtonz
Posts: 950
Incept: 2008-03-09
Hawkes Bay
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Isn't this phenomenon of interactive pricing simply capitalism in action? That is, pushing demand (via cost) to meet supply?
The objective of a retailer is to maximize net income, and price management is one of the tools in the box to do this.
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Americans need to stop claiming stupidity to get out of responsibility. -Tsk
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Genesis
Posts: 130678
Incept: 2007-06-26
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Well, yes.
The thing is, sometimes it works to their advantage and sometimes it does not.
There are a lot of deals that I think are worth it for, say, $50. At $100 I'm not a buyer. The seller is free to price as he wishes, and I'm free to say "yes" or "no."
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I don't care if it makes sense -- only if it makes money. -- Me
Bank (n): See scam, fraud and theft. Eat a bankster -- they're low-carb.
What part of "shall not be infringed" was unclear?
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Mannfm11
Posts: 3535
Incept: 2009-02-28
DFW, Tx
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It isn't just the computer. There have been 3 main grocers here for several years, Kroger, Albertsons and Tom Thumb, which is owned by Safeway. Albertsons had problems so they closed all but a few stores. The closed stores are now being occupied by Wal-Mart. From what limited shopping I have done at the Wal-Mart store down the street that I only used because it is a block from the house, Kroger kills them in price. How many people are going to Wal-Mart grocery stores merely because they have been brainwashed to think prices are lower?
I have done enough looking on the net to realize it isn't always the best deal. Having rent houses, I often have to buy stoves and water heaters. I have yet to find one on the net as cheap as one of the nearby stores, including the webpages of the stores nearby.
Markets are different and people need to realize that. Think how the typical Japanese used to feel when the goods he produced were sold in Japan at twice the price we paid in the US? Gasoline here is in the $2.90 range. Think the outfit in California is going to match the price in Dallas?
Come to think of it, the closest Staples store here is shutting down. Maybe they will have good prices online, due to the closeness of the Office Depot.
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The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.---John Kenneth Galbraith
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Bertdilbert
Posts: 2655
Incept: 2008-12-22
CA
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Hell, If I go to a supermarket with my "membership card" I typically save $15 on a $50 purchase. As the clerk hands me my change he announces how much I "saved" for spending money in the store. All the supermarkets have membership cards and without the cards, lower prices would be factored into your daily purchase as all stores must be competitive with each other. Stores are all going to price their stuff depending on how they are going to make the most money and what competing forces are. It is up to the consumer to figure it out and always has been.
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Dear Euroland: Relax, Germany has a plan for your money!
Political Capital Defined: We are out of money but will tax our citizens for whatever it takes to "SAVE" the Euro.
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Nickdanger
Posts: 39
Incept: 2011-06-12
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Our grocery stores here aren't in real competition because they don't have to be. Due to our archaic liquor laws that don't allow wine and high-octane beer to be sold in the grocery stores, ones like Kroger just don't build here, so that helps keep the market uncompetitive. So far, the liquor lobby (and I suspect the grocery lobby) have been successful in keeping it this way.
Albertson's and Homeland are gone (they were super high priced anyway), so we are basically left with WalMart, Food Pyramid and a locallly owned chain (Reasor's). Although the prices at Reasor's are somewhat higher than WalMart, I shop there as much as I can, preferring to spend my $$ at a local business.
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Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.
--Mark Twain
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Ampsucker
Posts: 1493
Incept: 2009-08-05
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our higher priced city taxes incent us to shop nationally instead of locally. douchbags in city hall haven't figure out yet their tax base is dwindling because they are driving customers out of the city limits.
with anything over $25 = free shipping, it's a no brainer to save 3.5% on tax plus gasoline and maintenance expenses and just sit home and wait for the brown or white truck to show up.
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Degaston
Posts: 2264
Incept: 2007-07-27
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Before the airplane door closes if there are any empty seats then the lead flight attendant is supposed to check with the gate agent for authorization to close the door after the gate agent has already closed the flight to more passengers. I've gotten on a few flights where the door had already closed but because the flight still had some empty seats they opened it up and let me get on. The primary tool that airlines use to fill up seats at the last second is to use the flight's STANDBY queue. And they are getting more sophisticated at proactively cancelling flights when they can move passengers between flights and minimize disruption costs.
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3/17/2013: Bullish on nothing - 100 percent in cash.
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Rentier
Posts: 193
Incept: 2010-06-19
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So if you live a affluent part of town and shop on an Apple device you are really getting the shaft on prices online...lol
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Cobra2411
Posts: 10335
Incept: 2007-06-26
Philly P.a.
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Quote: That 2 minutes just before the door closes on the plane was a ripe time for a traveler with a ticket that was supposed to be good for the next day, sometimes even on a different carrier, to show up at the gate. Best one I ever did was fly on a ticket 3 weeks before it was 'good'.... Can I help it if they only checked the dates on the boarding pass and not the attached ticket?  My father lived on the road and knew EVERY trick there was. He used to rewrite tickets on the plane for his next leg...  Ahh... The good old days of flying when the only time you got your balls groped was when you flirted too much with the stewardess... 
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To err is human. To really **** things up takes government.
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Vernonb
Posts: 396
Incept: 2009-06-03
State College, PA
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Quote:Isn't this phenomenon of interactive pricing simply capitalism in action? That is, pushing demand (via cost) to meet supply? heh. heh.... Capitalism is a two sided deal. What we have here is unmitigated greed and general******of the over-trusting (aka stupid)or of those unable to make such determinations. If they are adjusting the price on the fly by somehow scouring your computer information then it appears to me that an application designed to scour the web to front load these invasive programs with other people's pricing is in order. On top of that create a dummy site with the purpose of providing a low-ball price. There is nothing more I love than screwing with mindless and especially invasive algorithms.
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"The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.”
-Alber Camus (1913-1960)
Reason: grammar
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