If it’s hot outside we can raise the price of water…”
Holy fuck dude that’s some endgame capitalism right there.
this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2024
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Is it price gouging if there is a heat advisory is my question, and how enforceable is that. For water it's just cruel, especially in places with little access to drinkable tap water.
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Yes. That is actually the point. MUST maximize that profit!
Airlines do this now, as does Uber.
The tech is only just catching up for retail. This is end game capitalism hope you enjoyed the ride.
It's Walmart. They are one of the scummiest around. They nickel and dime everything and everyone.
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So what if you placed some water in your cart, walked around and then they raise the price before you check out? How does that work?
They're going to end up with a bunch of people complaining to the manager about the price not matching the sign, which already happens, but it'll be 10x worse.
Good. Annoy the managers until they get rid of this shit
The thing that sucks is that the managers aren't going to be the ones with the power to do that. Then again, all of my managers were spineless as fuck when I worked in a grocery store (literally never had employees' backs), so they'll probably just do an override on the price anyway.
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There are laws in many states governing many items clearly articulating that the price cannot change during business hours/within a business day.
Hopefully the FTC revs up it's engines like it's been doing.
Hopefully the FTC revs up it's engines like it's been doing.
That depends on who is in charge of the country at any given time. Three-letter entities have a way of being hamstrung during conservative administrations.
The next time conservatives have control, though, it will likely be permanent. The FTC would certainly be dismantled.
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Just wait until they track your phone in the stores and tie it to demographics like where you live and profession to build a financial profile to estimate how much you are able to pay. As you walk down aisles, the prices change to your price to gouge out every possible penny from you.
The true cyberpunk dystopia. They ultimately want to keep you as close to destitute without actually being bankrupt as possible, that way they extract as much as possible from you at all times for as long as they can.
Capitalism will always try to get as many people as possible, to pay as much as possible, for as little as possible.
I can see this happening 100%. It's already kind of a thing in home renovation and construction. Some businesses will charge you a higher hourly labor rate if your materials are expensive. Installing tile or whatever should be the same labor rate, but they assume customers buying expensive materials "must be rich" and won't blink at paying more for labor, too. They don't all do this, of course, but it's something to watch out for (and one of many reasons you should always get multiple estimates from different contractors).
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If it’s hot outside, we can raise the price of water and ice cream.
If people are starving after a natural disaster, we can raise the price of everything because they're desperate and have no alternatives.
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How is this not considered false advertising? You go to a shelf and see your favorite snack on sale, you grab it. Finish the rest of your selections and go to check out.
By the time you get there the price of your snack is no longer what was shown on the shelf.
If it isn't false advertising, it's bait and switch.
It's worse than that, if they have shelf scanners they could see cans of peas just went from 4 to 3 so they then increase price because of the demand you yourself just created.
Well AI set the price just for you! It is custom based on how much money and how impulsive you are.
Works great to fix rents and wages... why not your avocado!?
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“If it’s hot outside, we can raise the price of water and ice cream.”
Dude actually said that out loud. Wild. Teach me how to give that little of a fuck.
You know what the world needs? Surge pricing on water.
--No one, ever.
I'm sure Nestle has already thought of that.
They have a fiduciary responsibility to charge people more when they’re willing to pay more because they’re literally dying of thirst.
Or some such bullshit.
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Ooooo. Can't wait till a hurricane is coming and they raise the price of water and canned food.
I wonder how much price gouging will be permitted. If they can raise the price of water when it's hot then could they raise it "just enough" to not get in trouble with the state when a hurricane is coming
Price gouging is effectively legal in red states. Conservatives do not prosecute businesses for harming people for profit.
Price gouging is effectively legal in the US....
Not sure where you live but it happens everywhere and every time there is a good opportunity to make money.
On the shelves, surge pricing.
Weekend evenings, pizza and beer prices skyrocket. Rest of the week evenings, staples are higher like beef, chicken, etc. Holidays, Turkey prices go up the closer to thanksgiving you get. Plastic cups, paper plates, grilling necessities go up approaching the 4th of July.
“Oh, but it’s just shortages…”
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“If it’s hot outside, we can raise the price of water and ice cream. If there’s something that’s close to the expiration date, we can lower the price — that’s the good news,” said Phil Lempert, a grocery industry analyst.
One half of that is good news for one party and bad news for the other and the other half is the opposite.
I think this person needs a psychological evaluation.
If there’s something that’s close to the expiration date, we can lower the price — that’s the good news
Except we know they would rather throw that shit out than sell it cheaper... maybe they will donate it.
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Potentially every 10 seconds. So you put the item in your cart at one price, and then discover it's a different price at checkout.
I hope shoppers start dumping a bunch of these back on the store, and they are forced to restock them. Would serve them right. It's the only thing that will impact it it: make it an expensive hassle for them.
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This is probably a prelude to groceries getting Uber like surge pricing, and likely targeted pricing schemes too.
On one hand, this cuts down on paper/sticker waste and time spent making and printing new prices and such.
On the other, I don't like that they could just change the price whenever they feel like. Though others have said multiple states have laws against changing prices during the business day.
Paper waste is really something that was overstated in the early 2000s. Yes paper is made from trees. But trees are renewable compared to the silicon and carbon consumed in these electronic tags. It's way more environmentally friendly to use paper.
That would be my only concern. Like picking something up and have the price increase on my way to the register.
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This is gonna suck for restockers when a lot of items get left at the cashier's because Walmarts ghouls decided to raise the price between shelf and checkout.
- Buy groceries when the price is low.
- Refund when the prices go up.
- Profit!
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I don't go to walmart anymore. I think I am just going to go back and see how much I can steal.
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While the labels give retailers the ability to increase prices suddenly, Gallino doubts companies like Walmart will take advantage of the technology in that way.
“To be honest, I don’t think that’s the underlying main driver of this,” Gallino said. “These are companies that tend to have a long-term relationship with their customers and I think the risk of frustrating them could be too risky, so I would be surprised if they try to do that.”
Rather than seeing an opportunity to use surge pricing, Gallino says retailers are likely drawn to electronic shelf tags to ensure consistency between online and in-store pricing.
This person must live on another planet.
Sure, the prices won't be changing every six seconds, but anyone with half a mind can see these tags won't be used only when stock or expiry are a factor. The prices will be up on the weekend to start. Then later it'll be changing through the day to get higher prices between 4:00-7:00 when people are getting off work.
The arguments of no longer needing people to do yet another menial task and increasing utility of labels for consumers both have merit, but this alien even says the primary factor:
“The bottom line ... is the calculation of the amount of labor that they’re going to save by incorporating this."
Three thirsty people walk out of the desert, one at a time, and walk up to a water salesman. The first has $1, the second has $10, and the third has $100. What should the salesman charge in order to maximize profit while keeping all the customers happy?
$1 sounds reasonable, if their are other water salesmen it would probably be the best price, but it leave a lot of money on the table.
$10 sounds good, since 2/3s of the customers will get water and the saleman gets 600% more money.
$100 is the price that gets the most money, but leaves 2/3s thirsty and is way above what you should charge for water.
The answer, strangely, breaks the notion of "fair". Let us pretend that these three bottles of water are the only sale this salesman will ever make, quitting the business right afterwards. Also, let us say that none of the three will ever see the other two people's transactions. The answer then is to charge the first man $1, the second $10, and the third $100. Everyone gets water and the salesman gets the maximum amount of money. The problem is that we, subconsciously, feel that this is 'unfair' even though everyone got what they wanted. The ethical would set it at $1 while the businessmen would set it at $100 while trying to drive everyone else out of business. But what if the rich could be charged more than the poor? What if sales were based off of what each individual was willing to pay instead of which fixed price would garner the most profit?
Would this be a better world or a worse one?
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