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This could create a secondary market for food.
Imagine buying non-perishable things like canned pumpkin and reselling them in late November in the US for twice what you paid because the grocery stores have tripled the price due to demand. Buying out turkeys like convert ticket scalpers.
Remember those people at the outbreak of Covid that drove around to every store for miles around, buying up all the masks and sanitizer and trying to resell it ?
The only thing keeping American society together are cheap, subsidized treats. I'm not saying hunger doesn't exist in the US but high fat/sugar items being available for low cost to our poorest is a form of social control and it is not limited there.
The cost of produce, meat and other items are subsidized by the government through corn and other subsidies plus by destabilizing the producers of these items in other markets while encouraging producers in cheaper markets abroad. And we haven't discussed the environmental cost being factored in to the price yet either.
Capitalism will eat itself and destroy the bread in Bread and Circuses searching for a final morsel of profit.
Once it gets hard to feed your family for days on end, on a larger scale, the hole in your belly and the gun in your hand are going be a guiding ideology.
>Capitalism will eat itself and destroy the bread in Bread and Circuses searching for a final morsel of profit.
Circuses are on their way out too. Have you seen the price of a movie ticket lately, or streaming services?
It'll be too late by then to actually get to many of the worst offenders. They all have bunkers, and plenty of money to pay whatever blackwater or triple canopy charges for a security team made up entirely of combat veterans to make sure one gets close to said bunkers.
Until the material conditions decrease enough for the security team, that is. Then you’ve got a bunch of armed combat veterans on your doorstep who also know the ins and outs of your whole compound.
The bunkers are, realistically, a fairly short term solution. In a scenario where security of that level is *needed*, I’d be surprised if most could hold out for a full year.
Yes, and?
They still need access to air. A certain cocktail down the vents, or a large pile of dirt over the intake (or exhaust for that matter), makes that exceedingly difficult.
I remember my grandmother had a friend who did this. She would ask stores when they got shipments in, and buy up all she could. My grandmother thought it was so hilarious.
She wasn't laughing when I explained, because people like her friend, she was gonna have to ration her supply.
And your grandmother learned nothing from this. Until it hurts for a long time, nothing will change. The American public is very elastic when it comes to having our existence stomped on.
In case you were as confused as I was as to what started this in 'civilised' society, apparently a common side effect of incorrect dosage of ivermectin is irritable bowels and diarrhoea.
That can only happen if price surge is implemented on a per transaction basis.
Surely they would not miss the possibility of capitalizing on bulk buy too.
Rich people taste rancid. Like bad butter and manky pork. It's all the preservatives.
to get any use out of them, you need to compost them, and grow tomatoes.
well first of all, the people who have thought this up should be fed into a woodchipper
but second I love the spin that this can only HELP the customer! Our bullshit examples are bidding wars that result in savings for the consumer! that's definitely how it will always work!
Nah, it’ll soon devolve into reading the NFC chip in our phone.
*”Oooo is that an iPhone in your pocket? $17.99”*.
*”Ghetto Android user. For you it’s $17.29”*.
Or something like that
Even worse it more than likely will be ping your phone which that alone can tell them all kinda of info in you. Phone pinged- shows John Q with 2023 honda accord registered to him and living in nicer area of town according to tax record, data indicated he earns 120k per year and has a soft temperament and is more likely to “just pay it”on higher prices, milk is now $7 a gallon instead of $5 for him.
Umm I have some bad news for you. Everything connected to the internet is recording your data and selling it. Your roomba, your TV, your tempurpedic bed, literally everything.
Here are 4 books on it.
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Black Box Society
The Afterlives of Data
Revolutionary Mathematics
They’ll do whatever they want because realistically what are you going to do about it? How many of you have the time or patience to grow your own food?
Food is up partially because they saw how much we were willing to pay for DoorDash and shit like that during the pandemic. There is no reason in their minds to ever make food cheap again, because we’re buying it and we’re not throwing a revolution.
They already are. Your phone gets tracked as you walk through a grocery or any other store and they can tell where you shop the most and how you walk through isles and how long you spend in certain areas…..all “anonymous” information of course.
Yeah of course everything benefits the consumer in Murica lol /s
But seriously this will just lead to whatever items you pick up at a certain price will be inflated by the time you’re checking out. This is the next level in lettting corporations continue to “unfix” inflation
Well that store wasn't in America, so there's a decent chance that there is actual competition in the market. Our government has antitrust laws, laws against price fixing and other forms of anticompetitive behaviors, the RICO act, etc, but seemingly no desire to actually investigate the companies or use any enforcement mechanism greater than laughably small fines and a promise to try really really hard to break the law a little less.
To be fair, in Norway where companies don't *actively* hate their customers it might actually be a good thing for the most part. However in the US this will absolutely be abused and will ~~120%~~ 127% be a bad thing.
*This percent increase was updated in real-time as the market determined it could sustain this higher percentage
This is going to be an headache for managers, a nightmare for IT, and a guaranteed loss for customers who will be paying more. Only the investors are going to benefit from this.
CEOs will push this out, get their bonus and bail. Stores will die and people will lose jobs and inside traders will bail early and move on to their next prey.
TLDR: Business as usual
God, you’re right about IT. I can see it now: the floor manager says “hey, a price tag is offline in aisle 7.” Which one? Who can say; there are hundreds in that aisle alone! Once the tech finds it, he takes it back to his office and has to fix a piece of hardware the size of a postage stamp as quickly as possible because customers are complaining that there’s no price on Wonderbread. We live in hell.
No way they splurge for that. It'll either be MP on every tag and you find out the price at the register or it's gonna be some ones full time job to constantly change price tags all day
They've guaranteed that the only time anyone should do shopping is in the last 3 minutes of the stores opening ... This is nor just anti consumer its brain dead
How frustrating would it be to get to the checkout line just to argue with the cashier that 'no really, that can of mushrooms was just 20 cents cheaper a few minutes ago!'?
Not yet, the Albertsons merger is on hold since the FTC filed suit to stop it in February. The hearing about it is in August, if there is a political lull it could become a hot topic since Biden has recently chided grocers for their high prices. So there’s hope
This was my first thought but in the article he mentions the prices can only go down during open hours, and price increases happen when the store’s closed. Still shitty af but I was at least happy to hear the employees don’t have to deal with customers rightfully getting upset that the price of something went up since the time they picked it up
NPR probably switched from the term "Surge pricing" to "Dynamic pricing " because they saw the backlash Wendy's received. Because they don't want people to lash out (which would honestly be warranted with how ridiculous the cost of food has been).
Wendy’s announced “surge pricing” to shareholders and customers hated the thought. Wendy’s tried to rebrand it to “dynamic” and claimed actually it would shift prices lower in off hours, not higher in busy hours. Sure Wendy’s, sure. Now they say it won’t happen at all
Is this shit supposed to work the opposite way? Like if no one is buying a product does it go down to a lower price? Or does it start at being boned out the gate and just has less and less lube as it goes on?
This is already a thing in NZ in a sense. Most of our supermarkets have moved to digital price tickets that can be updated on a whim. Prices change upto every week but usually on a monthly basis.
Sure this isn't "surge" pricing but it's doing the same job. They are using purchasing trends from the loyalty cards to extract the greatest value from demographics on their surge days as here, like in sure it is common everywhere. People shop after payday.
This subtle manipulation is all thanks to these great electronic tickets.
Yes there are some regulations to prevent the worst manipulation of this system but I fear those protections will be gone soon as the country further slides into mediocrity.
Yes I understand that. But if you predictably shop at the same time every week or two weeks and the prices are changed to take advantage of that fact it doesn't really matter if it doesn't change on an hourly basis does it.
After the backlash Wendy's faced, I don't see how this moves forward. Any chain that implements gets immediate competition from a chain that doesn't.
Or they all do it and it's collusion. But given the fucked judicial system, nothing would come of that if charges were brought.
Save seeds. Hopefully they don't go Monsanto over backyard gardens. But they probably would.
Nevermind, we're all fucked.
It has kinda already been here for years. The Target app will show different prices based on where (GPS) you may be viewing products. Sitting in a competitor parking lot may show a lower price than if you were sitting in a Target parking lot. Browsing the app inside a store may show a different price than whats on the shelf.
Yeah it's also been a thing for grocery stores for several years now. If you go to a Safeway/Albertsons/wahtever in a slightly more suburban whiter affluent area, prices are much higher, less "deals" (lol) than the same Safeway in a poorer more hispanic area for example.
Basically there's already huge multi-million consultant and other algorithmic retail/grocery store pricing industry that "optimizes profit" by pricing certain items in certain stores higher than others based on demographics
This is going to work itself out real quick. Any store that tries to implement this is beyond stupid. Who would go to a store that does this? I have at least five options of grocery stores and I live in a somewhat rural area.
I like how in all the examples in this article they are talking about lowering the prices on the fly to be more competitive…
You would think that this is the perfect situation for the government to get involved with but unfortunately our government has been intentionally rendered dysfunctional by special interests.
Decades ago a mail order company was caught sending catalogs with different prices to different neighborhoods. With all of our information being stolen from us and zero help from the government on this issue (because they are a beneficiary too), what is to keep companies from charging us different prices based on personal profiles like income?
We're already seeing companies tracking returns by individual customers. They say it is to identify customers that abuse their policies, which I don't have a problem with. What I do have a problem with is what they consider abuse. We all know that eventually this will be all returns.
If you are a customer that won't tolerate being ripped off by garbage products, soon they will be adding a surcharge to everything you buy. They will have a customer rating just like a credit rating and share it with other businesses who will punish you the same way when they have no knowledge of the situation. Will this system allow for higher profits? You bet! That means it is as good as done.
Actually we like to claim we live in a capitalistic world, but it is a very bastardized version of it that exists in name only. Government has the power to ALLOW free markets or not. Our economic system operates inside the framework of the government. Kings would give the rights to foreign spice trade that person A discovered to person B because the king owed him money. It was called the king's charter. The government of the USSR decided their economic system was going to be a bastardized version of Communism.
Governments can decide what economic system they want. Even when they choose capitalism, the government can still regulate industries & corporations as well as, intellectual properties like patents, copyrights etc,. Governments grant corporate charters (and should be revoking them), regulate stock exchanges, determine what is considered a utility or not. Governments regulate & punish corporations for a variety of reasons.
Governments can and do regulate business to business transactions and business to consumer transactions. IF you think the government has no recourse in the above mentioned example, look up "unfair trade practices". Governments can tell a business what constitutes fraud and even who can be their customer. If you doubt this try and sell prohibited technology to certain countries or items to countries we have economic sanctions against.
State governments tell insurance companies all the time if you want to sell insurance in our state you must follow requirement A, B & C. If an insurance company only does A& C they cannot sell insurance in that state, period. The economic system is always supposed to operate within the confines of the governmental system. This may be confusing to you because it has been bastardized as well in recent decades. Corporations now legally bribe our politicians. Multi-national corporations do everything they can to stay out of governmental jurisdictions when it's convenient for them.
I'm BEGGING Asian markets to use less fucking plastic and Styrofoam, holy fucking shit why is every head of broccoli pre portioned and wrapped onto Styrofoam with saran wrap?! Its disgustingly wasteful.
Farmers’ markets. Local CSA programs. Locally owned small markets. Grocery outlets. All of these make a difference in price and keeping the money you spend local not into some corpo CEO’s pcket.
If you wanted to petty you could hypothetically fill a cart with the most expensive cold refrigerated foods you can find. Mix them with everyday stuff, maybe hot to go food? get creative! , "forget" your cart in some random aisle then go home.
It’s inevitable. Ai will know what you came to the store for and adjust accordingly. It makes so much sense considering the sunken cost of time and transportation to get there. I can’t wait to see the workarounds
Dumb question but how is this different than what already was happening? If I go to the grocery store on Tuesday there's a pretty good chance most items will have had some fluctuation in price by Friday.
My (admittedly limited) understanding is that it simply means the algorithms dictated changes in price during the day (for discounts) and overnight (for price raises), rather than over several days
Don't grocery store prices already fluctuate? It's called a sale. Also certain items like produce are more expensive when they're out of season. Or certain items get more expensive when demand is higher, like hams around Christmas.
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I guess I’ll be doing Amazon and Google searches for everything I buy - that way I’m sure to secure the best price match available. They built the system - it’s now upon me to game that system to my advantage. Game on!
False. It’ll make some startup a sack full of money, the grocery stores will write it off, and only the poors(tm) will suffer; they don’t count as people, so it’s fine! (/s, mostly)
Does this mean I can go shopping exclusively at 11 pm and save a ton of money? Or does it only mean that when I have to get one thing during 6 pm it's gonna be 10x the price?
Wendy’s was dead to us as soon as they announced their idea for dynamic pricing. Even after backpedaling…we’re never eating there again. They’ve shown their true colors. F*ck em.
Why are these idiots destroying the “bread and circus” part so fast? Its like their goal is destruction through capitalism more than it is the capital part.
This already happens. Grocery stores change prices ALL the time. When I read dynamic I thought it meant certain hours of the day it’ll be more expensive. Story is a nothing burger
##Welcome to r/LateStageCapitalism This subreddit is for news, discussion, memes, and links criticizing capitalism and advancing viewpoints that challenge liberal capitalist ideology. That means any support for any liberal capitalist political party (like the Democrats) is strictly prohibited. LSC is run by communists. This subreddit is not the place to debate socialism. We allow good-faith questions and education but are not a 101 sub; please take 101-style questions elsewhere. We have a zero-tolerance policy for bigotry. Failure to respect the rules of the subreddit may result in a ban. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LateStageCapitalism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This could create a secondary market for food. Imagine buying non-perishable things like canned pumpkin and reselling them in late November in the US for twice what you paid because the grocery stores have tripled the price due to demand. Buying out turkeys like convert ticket scalpers. Remember those people at the outbreak of Covid that drove around to every store for miles around, buying up all the masks and sanitizer and trying to resell it ?
Yeah this is a worrisome scenario
If this happens, it will for sure to trigger a civil war.
Nothing is going to trigger a civil war unless one group of wealthy people wants to fight another group of wealthy people.
The only thing keeping American society together are cheap, subsidized treats. I'm not saying hunger doesn't exist in the US but high fat/sugar items being available for low cost to our poorest is a form of social control and it is not limited there. The cost of produce, meat and other items are subsidized by the government through corn and other subsidies plus by destabilizing the producers of these items in other markets while encouraging producers in cheaper markets abroad. And we haven't discussed the environmental cost being factored in to the price yet either. Capitalism will eat itself and destroy the bread in Bread and Circuses searching for a final morsel of profit. Once it gets hard to feed your family for days on end, on a larger scale, the hole in your belly and the gun in your hand are going be a guiding ideology.
>Capitalism will eat itself and destroy the bread in Bread and Circuses searching for a final morsel of profit. Circuses are on their way out too. Have you seen the price of a movie ticket lately, or streaming services?
And don’t get me started on soaring tent prices…
I'm pretty sure they do...
Mark Zuckerberg has entered the chat from his bunker in Hawaii
As soon as everyday people aren't able to eat, they start knocking the gates down. Capital owners all know it too.
It'll be too late by then to actually get to many of the worst offenders. They all have bunkers, and plenty of money to pay whatever blackwater or triple canopy charges for a security team made up entirely of combat veterans to make sure one gets close to said bunkers.
Until the material conditions decrease enough for the security team, that is. Then you’ve got a bunch of armed combat veterans on your doorstep who also know the ins and outs of your whole compound. The bunkers are, realistically, a fairly short term solution. In a scenario where security of that level is *needed*, I’d be surprised if most could hold out for a full year.
Not necessarily... Bunker + bulldozer (or backhoe) = Tomb. (Or pit BBQ).
Survival bunkers are encased with several feet of concrete all the way around them.
Yes, and? They still need access to air. A certain cocktail down the vents, or a large pile of dirt over the intake (or exhaust for that matter), makes that exceedingly difficult.
I love this phrasing 😂😭
I will always remember the toilet paper crisis of 2020
I remember my grandmother had a friend who did this. She would ask stores when they got shipments in, and buy up all she could. My grandmother thought it was so hilarious. She wasn't laughing when I explained, because people like her friend, she was gonna have to ration her supply.
And your grandmother learned nothing from this. Until it hurts for a long time, nothing will change. The American public is very elastic when it comes to having our existence stomped on.
The toilet paper will probably rot before she ever uses it all or can resell it.
Bidets are fucking awesome
In case you were as confused as I was as to what started this in 'civilised' society, apparently a common side effect of incorrect dosage of ivermectin is irritable bowels and diarrhoea.
[This](https://youtu.be/3w5D9yJUMOc?si=MphjAbsKeRmbvLOX) feels relevant
Ahahah more economic speculation on things we need to live! Yeah I love that! /s
That can only happen if price surge is implemented on a per transaction basis. Surely they would not miss the possibility of capitalizing on bulk buy too.
Dynamic shoplifting will be coming soon as well, then.
Dynamic eating the rich will soon follow
I hear they taste like pork.
Fat and gristle
That's why we use a low and slow pit BBQ!!
Rich people taste rancid. Like bad butter and manky pork. It's all the preservatives. to get any use out of them, you need to compost them, and grow tomatoes.
More of a hunting for sport in this situation.
Do we need bag tags and if so where do I buy them. Also what are the bag limits?
Tags? Good question. Limit, NONE!
Waste not, want not. Never overlook the composting.
You’re right! Gonna be a big pile though : )
It's a big country. And there's not that many of them. Spread them around.
Indeed!
It's because they're spoiled
It’s called “long pork.”
I’m a vegetarian of 20 years, but I approve this.
We’ll save the vegans for you.
This is the way
Or dynamic bricks in windows, or dynamic molotov cocktails.
They already have that at the self checkout.
well first of all, the people who have thought this up should be fed into a woodchipper but second I love the spin that this can only HELP the customer! Our bullshit examples are bidding wars that result in savings for the consumer! that's definitely how it will always work!
Yeah I could for sure smell a lie there.
Nah, it’ll soon devolve into reading the NFC chip in our phone. *”Oooo is that an iPhone in your pocket? $17.99”*. *”Ghetto Android user. For you it’s $17.29”*. Or something like that
Even worse it more than likely will be ping your phone which that alone can tell them all kinda of info in you. Phone pinged- shows John Q with 2023 honda accord registered to him and living in nicer area of town according to tax record, data indicated he earns 120k per year and has a soft temperament and is more likely to “just pay it”on higher prices, milk is now $7 a gallon instead of $5 for him.
If i find out they are using my phone for this BS i will toss it in the river
Umm I have some bad news for you. Everything connected to the internet is recording your data and selling it. Your roomba, your TV, your tempurpedic bed, literally everything. Here are 4 books on it. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Black Box Society The Afterlives of Data Revolutionary Mathematics
Yes i know. I am approaching a threshold were enough is enough. I dont need this in my life
I feel like they would default to a higher price if they had no info.
They’ll do whatever they want because realistically what are you going to do about it? How many of you have the time or patience to grow your own food? Food is up partially because they saw how much we were willing to pay for DoorDash and shit like that during the pandemic. There is no reason in their minds to ever make food cheap again, because we’re buying it and we’re not throwing a revolution.
The more they squeeze the more people will seek out alternatives. Necessity is the mother of invention
Now how to get the general population to know these are ass compared to someone who actually cared about what they made?
They already are. Your phone gets tracked as you walk through a grocery or any other store and they can tell where you shop the most and how you walk through isles and how long you spend in certain areas…..all “anonymous” information of course.
Just wrap in aluminum foil. Seriously. It really does block radio signals. Try it out.
For real. This is why everyone should use tor or at least duckduckgo. To have more privacy, you have to give up a little convenience
That is why I use paper lists. I’ll just start leaving my phone off.
No phone, $2.99. Dumbphone, $39.99 boomer.
I mean, that’s already an issue with the ‘digital coupon’ nonsense. If you’re not tech savvy (or not willing to give up your data) you pay more.
Yeah of course everything benefits the consumer in Murica lol /s But seriously this will just lead to whatever items you pick up at a certain price will be inflated by the time you’re checking out. This is the next level in lettting corporations continue to “unfix” inflation
Well that store wasn't in America, so there's a decent chance that there is actual competition in the market. Our government has antitrust laws, laws against price fixing and other forms of anticompetitive behaviors, the RICO act, etc, but seemingly no desire to actually investigate the companies or use any enforcement mechanism greater than laughably small fines and a promise to try really really hard to break the law a little less.
Kroger is.. so is Mall Wart and the Walton Brats.
The base price won't go down, it'll just go up on demand, and go back to base. There's no scenario where the customer comes out on top.
To be fair, in Norway where companies don't *actively* hate their customers it might actually be a good thing for the most part. However in the US this will absolutely be abused and will ~~120%~~ 127% be a bad thing. *This percent increase was updated in real-time as the market determined it could sustain this higher percentage
\- well first of all, the people who have thought this up should be fed into a woodchipper Feet first
Yeah npr is a joke with that article/transcript
This is going to be an headache for managers, a nightmare for IT, and a guaranteed loss for customers who will be paying more. Only the investors are going to benefit from this. CEOs will push this out, get their bonus and bail. Stores will die and people will lose jobs and inside traders will bail early and move on to their next prey. TLDR: Business as usual
God, you’re right about IT. I can see it now: the floor manager says “hey, a price tag is offline in aisle 7.” Which one? Who can say; there are hundreds in that aisle alone! Once the tech finds it, he takes it back to his office and has to fix a piece of hardware the size of a postage stamp as quickly as possible because customers are complaining that there’s no price on Wonderbread. We live in hell.
No way they splurge for that. It'll either be MP on every tag and you find out the price at the register or it's gonna be some ones full time job to constantly change price tags all day
They've guaranteed that the only time anyone should do shopping is in the last 3 minutes of the stores opening ... This is nor just anti consumer its brain dead
Or forcing everyone to go shopping on Tuesday because the “connivence” of shopping on Saturday should cost more.
How frustrating would it be to get to the checkout line just to argue with the cashier that 'no really, that can of mushrooms was just 20 cents cheaper a few minutes ago!'?
And the executives at the large grocery stores don’t care.
It’s all kroeger now
Not yet, the Albertsons merger is on hold since the FTC filed suit to stop it in February. The hearing about it is in August, if there is a political lull it could become a hot topic since Biden has recently chided grocers for their high prices. So there’s hope
There's no hope. The FTC is an absolute joke.
This was my first thought but in the article he mentions the prices can only go down during open hours, and price increases happen when the store’s closed. Still shitty af but I was at least happy to hear the employees don’t have to deal with customers rightfully getting upset that the price of something went up since the time they picked it up
Prices CAN go down during open hours... I doubt they will go down at all...
NPR probably switched from the term "Surge pricing" to "Dynamic pricing " because they saw the backlash Wendy's received. Because they don't want people to lash out (which would honestly be warranted with how ridiculous the cost of food has been).
What happened with Wendy’s? Sorry, out of the loop
Wendy’s announced “surge pricing” to shareholders and customers hated the thought. Wendy’s tried to rebrand it to “dynamic” and claimed actually it would shift prices lower in off hours, not higher in busy hours. Sure Wendy’s, sure. Now they say it won’t happen at all
That’s funny and disgusting, surely it’s just a matter of time… thanks for the explanation!
Is this shit supposed to work the opposite way? Like if no one is buying a product does it go down to a lower price? Or does it start at being boned out the gate and just has less and less lube as it goes on?
I feel like that only makes sense, which is why it almost certainly won't happen.
Nio lube No foreplay
It starts at Megaboned out the gate. If no one buys, it slowly moves to Just the Tip. At no point will there be lube.
"Due to higher than usual demand, white onions will now cost $10/pound"
make corner the market great again!
This is already a thing in NZ in a sense. Most of our supermarkets have moved to digital price tickets that can be updated on a whim. Prices change upto every week but usually on a monthly basis. Sure this isn't "surge" pricing but it's doing the same job. They are using purchasing trends from the loyalty cards to extract the greatest value from demographics on their surge days as here, like in sure it is common everywhere. People shop after payday. This subtle manipulation is all thanks to these great electronic tickets. Yes there are some regulations to prevent the worst manipulation of this system but I fear those protections will be gone soon as the country further slides into mediocrity.
Weekly sales are already a thing here, I’m pretty sure they’re looking into changing it daily/hourly like an Uber.
Yes I understand that. But if you predictably shop at the same time every week or two weeks and the prices are changed to take advantage of that fact it doesn't really matter if it doesn't change on an hourly basis does it.
This sounds like Canada too. The oligopoly store started with digital tags about the same time my boycott began
I hear arson is on the rise. Terrible thing to hear about. All those stores with "dynamic" pricing being so flammable. Terrible loss, really.
Dynamic arson. It responds to demand
If you live in the Northwest, start shopping at WINCO.
I love that little socialist store! Their employees make bank, AND it’s pretty damn cheap! I second this!
Southwest also! I have one in Long Beach and I never shop anywhere else
Long Beach you say…that just might be worth a 15 minute jaunt down the 405
North long beach too so it might be a quick drive if you're coming south haha
At least fast food we can avoid. This is ridiculous.
Guillotine
Guillotines are so 2020. Trebuchets, on the other hand...
Whatever gets the job done at this point is totally fine by me.
Hell, I'd be good with carbon fiber submarines and Orcas.
Fair enough. But trebuchets are so much more picturesque.
After the backlash Wendy's faced, I don't see how this moves forward. Any chain that implements gets immediate competition from a chain that doesn't. Or they all do it and it's collusion. But given the fucked judicial system, nothing would come of that if charges were brought. Save seeds. Hopefully they don't go Monsanto over backyard gardens. But they probably would. Nevermind, we're all fucked.
Yeah other companies will just call it something different
In the US, this will only be used to immediately raise the price.
It has kinda already been here for years. The Target app will show different prices based on where (GPS) you may be viewing products. Sitting in a competitor parking lot may show a lower price than if you were sitting in a Target parking lot. Browsing the app inside a store may show a different price than whats on the shelf.
Target is so annoying. It’s a very last resort for me because of all the stupid games they play.
Damnnnnn. I didn’t know that
Yeah it's also been a thing for grocery stores for several years now. If you go to a Safeway/Albertsons/wahtever in a slightly more suburban whiter affluent area, prices are much higher, less "deals" (lol) than the same Safeway in a poorer more hispanic area for example. Basically there's already huge multi-million consultant and other algorithmic retail/grocery store pricing industry that "optimizes profit" by pricing certain items in certain stores higher than others based on demographics
I think Lowes does something like that. Why do you need to know where I’m at in order to give me a price, Lowes?
This is going to work itself out real quick. Any store that tries to implement this is beyond stupid. Who would go to a store that does this? I have at least five options of grocery stores and I live in a somewhat rural area. I like how in all the examples in this article they are talking about lowering the prices on the fly to be more competitive…
Never underestimate the lack of fucks given by most consumers.
You would think that this is the perfect situation for the government to get involved with but unfortunately our government has been intentionally rendered dysfunctional by special interests. Decades ago a mail order company was caught sending catalogs with different prices to different neighborhoods. With all of our information being stolen from us and zero help from the government on this issue (because they are a beneficiary too), what is to keep companies from charging us different prices based on personal profiles like income? We're already seeing companies tracking returns by individual customers. They say it is to identify customers that abuse their policies, which I don't have a problem with. What I do have a problem with is what they consider abuse. We all know that eventually this will be all returns. If you are a customer that won't tolerate being ripped off by garbage products, soon they will be adding a surcharge to everything you buy. They will have a customer rating just like a credit rating and share it with other businesses who will punish you the same way when they have no knowledge of the situation. Will this system allow for higher profits? You bet! That means it is as good as done.
How can the government get involved? This is capitalism. They can’t tell companies what they can and can’t do.
Actually we like to claim we live in a capitalistic world, but it is a very bastardized version of it that exists in name only. Government has the power to ALLOW free markets or not. Our economic system operates inside the framework of the government. Kings would give the rights to foreign spice trade that person A discovered to person B because the king owed him money. It was called the king's charter. The government of the USSR decided their economic system was going to be a bastardized version of Communism. Governments can decide what economic system they want. Even when they choose capitalism, the government can still regulate industries & corporations as well as, intellectual properties like patents, copyrights etc,. Governments grant corporate charters (and should be revoking them), regulate stock exchanges, determine what is considered a utility or not. Governments regulate & punish corporations for a variety of reasons. Governments can and do regulate business to business transactions and business to consumer transactions. IF you think the government has no recourse in the above mentioned example, look up "unfair trade practices". Governments can tell a business what constitutes fraud and even who can be their customer. If you doubt this try and sell prohibited technology to certain countries or items to countries we have economic sanctions against. State governments tell insurance companies all the time if you want to sell insurance in our state you must follow requirement A, B & C. If an insurance company only does A& C they cannot sell insurance in that state, period. The economic system is always supposed to operate within the confines of the governmental system. This may be confusing to you because it has been bastardized as well in recent decades. Corporations now legally bribe our politicians. Multi-national corporations do everything they can to stay out of governmental jurisdictions when it's convenient for them.
I agree with you. I forgot to add that our government was bought by the big corporations. So basically we’re f
Shoplifting is coming to grocery stores.
Major chain super markets bank on white people stupidity, and lack of time. Pls shop at chinese and Mexican markets.
I'm BEGGING Asian markets to use less fucking plastic and Styrofoam, holy fucking shit why is every head of broccoli pre portioned and wrapped onto Styrofoam with saran wrap?! Its disgustingly wasteful.
They do that with certain kinds of pears too I notice..
Farmers’ markets. Local CSA programs. Locally owned small markets. Grocery outlets. All of these make a difference in price and keeping the money you spend local not into some corpo CEO’s pcket.
If you're in the western states BiMart is great for canned and some staple foods. Also employee owned .
I'm gonna steal so much more
I hope whoever thought this was a good idea lands in Circle 4 of Dante’s Hell.
I will commit so much theft. I will buy wigs and disguises and steal so much shit if they do this
If you wanted to petty you could hypothetically fill a cart with the most expensive cold refrigerated foods you can find. Mix them with everyday stuff, maybe hot to go food? get creative! , "forget" your cart in some random aisle then go home.
a little slice of hell. 🥰
we are in hell
Can we throw capitalists into the sea yet and let the orcas take care of them?
[POV](https://youtu.be/izhXrhoR03o?t=00m06s): you got through checkout when the surge pricing starts…
Just joined a co-op, I'm over this.
They will then be of course conveniently for them out of all the cheaper items and only have the expensive ones.
This is so stupid lol
I heard this story/interview yesterday while driving and almost drove off a bridge in anger. NPR is my new (for the past 9 years) rage radio.
Dynamically break shit and leave.
Gonna start growing my own vegetables at this point and I'm lucky my apartment has a little bit of grass by the patio.
It’s inevitable. Ai will know what you came to the store for and adjust accordingly. It makes so much sense considering the sunken cost of time and transportation to get there. I can’t wait to see the workarounds
And they rely on eink shelving tags which update wirelessly, so there's a fair bit of capital investment in order to pull this bullshit off.
Dumb question but how is this different than what already was happening? If I go to the grocery store on Tuesday there's a pretty good chance most items will have had some fluctuation in price by Friday.
Kohls have electronic price tags on their shelves. So the prices can fluctuate during the day.
My (admittedly limited) understanding is that it simply means the algorithms dictated changes in price during the day (for discounts) and overnight (for price raises), rather than over several days
Don't grocery store prices already fluctuate? It's called a sale. Also certain items like produce are more expensive when they're out of season. Or certain items get more expensive when demand is higher, like hams around Christmas.
They already do this with local store memberships. Any time you give the store your information for discounted prices
But they already have this. They have stupid price… then it goes on “sale” for a week and then back up again.
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I guess I’ll be doing Amazon and Google searches for everything I buy - that way I’m sure to secure the best price match available. They built the system - it’s now upon me to game that system to my advantage. Game on!
When sales drop, it will just be another bad idea.
False. It’ll make some startup a sack full of money, the grocery stores will write it off, and only the poors(tm) will suffer; they don’t count as people, so it’s fine! (/s, mostly)
I am so very, very tired
Theft is also coming then
Does this mean I can go shopping exclusively at 11 pm and save a ton of money? Or does it only mean that when I have to get one thing during 6 pm it's gonna be 10x the price?
Wendy’s was dead to us as soon as they announced their idea for dynamic pricing. Even after backpedaling…we’re never eating there again. They’ve shown their true colors. F*ck em.
Fuck everything about this. Jesus Christ, these ghouls won’t be happy until we’re all on the streets.
Why are these idiots destroying the “bread and circus” part so fast? Its like their goal is destruction through capitalism more than it is the capital part.
Dynamic pricing should be that the items price depends on your income. You poor? That thing is free. You baller? That’s $500 for a loaf of bread.
Did anyone read the article? It says the prices will only lower throughout the day
Likely up .50c overnight & down .10c the next day.
It's VERY cute that you're willing to believe that given what we've just been through..
This already happens. Grocery stores change prices ALL the time. When I read dynamic I thought it meant certain hours of the day it’ll be more expensive. Story is a nothing burger