You’re a savvy shopper, a well-educated consumer. You know to shop around to look for the best price on something before you fork over your cash. And after doing all your homework, you find out from Facebook that a friend on the other side of the country got the same item from the same website for less than you just paid. Why? How? Because an algorithm decided how much each of you should pay, and there’s nothing you can do about it. [More]
dynamic pricing
Why Is It So Hard To See What’s Inside The “Black Box” Determining What Prices You Get Online?
By 10.5.16
California Bar Uses Dynamic Pricing To Sell Shots Of Tequila
By 5.11.16
While you might associate dynamic pricing — a method that changes the price of an item depending on how much demand there is for it — with airlines, ride-hailing apps, and amusement parks, there’s nothing keeping other industries from giving it a go. Like a California bar that changes the price of tequila shots depending on how popular brands are at the moment. [More]
Price Tags Might Be A Strange 150-Year Anomaly In The History Of Commerce
By 6.18.15
In the past, most recently in 2013, Coca-Cola has experimented with the idea of vending machines that adjust prices according to the temperature. The idea really bothers some people, but fixed prices that are always the same for everyone haven’t historically been the norm. We may be coming to the end of a weird century-and-a-half experiment with the practice. [More]
Want A Dinner Reservation At A Popular Restaurant? Pay Up
By 10.21.14
Earlier this month, we shared with you the news that a delivery-only restaurant in San Francisco added dynamic pricing to its business model: that is, instead of shutting down orders when there is high demand, they simply charge customers more. Similar models are becoming an extra revenue stream for restaurants, removing the risk from reservations and earning them more money when their products are more in demand. [More]
Just What We Needed: Surge Pricing For Food Delivery
By 10.2.14
The ride-sharing app Uber is an immensely popular wherever alternative to taxis wherever it expands. It has one feature that is great for keeping up with demand during busy times, but less great if you’re cost-conscious: prices multiply according to demand for cars. Now a popular restaurant in San Francisco wants to try that idea…with delivery fees. [More]
Ticketmaster To Lower Admission Prices On Poor-Selling Events
By 4.20.11
If no one’s buying tickets to events later this year, Ticketmaster will start to lower the price of admission as the date draws nearer. The concept, which it’s calling “dynamic pricing,” will punish early buyers and reward those who hold out until the days before a slow-selling event takes place. On the other hand, if ticket sales start speeding back up, Ticketmaster could raise the prices. [More]
Ticketmaster CEO Azoff On Scalping, Er, Dynamic Pricing
By 5.27.09
Having lost our Worst Company in America contest to AIG, Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff today accepted as his consolation prize an on-stage interview with The Wall Street Journal’s Kara Swisher at the annual D conference. A long-time talent manager, Azoff was introduced via video by Eagle Joe Walsh who joked that Azoff has “a beautiful house that we bought him.” Then things took a turn for the worse.
Amazon Mystery: The Pricing of Books
By 1.3.07
LA Times Staffer David Streitfeld noticed something curious about Amazon.com’s shopping cart. When he put something in it, then left it there, the price changed. And it didn’t just change, often it went up.
