News

If it’s hot outside we can raise the price of water…”

Holy fuck dude that’s some endgame capitalism right there.

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?

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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

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…”

“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.

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.

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.

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.

Just gonna squeeze every last drop out of you. Every. Last. Drop.

1. Buy groceries when the price is low.
2. Refund when the prices go up.
3. Profit!

I don't go to walmart anymore. I think I am just going to go back and see how much I can steal.

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?

Wal-Mart shoppers! Chocolate chip cookies are on sale at $1 for the next 30 minutes.

Good luck!