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#pricing

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During 1992–2020, the USA had low and stable #inflation.

Despite massive federal deficit spending, the Fed met its 2% inflation target (or missed below it) for most of this era.

How come? There were no serious shortage of resources. (Thanks to: no cold war, globalization, bad working conditions, stable commodity supply, increase of greenhouse effect.)

#money#deficit#debt

Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and 13 colleagues wrote to the CEO of the supermarket behemoth #Kroger in November about electronic price tags (often called #electronic #shelf #labels or #ESLs ).
These digital displays allow companies to change prices automatically from a mobile app.
Tlaib warned that this so-called “#dynamic #pricing” permits retailers to adjust prices based on their whims.
Just as #Uber raises prices during storms or rush hour, retailers like Kroger use ESLs to adjust prices based on factors like time of day or the weather.
Supermarkets could conceivably mine a shopper’s personal data to set prices as high as possible.
“My concern is that these tools will be abused in the pursuit of profit, surging prices on essential goods in areas with fewer and fewer grocery stores,” Tlaib wrote.
In August, Senators Elizabeth #Warren and Bob #Casey wrote to Kroger raising similar concerns about #price #gouging.
Noting that the company has already implemented the technology in hundreds of stores across the county, they warned that
“ESLs may help Kroger extract maximum profits from consumers at a time when…high grocery prices are a leading concern among Americans who are concerned about inflation.”
Warren and Casey also voiced concern about Kroger’s partnership with Microsoft to install #facial-#recognition technology in stores,
which could be used to identify individual customers:
When a shopper approaches the shelf, she would see a price calibrated specifically for her.
The next shopper might pay a different amount based on their profile.
Retailers could use shopper data to charge higher prices to those who can afford to pay more, but since stores do not have to disclose who is making pricing decisions or why,
the senators worry that shoppers on a budget are particularly vulnerable.
“It is outrageous that, as families continue to struggle to pay to put food on the table, grocery giants like Kroger continue to roll out #surge #pricing and other corporate #profiteering schemes,” they wrote

thenation.com/article/society/

The Nation · Automation in Retail Is Even Worse Than You ThoughtNew technology is not just making shopping more challenging for workers and consumers—it’s poised to rip off the most vulnerable.

TIL about "fixed book pricing (FBP), a policy adopted by many EU countries, designed to discourage discount pricing of books. It works by restricting physical and online stores from selling newly released #books below the recommended retail price for a period between 6 to 18 months. #Australia had its own #FBP scheme until it was abolished in 1972."

abc.net.au/news/2025-01-10/imp

ABC News · Our love of cheap books is hurting independent bookstores and writers. But there may be a solutionBy Fiona Pepper
Continued thread

With selective pricing, “publishers (can)… set different pricing rules for ad inventory based on various factors, such as the user's location, time of day, device type & other relevant attributes”—

to gain the most return.

Per this 2023 blog, Google gives companies the ability to dynamically price based on customer & usage factors.

Likely other vehicles do too.

/4 🧵

~ Mastering smart blocking & selective #pricing in Google Ad Exchange~

#business #consumer #tech

linkedin.com/pulse/mastering-s

www.linkedin.comMastering smart blocking & selective pricing in Google Ad Exchange.Welcome to the fourth and very important edition of Ad Ops Round-Up. In this newsletter we will master how to boost your ad revenue via smart blocking and selective pricing features of Google Ad Exchange or Adx.
Continued thread

No doubt it’s all about #marketing at what price the company thinks a consumer will pay.

In the previous example, the $15.27 per month is a better deal as it saves the subscriber $26.64 per year (accounting for one month free at the $19.08 price).

But a person might be more persuaded to purchase something when they can get something of significance ‘free’.

In reality, that person pays $2.22 per month more than others who got the $15.27 per month offer.

/3 🧵

_The Evening Post_, 30 October 1924:
“THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.”
For many years the motion picture has been looked upon by people in general as a cheap form of #entertainment. While it is still on a much more reasonable scale than the ordinary stage entertainment, the time has come when first-class motion pictures are able to command from the amusement-seeing people an admission price fully commensurate with their worth. In this regard “The Ten Commandments” has probably established a world’s record for high admission prices. It has played in New York, Los Ang[e]les, and Chicago, prices ranging from 3 dollars 50 cents to 1 dollar 75 cents, which approximates 7s 6d [ca. $46 today] in our currency. At the London Pavilion…prices ranging from 12s to 3s…. People of #Wellington will be able to see this picture at much more reasonable prices, ranging from 4s [ca. $25] for the de luxe seats down to 1s [ca. $6] for the cheapest seats.… with exactly the same music, the same introduction, and the same prologue as it was in the London Pavilion, [so] it may be seen that the citizens of this town are fortunate indeed in their new theatre and its admission prices.
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/news

PROTEST TOMORROW Wed, Sep 18, 7pm, Union Square
"LIVE FREE, RIDE FREE, F*CK the NYPD"
NYPD: "Your life's worth less than $3."
NYPD mass shooting Sun, innocent commuter shot in head, in critical condition
Free bus, free subway now
Congestion pricing now
End $11B NYC police state
Adams corruption, investigations
#NYC #subway #platform #mass #shooting #NYPD for #three #dollars #fare #critical #condition #shot in #head #innocent #commuter #gun #violence #cops #MTA #congestion #pricing #Hochul #Adams

As a creative, do you (or would you) add your prices to your site?

I do have a day rate, although I don't show it on my site/portfolio as I prefer to chat with people as everyone is at a different place in their journey… I feel that a day rate might put them off before the conversation has even started.

I would welcome thoughts on this!

Kroger first implemented “Kroger Edge” in 2018. The ESLs allowed it to instantly change prices across dozens of stores.

In 2024, Kroger partnered w/ Intelligence Node, a retail analytics firm that uses AI “to provide customers a better online shopping experience.”

Kroger claims it will use dynamic pricing to “lower prices for customers over time.”

#USA #ConsumerProtection #pricing

~Warren said Kroger price gouges as ‘families struggle to put food on the table’~

fortune.com/2024/08/13/elizabe

Fortune · Elizabeth Warren just accused Kroger of price gouging as ‘families struggle to pay to put food on the table’By Seamus Webster

People often ask: How much does a boat cost?

It's like asking: How much does a car cost.

Here's a handwritten for-sale sign I saw on a used narrowboat, asking a bit more than a third of the price of an average new boat. There's a bit of narrowboat- and marine jargon on this list. 😅

#CanalLife#canal#boat

“AI pricing (“surveillance pricing”) acts as a regressive tax, charging those with the most the least,” and the desperate and vulnerable more.

Further, “people could be penalized because of their race, age, or class.”

#business #pricing #equity

~ AI is quietly being used to pick your pocket~

businessinsider.com/ai-quietly

Insider · AI is quietly being used to pick your pocket with personalized pricingBy Albert Fox Cahn

Having two levels of #pricing in #supermarkets is really starting to get up my nose. Dark #chocolate cost me 30p a bar more in #Lidl as I don't have the #app. There are so many things we're expected to use a #smartphone for (#electric #charging, #parking, #groceries) and all the while every tiny detail about you is being #harvested. Nearly all #grocers seem to have #cameras everywhere (I know #theft is a big issue). It just seems #privacy is a thing of the #past.