2024 US Presidential Election (Taylor's Version)

I know we’re getting way off thread topic here, but does anyone know if online retailers (@Krayz ?) can change the prices they display to different consumers who visit their website. Is this allowed? Do they already do this?

Dunno about different prices for different customers but i have definitely seen different prices on the target app compared to the store.

One thing stores do is alternate coke and Pepsi on sale so I flip flop back and forth. I have no loyalty

We strongly prefer Coke, but will take Pepsi if supplies are getting low.

Which was higher?

The store. I assume people on the app are looking for deals since it is linked with their incredibly annoying coupon system.

Well I don’t know if it’s against the law, but it would be way insane to do it since if people found out you’d kill your reputation. You can do things like different shipping costs, promos for specific people, but the price on the page is the same for everyone in the same country.

Credit card companies know your income pretty accurately through modeling and sell it to anyone who has your information (e.g. you purchase). It’s also pretty accurate to use your device info like IP to put you in a census block and guess that way if you don’t use a VPN or something.

They also just ask.

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This is common practice for airlines. That is why bargain hunters use a vpn when looking for flight costs.

Wait, seriously? For real?

Amazon got custoner pushback for explicit A/B price testing back in 2000 (but I couldn’t find anything about it being illegal)

But cut to 2013 and with “dynamic pricing” they were making millions of price changes a day

“While Amazon said it did not practice discriminatory pricing — charging different people different prices based on demographics — it is all in on dynamic pricing. Profitero, an e-commerce analytics firm, estimated in 2013 that Amazon tweaked prices 2.5 million times a day. (It is safe to assume that the number has grown.)”

So the algorithm is changing prices regularly and the sites are also giving discounts based on things like whether you belong to Amazon Prime, etc, it’s likely that two customers will not pay the same final price for the same item.

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I’m working on an Economics paper arguing that Bob Barker’s retirement has caused consumer prices to become inelastic. Finally gonna snag that Nobel Prize imo.

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I had always heard that as well. It may not be based on demographic data but I know they might adjust price based on your past searches and interest.

I choose soda based on price per ounce.

This ALWAYS results in me purchasing 2-liter bottles instead of cans.

Give it a shot, it’s a big money-saver.

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I drink very little soft drinks (maybe one serving a week if that) so I tend to buy cans because I imagine (with no supporting evidence) that if I buy a 2L bottle and chip away at it over 3 weeks that it will go flat. I can leave cans in the closet for weeks at a time and just pop* one in the fridge at a time. Am I nuts?

*this is a pun in Canada.

Second question - are they really called two liter bottles in USA No. 1? Shouldn’t they be called 7/12 Gallon Bottles or some equally obtuse American measure?

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This is correct, but I’m a diet soda baller. #Cans4Lyfe.

Yeah, they are. It’s weird down here.

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I think they switched to liters around the time the US dipped their toe into the idea of metric in the 70s (which didn’t take obviously). It coincided with the switch from glass to plastic bottles so I guess they were like OK as long as we’re making a new mold for this shit, let’s go ahead and introduce a new size.

If only that switch to metric had actually stuck. I still have to ask every time I’m converting cups to tablespoons to quarts to whatever other stupid measurement recipes use.