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is this some kind of sarcasm that my iq isn't high enough to understand? pretty sure everyone hates the idea of dynamic pricing
Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores
171–180 of 259 posts
Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Sure, I was asking about membership discounts (e.g. people who shop at this store and are "members" get 10% off everything compared to "non-members") , vs loyalty programs with individual product electronic coupons/promotions, which aren't covered by this bill.
Typical European loyalty programs offer spend-based ‘points’ accumulation which can be spent as a discount later. Additional offers on top of that like ‘bonus points on product X’ or personalized offers based on purchase history add to the degree of variation in how much individual customers end up spending.
Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores
#173[flagged]
If only we could be free from this virus! When I encounter a fellow grocery store price gouger, I am not filled with the sense of fraternity and compassion I should. Instead, I have been manipulated into feeling like they're my enemy!
Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores
#174Can we do the same for DRAM prices please?
Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores
#175Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is hilariously first-order-effects thinking... If any store used dynamic pricing to expand their margins, the others would just do the same and compete away those margins once again, with the marginal gain being handed back to consumers. Dynamic pricing on personal data is bad I think, but temporal dynamic pricing is actually very good for everyone and I hope it doesn't get thrown out by some reckless legislatio…
That's the ideal dream scenario, but in reality the market isn't that efficient. Lots of markets gouge their customers and due to power imbalances the customers can't really do anything about it. The free market solution to this is just generally to let people suffer.
I don't see why consumers wouldn't just pick the stores that have better prices for them. Why would they know/care/need to know what the prices are doing for other people?
Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores
#177[flagged]
This actually seems like a pretty uniting issue. I haven't seen many politicians of any party openly come out in favor of the sort of price discrimination banned by this bill.
FWIW, Trump's FTC dropped a price discrimination lawsuit against Pepsi after Pepsi donated $500k to Trump's inauguration. The suit was brought up under Biden's administration.
Republican politicians do support price discrimination. It fits in with their pro big business, anti consumer policies. To recognize this and then quibble over "the sort" or how "openly" they support it, is disingenuous.
Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It’s unclear to me why transportation demand pricing is allowed but not delivery. I don't think it should be allowed. It's predatory. It allows a company like Uber and Lyft to see things like "Oh, you are going to a hospital, then I'm going to apply a 10% surcharge because you are probably desperate". It also works against the drivers. Uber/Lyft see things like "This person is logged on for 8 hours, they are desper…
Why shouldn’t a company be allowed to price the product differently? For an airline, booking a flight 6 months out, 6 days out, or 6 hours out are different situations. For Uber/Lyft, booking a ride into the middle of nowhere carries a cost for the driver that isn’t present when booking a ride to the airport. A flat fee per mile doesn’t make sense. A flat fee per seat doesn’t make sense. Grocery stores already price…
> Why shouldn’t a company be allowed to price the product differently? For an airline, booking a flight 6 months out, 6 days out, or 6 hours out are different situations.
Obviously acceptable. But I'm talking about two people placing an order for the same ticket, same airline, same rewards program and getting different prices because the airline knows something about their private life. For example, maybe the airline has gotten information that one person is going to a funeral and thus are more willing to pay a higher price.
Everything about this encourages corporate espionage on private citizens which I'm opposed to. I'd rather not have google calendar secretly sharing my entries with delta so they can in turn determine what ticket price I might be willing to pay.
There's also not market fundamentals which can correct this situation. Back to the airline example, for any given route you are limited by the number of carriers to that location. Airports are physical things with limited capacity which naturally leads to monopolies and oligopolies. That means you can't just "pay someone that's not doing that" as you only have 2 or 3 options for most locations and they all want to participate in that scheme.
Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
Came to say the same thing. Though calling it 'price discrimination' will bring out the MAGAs who will reflexively conclude that banning it must be woke/DEI and then demand to have it everywhere. Better to call it 'diverse pricing' to get the opposite reaction.
"diverse pricing" comes across as DEI pricing, too, what with the name. And the name is what's important, not the actual idea. If you want them to be against it, call it "Socialist Pricing" or if you want them to support it call it "Freedom Pricing." I know it's not indicative of either, but it just needs to sound bad or good.
I think that was the idea, that MAGAs would see "price discrimination" as a good thing, but "diverse pricing" as a bad thing.
Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores
#180AI is not a technology. It's a (shitty) political artefact of control, to bring people to pay more, own less, depend on a few capitalist owners for their livelihoods.
We must fight it