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The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

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Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#221

Post by tixocloud »

013a wrote: post #57

I can call out one example of a poorly executed price raise: Apollo Engine ( https://www.apollographql.com/pricing ) There was a time when they charged for data points/performance traces ingested into the system. At our scale, we were paying around $100/month. We were prepared to scale that to their, I think it was, $550/month plan when our usage got that high. They relatively recently changed their structure to char…

How easy would it be to estimate costs based on something like data points/performance traces? On the one hand, it makes total economic sense to align pricing against utility but I’ve also heard for larger enterprises, something that lets them price things out for the future helps with cost management.

Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#222

Post by TaylorAlexander »

derekp7 wrote: post #218
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting comment! I have this relatively unconventional theory that, if we use automation just right and make the cost of food production, delivery, and preparation low enough, and also do so where ownership of the machinery is distributed throughout society, that we could make it a social norm to give anyone who needs it free food. All in a voluntary system. We just need to make the actual cost of the whole suppl…

So kind of like how a bar has a bowl of nuts or pretzels out for free. Or, at work, I bought a pastry from the cafeteria. About 5 minutes later they put out a whole platter of the same pastries in the dining area for free (they didn't sell, and would be dumped otherwise).

Kind of!

Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#223

Post by Retric »

jedberg wrote: post #200
Retric wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First park tickets are just part of the story they are also adjusting hotel room costs and occasionally offering ‘free’ meal plans. Those prices go up and down not just for the specific day, but also how far out your doing the booking. On top of that they do various partnerships and large group discounts to try and keep the parks filled. Most of these are either seasonal events or have prices that shift in response t…

That's DisneyWorld, not DisneyLand. They have an entirely different pricing structure because they have so much more space there, they can just build more park to meet demand. So they are built to the peak and then need to incentivize people to come off peak. DisneyLand can't build any more park, so they could charge even more than they do now and keep the park full.

Ahh ok, I see where you’re coming from though Disneyland has a similar list https://disneyland.disney.go.com/events-tours/ and pricing structures. That park is apparently more dependent on locals.

Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#224

Post by gfxgirl »

jeromegv wrote: post #132
save_ferris wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ive been saying for years that airlines should do this. Add the price of an alcoholic beverage to everyone's ticket and then give those who want one a "free" drink. I never understood why they opted to go with ruthless cuts and declining customer experience.

For a while, Porter Airlines (Canada) would offer free coffee + free cookies out of their terminal in Toronto. They would also offer you a free beer (a full 500ml, not the 341ml one) on the flight if this was an afternoon/evening flight. I feel that a lot of their expansion was just the word of mouth "OH AND THEY GIVE YOU FREE COOKIES". Their flight might have been a bit more expensive, but the amount of good will th…

> Their flight might have been a bit more expensive,

So they weren't free. They were just priced into your ticket.

note: I'm not saying they didn't generate good will. Just say if the flight was more expensive then a competitor then you were actually paying for those things and it was just fiction that they were free.

Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#225

Post by listenallyall »

WalterBright wrote: post #61
save_ferris wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ive been saying for years that airlines should do this. Add the price of an alcoholic beverage to everyone's ticket and then give those who want one a "free" drink. I never understood why they opted to go with ruthless cuts and declining customer experience.

> I never understood The airlines are masters at A/B testing and figuring out what works best, as the industry is notoriously low margin and very cut-throat. You can bet that they price things this way because it works better. BTW, people pay a lot extra for first class tickets and love the "free" drinks. Different classes is how the airlines optimize profits from different market segments. They're very good at this.

"Masters of A/B testing" is, in my opinion, a gross overstatement. However what is true, is that a large number of people will automatically choose the lowest available option among airfares, without considering comfort or amenities. When your product is efficiently lined up against your competitors, sorted by price alone, (i.e. Expedia, Kayak...), then being second-place by $3 is enough to impact sales volume.

It's one of the primary reason airlines have moved so much of the total cost out of the ticket price, and on to additional fees: luggage, food, seat selection, printing a boarding pass, etc.

Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#226

Post by pkrotich »

willart4food wrote: post #203

> "Imagine, for Thanksgiving, you go to your parents' for dinner and after a nice dinner they say, 'That's going to be $10 per person,' " Simonsohn says. "You would be upset." LOL, my first ex-wife's mother would charge $40/person for hosting the mandatory Thanksgiving dinner, after people also contributed in the way of co-ordinated sides, fixings, beverages. By the way, $40/person in the 90's. And no she was not poo…

> my first ex-wife

Now you have me wondering how many ex-wives you got! Sorry but couldn't resist.

Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#227

Post by gfxgirl »

freeone3000 wrote: post #123
Jommi wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Currently air travel is a completely homogeneous service. There is basically no difference from one company to the other, so it makes no sense not to go with the cheapest Where are you getting this? Tons of airlines provide varying levels of service/amenities. Only thing that is homogeneous is that you get from A to B. I think you are onto something there, but you should have phrased it another way. E.g. I think air…

Getting from A to B is the most important service an airline provides. The seats are always cramped, so the degree doesn't matter terribly. Even on their website, I can't search by "flight has power outlets". Nor is the wifi speed available, or even consistent. Maybe the problem is that airlines don't have a value prop relative to each other at all.

Wow, I have a very different experience than you. I've noticed vast differences in airlines, how cramped they are, the cleanliness of their planes, the amenities inside the plane, the quality of the food offerings, even the attitude of the staff . And, having experienced all these different airlines, when I'm on a route i've been before I'm apt to pick the airline that gave me the best experience if other things are relatively comparable (price/time)

Even on the same airline, often there are partnerships. For example JAL/American and ANA/United I'm make sure to book the fight run by the Japanese partner not the American partner and the experience will be night and day. The Japanese plane will be clean the USA plane will be less clean. The Japanese staff will be friendly and service oriented. The USA staff will make me feel like I'm a burden on them and they'd rather be doing anything than their job. The food, even though it's airplane food, will be higher quality on the Japanese airline. Etc...

Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#230

Post by ja27 »

refurb wrote: post #205
ChuckMcM wrote: post #117

This is a good cautionary tale and one I've seen played out in the tech industry with food. Even in the 80's it wasn't uncommon for a tech company to have a "beer bust" on Friday's where drinks and snacks were served as a social gathering for employees at the end of the work week. It was a turning point in employee relations when the VP of HR at Sun cancelled the weekly beer bust. Similarly at Google when they decide…

I immediately thought of company perks as another good example of this. I can remember when my company was trying to spend less, so they took away an employee perk. Now this employee perk was kind of ridiculous (no other company paid for it) and it wasn't that popular (a few people used it). However, when they took it away? Holy crap were people pissed. This is one of the big lessons for me early in my career. Before…

We went through this. When 2008 hit the company stopped providing free sodas and bottled water for our office of only about 30 people. I was damn close to just buying them myself but it was crazy how upset a few people making moderately insane amounts of money would get over not getting a $1/day benefit.
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