Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The High-Speed Trading Behind an Amazon Purchase

news.morningstar.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 79 posts

Re: The High-Speed Trading Behind an Amazon Purchase

#61

Post by ikeboy »

copperx wrote: post #59
refurb wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Supply and demand is the underpining of a market. It's nothing new at all.

I believe OP was referring to price discrimination and not supply/demand. e.g., as if Amazon raised all wound care products instantly for you after you made a search for "band aids." A grocery store with e-ink prices could raise the prices for bottled water instantly after a natural disaster.

Amazon does not engage in price discrimination. They change their prices for everyone, millions of times a day.

Re: The High-Speed Trading Behind an Amazon Purchase

#62

Post by gerbal »

trome wrote: post #56
ftlio wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mother used to be a scan coordinator at a grocery store. We have been talking about this eventually happening for over a decade. Although based on her experience, the infrastructure for even letting her know what pricing should be requires a major IT overhaul as well.

The cost and wiring to power eink displays is too much, due to the USD being fairly stable, prices don't change daily/hourly, which would help eink signage for shelving make sense. You essentially either need a power drop to each section of shelving, or you have to replace batteries on every sign through your store every X months or years.

There are lot of wireless E-ink displays for sale that advertise 5-year battery life with a simple button cell. For like $10/label.

Re: The High-Speed Trading Behind an Amazon Purchase

#63

Post by ubernostrum »

bognition wrote: post #45
israrkhan wrote: post #44

This is a very unfortunate trend where sellers are selling not based on the value of the item/service, but demand/need of the consumer. It has been a common practice in airline industry, and upto some extent in healthcare. But now this practice is creeping into online shopping too. This can soon fall into unethical territory. Imagine an item, that costs $1. Just because it could be life-saving for someone, or someone…

you've just described capitalism

Also, most people don't really understand how airlines price their tickets, and so assume some sort of "we're watching and will raise the price on you" scheme when there are more mundane explanations available.

Re: The High-Speed Trading Behind an Amazon Purchase

#64

Post by easychris »

trome wrote: post #56
ftlio wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mother used to be a scan coordinator at a grocery store. We have been talking about this eventually happening for over a decade. Although based on her experience, the infrastructure for even letting her know what pricing should be requires a major IT overhaul as well.

The cost and wiring to power eink displays is too much, due to the USD being fairly stable, prices don't change daily/hourly, which would help eink signage for shelving make sense. You essentially either need a power drop to each section of shelving, or you have to replace batteries on every sign through your store every X months or years.

We have a grocery store in Krefeld, Germany, which uses e-ink price tags exclusively[1]. But I never noticed a real-time change when I was shopping there.

[1] http://www.lebensmittelzeitung.net/storechecks/Neues-Real-Ko... (e.g. pics 9, 20-24).

Re: The High-Speed Trading Behind an Amazon Purchase

#65

Post by liotier »

bognition wrote: post #45
israrkhan wrote: post #44

This is a very unfortunate trend where sellers are selling not based on the value of the item/service, but demand/need of the consumer. It has been a common practice in airline industry, and upto some extent in healthcare. But now this practice is creeping into online shopping too. This can soon fall into unethical territory. Imagine an item, that costs $1. Just because it could be life-saving for someone, or someone…

you've just described capitalism

It is called "yield management" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yield_management - it is a commercial technique which is not specifically capitalist.

Re: The High-Speed Trading Behind an Amazon Purchase

#66

Post by dx034 »

tedunangst wrote: post #15
KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #12

I don't see what's so special about continuously updating your price as a seller. This happens in pretty much every grocery market in the Middle East or Eastern Europe. I also don't understand how the supposedly fierce competition between sellers ends up yielding prices that are higher than offline stores. Seems the reporter missed the true story.

Is it common to see a guy hawking $1000 tomatoes from an empty stall in such markets?

No but that's also not what happens on Amazon. Prices may double but that's also pretty standard for fruits & vegetables when supply doesn't match demand.

Re: The High-Speed Trading Behind an Amazon Purchase

#67

Post by ratpolish »

adjkant wrote: post #55
Animats wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not. Dropping the prices on the wrapped sandwiches after lunch hour would be useful to clear out the unsold inventory.

This could also be applied to baked goods, and with time, even expiring produce. It would be something to benefit both the consumer and the store!

Grocers do discount short-dated products. Look for the sticker that says "manager's special".

Re: The High-Speed Trading Behind an Amazon Purchase

#68

Post by supergreg »

Animats wrote: post #31
aianus wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case you're not being facetious: the price would change overnight not during business hours.

Maybe not. Dropping the prices on the wrapped sandwiches after lunch hour would be useful to clear out the unsold inventory.

In my grocery store they give you 50% discount after 8pm. No need to change price labels.

Re: The High-Speed Trading Behind an Amazon Purchase

#69

Post by NordSteve »

copperx wrote: post #58
trome wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost and wiring to power eink displays is too much, due to the USD being fairly stable, prices don't change daily/hourly, which would help eink signage for shelving make sense. You essentially either need a power drop to each section of shelving, or you have to replace batteries on every sign through your store every X months or years.

Kohl's stores in the US already do this, although they're not grocers.

Grocery stores have order of magnitude more SKUs than Kohls, and operate on smaller margins.

Re: The High-Speed Trading Behind an Amazon Purchase

#70

Post by rahilb »

Once upon a time I worked at an ebook company. We were naively trying to compete with Amazon (i.e. we sold every book we could get our hands on).

Sometimes we'd negotiate a deal with a publisher, and slash the price of a book to a point where no one involved in the transaction was making money, sometimes we and the publisher would be losing money... Without fail within an hour the list price of the content on Amazon would be exactly what we set.

Amazon were/are prepared to eat the loss: I suspect this is the case for all products that are sold by Amazon. It was a very effective strategy for them. My company went into administration after just 9 months.

Post reply on HN