The new labels allow employees to change prices as often as every ten seconds.

“If it’s hot outside, we can raise the price of water and ice cream. If there’s something that’s close to the expiration date, we can lower the price — that’s the good news,” said Phil Lempert, a grocery industry analyst.

Apps like Uber already use surge pricing, in which higher demand leads to higher prices in real time. Companies across industries have caused controversy with talk of implementing surge pricing, with fast-food restaurant Wendy’s making headlines most recently. Electronic shelf labels allow the same strategy to be applied at grocery stores, but are not the only reason why retailers may make the switch.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldOP
    94·
    6 months ago

    The answer then is to charge the first man $1, the second $10, and the third $100.

    Would the ethical answer not be $0, on the grounds that all individuals are entitled to basic living needs regardless of their personal wealth?

    • Facebones@reddthat.com
      7·
      6 months ago

      For whatever reason people are always wandering out of this damn twilight zone desert, so you set up a filtered tap to offer for free, funded by bottle sales to the bougie bastards who’ll pay $10 or $100 just to flex.

    • randon31415@lemmy.world
      3·
      6 months ago

      Yes, that maximizes happiness at the expense profit, the polar opposite of setting it at $100 to maximize profit at the expense of happiness.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      2·
      6 months ago

      Yeah that thought experiment is so capitalist-brained that the person doesn’t even seem to understand your issue with the premise as a whole. That it’s ridiculous to put so much consideration into thought experiments about maximizing profits while selling water in the desert.

      Then they respond to this as if you just gave a legitimate response to their thought experiment, and that you wouldn’t be heckled by a room full of MBA students if you said what you just said in the marketing class the original commenter likely heard it.