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amazingamazingtoday at 2:06 AM5 repliesview on HN

Why grocery stores only? It’s also unclear how this will change anything - don’t the grocery stores in richer areas already charge more? I’ve noticed Whole Foods prices are not the same across all stores even in the same state.


Replies

clintonbtoday at 2:27 AM

You're thinking of pricing zones—shoppers in Zone A pay a different price than those in Zone B. This makes sense, for example, if shipping costs are higher in Zone B.

The bill in question is about per-shopper pricing (e.g, you and I pay different prices in the same store). This is something Lyft and Uber do, but it's not really possible in retail.

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muzanitoday at 11:04 AM

For impact most likely. Dynamic pricing is core to the budget airline industry and such a law would hurt them more, especially with the thin margins. It happens with games too, but the price of games doesn't affect how someone eats.

chistoday at 3:56 AM

Price targeting can help the poor in some cases and hurt them in others. For essentials where the need to purchase is high and the provider has a semi-monopoly, dynamic pricing leaves everyone worse off. For instance, think of groceries where there is only one store nearby or medicines with only one producer.

On the other hand, for something like a Netflix subscription, price discrimination DOES tend to help the poor users out. Netflix is 10x cheaper in third world countries for the exact same product. If they were forced to charge the same price everywhere, they would just charge everyone the US price and foreign users would be left out.

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motbus3today at 8:21 AM

They charge more for everyone there. Now they are able to charge more for you

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kotaKattoday at 11:15 AM

Because the sole driver of all of this is the UFCW. That's why only grocery stores.

Because they're still mad they think it "takes away jobs" to put in electronic ink price tags.

That's it. They came up with the rest of the FUD and latched onto clueless lawmakers.