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Badger1848's avatar

Dynamic pricing isn't really a new concept. Taco Tuesdays. Whopper Wednesdays. BOGO wings but only on a certain day. Happy Hour at every bar and tavern from coast to coast. Wendy's recent foray flopped from a PR perspective, I think, because however they announced it the general perception was "charge more for food during peak times. " A much smarter strategy on their behalf would have left the impression that food during non-peak times was going to be cheaper (even if the former was really more true - it's about the marketing, people!). Even Uber, probably this decade's most prominent adherent to "dynamic pricing" (which has been largely successful, people generally understand it and have adopted if even if anger at spiked pricing during a high volume time like after a sporting event is largely taken out on the driver with decreased or eliminated tips) now routinely "discounts" rides during "non peak" hours when in reality the base (non-discounted) ride has stealthily been increased and the "discounted" ride is really the old base-line. Again, marketing! Protections from blatant price-gouging obviously needed to be in place, such as the show shovel scenario or a better example would be bottled water sales at Woodstock '99, but "surge" or "dynamic pricing" is neither new or going away anytime soon.

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