Certainty can be comforting. Knowing where your next meal is coming from and where you will lay your head at night allows one to focus on other challenges throughout the day.
But do we similarly crave certainty when it comes to knowing the price of things? Are we better or more poorly served by a Prix Fixe economy?
But do we similarly crave certainty when it comes to knowing the price of things? Are we better or more poorly served by a Prix Fixe economy?
A shelf full of peanut butter jars, all marked with the same price tag, may make our purchase decision easier but does it give us the best value? Does it limit the merchant's profit potential?
And has the humble price tag lulled us into a sense of certainty that things have a fixed value?
For most of history people would haggle for everything in the market. Then, in the mid-19th Century in the US, Quakers and others decided that charging different people (whom God saw as equal) different prices was immoral. Hence the fixed-price tag.
At first people were suspicious of the tags. But they got used to the idea and, over time, empires like Macy’s were born on the back of them.
Now they might be on their way out again. Variable pricing is creeping back into our lives in some unexpected places. From Uber surge pricing to airlines that look at all sorts of factors to quote you a ticket price, including apparently whether you are browsing with a Mac or a Windows PC.
Variable pricing means you need to pay more attention. That's my advice, for what it's worth.
Peter
And has the humble price tag lulled us into a sense of certainty that things have a fixed value?
For most of history people would haggle for everything in the market. Then, in the mid-19th Century in the US, Quakers and others decided that charging different people (whom God saw as equal) different prices was immoral. Hence the fixed-price tag.
At first people were suspicious of the tags. But they got used to the idea and, over time, empires like Macy’s were born on the back of them.
Now they might be on their way out again. Variable pricing is creeping back into our lives in some unexpected places. From Uber surge pricing to airlines that look at all sorts of factors to quote you a ticket price, including apparently whether you are browsing with a Mac or a Windows PC.
Variable pricing means you need to pay more attention. That's my advice, for what it's worth.
Peter
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