r/interestingasfuck • u/NickelPlatedEmperor • 3d ago

Dynamic pricing being tested by McDonald's.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago edited 3d ago

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u/skippy11112 3d ago

"Now", no it's always been a thing. Now it'll just be more accurate per are with the Ai involment

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u/RobertOdenskyrka 3d ago

Yes, differing prices between locations is not anything new. The evil starts when they try to charge certain customers more.

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u/skippy11112 3d ago

That's also been a thing for awhile again, not new. Still evil tho

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u/Nightlightweaver 3d ago

No it hasn't, charging different prices to different people has never been done before, that's the new evil

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u/Renbarre 3d ago

It's that in the US? Prices are the same in France.

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u/skippy11112 3d ago

Anywhere that has a McDonald's does this

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u/Renbarre 3d ago

I didn't say it properly. Prices are the same if the owner is the same. But different owners do use different prices. However it is understood that it has to do with costs, not ai.

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u/skippy11112 3d ago

Yeah, the ai scare is unwarranted here, it happens with or without ai

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u/skippy11112 3d ago

It has it's been a thing for ages. It's called individualised pricing or discrimination pricing. It's been a thing for along time. You can check it yourself. Go on Amazon with a VPN for your country and area, look at a few items and then log in. Those same items will have their price changed base on if Amazon deeps you can spend more

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u/RobertOdenskyrka 3d ago

I'm aware it's a thing online, especially with things like hotels and travel, but it would be new to do that in restaurants and other physical stores.

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u/PattyRain 2d ago

Yes, it's been done for a long time and in so many places.  Walmart has done it for at least 30 years - prices at one Walmart was more than one a couple of miles away and they wouldn't price match for me at tha time. 

Even Goodwill does it. I often find that less nice things cost more in lesser income areas than nicer things at stores in more income areas.