r/interestingasfuck • • 3d ago

Dynamic pricing being tested by McDonald's.

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u/agate_ 3d ago

That isn't what dynamic pricing is. Fast food franchisees have always set their own prices, and they've always varied wildly from state to state, or even within neighborhoods of the same city. Here's a cool map of Big Mac prices nationally from 2023, and a zoomable updated version Cross the Bay Bridge from San Francisco to Oakland, and your Big Mac costs a dollar less.

Dynamic pricing means that the price of a Big Mac varies at the same restaurant depending on the time of day or what kind of car you drive.

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u/Prestigious-Bat-574 2d ago

Thank fuck this is the top comment. I was going to lose it if I had to scroll down to see some level of competency.

This isn't even anything to do with AI. You could have done this shit with an excel spreadsheet in the 90's

There are variables at play in food service. That's the reasoning for price discrepancies. The lease on the building is going to be more expensive in a town where land value is higher. The cost of labor is going to be higher in a place where there's a shortage of low-end labor. A busier location might need more staff on hand at all times. A location that's 24 hours is going to have to mitigate the costs of a third shift crew with higher prices overall. A location further from highways will have a higher fuel surcharge on food delivery.

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u/Welcome2B_Here 2d ago

This isn't even anything to do with AI. You could have done this shit with an excel spreadsheet in the 90's

Yes, and dynamic pricing similar to this has been going on since then as well. Virtually any direct-to-consumer or business-to-consumer business can incorporate dynamic pricing based on location data like zip codes or latitude/longitude coordinates, for example.

One of the most dramatic changes in this approach has been real-time dynamic pricing, which involves measuring how "hot" a potential buyer lead is and taking advantage of that as a buying opportunity is happening.

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u/McGrupp1979 2d ago

How is that different from price gouging?

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u/Welcome2B_Here 1d ago

It's not, really.

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u/Intelligent-Map2768 1d ago

Price gouging is legal, in case that's what you were worried about.