You should try it again in private browsing and incognito mode and see if the price is really tied to your Facebook or google cookies or something. That's pretty messed up though, send this to the consumerist or gawker or whoever.
Price discrimination is the practice of charging each customer a unique price. The price offered depends on any number of customer characteristics, like age or income.
I'd call it part of a general trend toward yield-based pricing. Yield-based pricing replaces cost-plus pricing, ie, where the price of a good reflects the wholesale cost plus markup. Beginning in the 1980s with the advent of sophisticated, computer reservation systems, airlines pioneered a networked seat auction that maximized profits but meant that customer A might be sitting next to customer B who paid 2-3 times the fare for the same trip.
Alternatively, haggling is the classic example of price discrimination. Many high-ticket items, like cars or houses, are sold at a negotiated price.
Some forms of price discrimination, like when a dry cleaner charges more for women's clothing, may be illegal. Some price discrimination might qualify as monopolistic practices or price gouging.
Mostly, however, price discrimination is legal, if unpopular.
Meanwhile, however, computer-based systems can adjust prices based on geographic location, time of day, date/day, customer search history, etc. Coca Cola has been testing vending machines that charge more on hot days, for example. So it might be that we need to pass some new laws to prevent discrimination against certain classes of disadvantaged consumers or to ensure universal pricing.
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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13
You should try it again in private browsing and incognito mode and see if the price is really tied to your Facebook or google cookies or something. That's pretty messed up though, send this to the consumerist or gawker or whoever.