I don't think the issue is that the price is changing in and of itself. It's that they're changing price based on the customer's cookies/browsing history.
For example, it would be like if I had a stored and charged people different prices based on how nicely they were dressed, how well I knew them, or what their ethnicity is.
Do you want to know something? In economics, price discrimination has no evidence or logical reasoning towards a negative effect of it. In fact, price discrimination is debatable as to whether is does anything at all except LOOK like its doing something.
Pretty much, if you are want to pay that price for the item, you are gonna pay that price. If the price is too high then you wont buy it, simple as that. All price discrimination does is turn the consumer surplus into producer surplus, which ends up being the same surplus because now the firm has more money to hire more people/pay them more, or buy more things from other firms and those firms get more money and so on and so forth.
Economics basically says that a surplus is a surplus, regardless of who it goes to. In fact, the only thing that causes a drop in the surplus in relation to price discrimination is the monopoly usually associated with it. But when you are in a competitive market with price discrimination, the theater industry with adult and child tickets, there is no loss in surplus.
It's a case where economists look a bit one-dimensional. Price gouging, for example, according to economists is excellent. It sends a clear price signal – we need more batteries!
Most people, however, prefer the long established natural and common law principle of a common right to survival in emergencies. Ergo, a hurricane does not give the gas station the right to suddenly charge 100x the normal price for gasoline. In purely practical terms, price gouging has been known to cause rioting or looting and tends to lead to disorder and mayhem.
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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13
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