Re: Re: Price Discrimination on Internet (was Lies,

[enilsson@xxxxxxxxx]

Michael P wrote,
> Coca Cola tested dynamic pricing.  So did Amazon[sort of -- it
> was using different prices for different customers], but it got
> slammed.

Amazon tried to say they were not really doing dynamic pricing as the prices
people faced were random. But the fact that the prices were determined
randomly is good evidence that they were performing a quasi-controlled
experiment to determine how to later price discriminate effectively. If I
wanted to develop an effective technique to price discriminate I would first
run exactly the sort of random price experiment run by Amazon.

Coca Cola I believe merely announced they had developed a vending machine that
could have its price adjusted by a central computer (and the price would rise
on hot days and fall on cold days). Even my students a year and 1/2 ago heard
of this and were outraged. (Of course, they were not outraged by other types
of price discrimination they faced but still...)

And I think that Lands End has for a long time distributed catalogs with
prices that differed by zip code: 90210 (Beverly Hills) got catalogs with
higher prices than those people living in 94207 (San Berdo). There was a court
case a few years ago that decided that it was okay to do what Lands End was
doing.

Eric