Surge Pricing

If it's 30% less waste doesn't that directly translate to more profit? Unless they flat out ordered 30% less stock. Which is still more profit?
I hate economics.

I am all up for minimising food waste though, so if it's this effective then maybe it is a good thing. Apply it to all areas of supermarket shopping?

I'm presuming the less waste comes from knowing how much stock has been put out, and how much has sold so if there is excess stock left, the price reduces accordingly to make sure they sell out preventing waste
 
I see a sudden surge on the price of Tupperware boxes and cling wrap as people make their own sandwiches....
 
I'm not entirely sure how this would work over here, I believe supermarkets are currently only allowed to change prices outside of trading hours and can get fines if prices on the shelf are different to prices at the till. In fact if the price at the till were higher than the price on the shelf they should either honour the lower price at the till or remove the product from sale until the following day otherwise they'd be in breach of certain trading standards/SoGA so unless the law changes it's pointless, other than putting the small army of people who have put the ticket changes out overnight out of a job.
 
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I've not read the links in OP, but the quote from Glaucus makes sense to me. Prices are already dropped manually to sell off the things going out of date, so it's nothing new that prices change. I'd be very surprised if prices actually do get 'surged' during peak times. They will change overnight, just as they do now.

These supermarkets profits are already vast and I feel like we are reaching a point where capitalism has gone insane.

Not really. Lidl and Aldi have driven all their profits right down.
 
So I pick up my sandwich @ £2.00 but when I get to the till its now £2.30?
Also at the moment they have meal deals for a sandwich, snack & drink would these be stopped?


odds are theyd put it up say an hour before lunch not in the middle.

or deal offers would still stand etc
 
So....

Your on a fixed income {pension etc }

You go into your local supermarket with this system.

You know what you can afford to buy based on the money you have left that week..

Get to the till and it has gone up by 2 - 3 pounds. not much to the trendies that shop in places like Marks and Sparks and waitrose.

But a single mum or pensioner... what do they leave at the checkout that they cant afford that week ?

Add to that the embarassment of having to do that with a queue of people behind them.

This just smacks of another way supermarkets are looking to squeeze money for nothing out of people


the other way to loo kat it, you're a pensioner, you have little time limits on when you can shop. you can avoid high price times and go when its cheaper.


but in reality how many people go shopping with a margin of 3 quid? how many people can keep a price of thier trolley within 3 quid for that matter?


edit: perhaps this is where scan a you shop would be a factor? the hand scanner would record the exact prive at the time you picked it up?
 
Amazon are the Kings of surge pricing, they started it all off. They have all sorts of data on you right down to the value of your house and are rumoured to use it accordingly.

Prices rarely change within a day on Amazon. Unless a marketplace seller comes in at crashes the price which Amazon follow. This is (or was) rarer still on grocery products.

The price certainly wouldn't fluctuate as much as it would seem on this new idea the super markets have.
 
Things should never go up in price but down, sure. How do you justify charging more for something? Is it really as simple as more people want it, even though there is no fear of the supply running out? Isn't that a mockery of it all. Faking it to sell dearer?
 
Prices rarely change within a day on Amazon. Unless a marketplace seller comes in at crashes the price which Amazon follow. This is (or was) rarer still on grocery products.

The price certainly wouldn't fluctuate as much as it would seem on this new idea the super markets have.


without a VPN and separate clean accounts you'd never know if your getting the same price as others.

they could ad say a fiver to everything you look at based on the info you have,.
unless you check with a clean account you'd never know
 
Things should never go up in price but down, sure. How do you justify charging more for something? Is it really as simple as more people want it, even though there is no fear of the supply running out? Isn't that a mockery of it all. Faking it to sell dearer?


its hopt, ice creams and fresh fruit will sell more. theyup the price so that they can cream some extra profit.

they already do this with stocking to try not to run out of stuff based on the weather etc (when Wimbledon is on various supermarkets will stock more strawberries and cream) this gives them a little extra boost.


the justification is we have 500 persons worth of ice creams we expect 700 people to buy it, we up the price so that only 500 can afford it based on our analysis of our customers

there is no fear of the supply running out?

there is though, a shop only has so much of each product, emopty shelves cost them money, if they can up the price and so keep just about inline with demand its better than selling cheap and having 6 foot of empty shelf for a day.



price cuts are already handled by the clearance sections.
 
without a VPN and separate clean accounts you'd never know if your getting the same price as others.

they could ad say a fiver to everything you look at based on the info you have,.
unless you check with a clean account you'd never know

Very true, but people would notice. We use VPN at work and while the prices never appears different the actual seller who has the "buy bar" may change from person to person purely on location and prime status.
 
That wouldn't work anywhere there was competition as people would just shop elsewhere.

That would actually work in favour of all the Indy cafe's etc, as they'd be unlikely to follow any sort of pricing surge, so people are likely to then avoid supermarkets for buying lunch.

The big negative i see is that a scheme like this could lead to a lot of food wastage as people "stock-up" whilst prices are at a low/normal level, and then either don't need, or haven't used the food before it starts to go off.
 
That would actually work in favour of all the Indy cafe's etc, as they'd be unlikely to follow any sort of pricing surge, so people are likely to then avoid supermarkets for buying lunch.

The big negative i see is that a scheme like this could lead to a lot of food wastage as people "stock-up" whilst prices are at a low/normal level, and then either don't need, or haven't used the food before it starts to go off.


indy cafes already being significantly higher in price than supermarkets (or compeltley absent in certain locations) renders that argument moot.
 
I have less than 5 mins from where I live...

Sainsbury's
Aldi
Lidl
ASDA
Iceland
Costco
Co op

Doubt they all will do this. Whoever does will loose my business. For now I'll keep shopping at mostly Lidl.
 
That wouldn't work anywhere there was competition as people would just shop elsewhere.

Only if it is easy for customers to compare prices and the cost of changing your mind is less than the extra they charge. I.e. if you have thirty items in your trolley it's not going to be easy to see if something is being hiked higher than competitors and you are also unlikely to leave and re-do it all at another supermarket because toilet rolls went up 50p between the shelf and the counter.

Competition requires easily understandable comparison data and a timespan of change greater than the timespan of decision and purchase.
 
Only if it is easy for customers to compare prices and the cost of changing your mind is less than the extra they charge. I.e. if you have thirty items in your trolley it's not going to be easy to see if something is being hiked higher than competitors and you are also unlikely to leave and re-do it all at another supermarket because toilet rolls went up 50p between the shelf and the counter.

Competition requires easily understandable comparison data and a timespan of change greater than the timespan of decision and purchase.

This is why I'd rather go to a slightly more expensive shop and know what I'm going to pay at the till ... Then go to a cheaper shop but guess what I'm going to pay.
 
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