For generations, posted prices made shopping feel predictable: Shoppers generally saw the same price for the same product and could compare it across stores.
Then came dynamic pricing. Airlines adjusted which fares were available as seats filled. Now prices for rides, tickets, and groceries can shift while you shop. But when two people see different totals, what explains the gap?
Companies have long used group pricing, too — think student discounts. Online, it can be harder to tell which group you’re in.
Experts worry companies could use data about you to set a price based on what they think you’ll pay. That’s personalized pricing. When personal data is used to determine the price, critics call it surveillance pricing.
For this “So Expensive” investigation, we ran pricing experiments, dug through patents and government records, and examined companies including Uber, StubHub, McDonald’s, and Walmart to find out: Are companies creating prices just for you, and could that mean you’re paying more?
Watch our complete collection of So Expensive videos: https://bit.ly/4kmOD52
00:00 – Intro
02:04 – From Price Tags to Dynamic Pricing
08:43 – Group Pricing
15:02 – Shift to Personalized Pricing
23:49 – The Loyalty Trap
28:42 – Credits
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#dynamicpricing #surveillancepricing #personalizedpricing #costofliving #consumers #soexpensive
WATCH MORE FROM SO EXPENSIVE:
How Amazon’s Low Prices Raised Prices
https://youtu.be/62VYumto5Jc
How AI Data Centers Are Making Everything More Expensive
https://youtu.be/-4dc6907JYY
Why Uber Is More Expensive … For Some People
https://youtu.be/gnjVqeBoaqs
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Is This The End Of The Price Tag? | So Expensive | Business Insider
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interesting
Algorithm, dynamic pricing, AI-recommendation.
This is enshittification that we call tech.
the reason for the difference might be because the other woman is heavier and could damage the chair while the asian woman was pretty lightweight
Lol
How would they know their weight without spying on them?
The prices are not high. Human intelligence is low.
Never look up flights without a VPN anymore, learned that the hard way
Does that do anything
The easiest way to fix all of this is to refuse to play the game. None of us need to go to concerts, games or anything else that requires us to use these monopoly ticketing companies. Boycott them and they will either fix the issue or go under. I’m so fed up with the monopoly these companies have and I myself have seen where the concert ticket is really cheap and the fees cost almost as much as the ticket itself.
Use a VPN router and a new accounts. You can avoid price hikes like this if you’re smart.
Also read “One map shows where US renters are feeling the most squeezed”: https://bit.ly/4iST9FY
And “Junk fees are coming for everything — even your haircut”: https://bit.ly/4zqbIYD
Thank you, Business Insider — this was a clear and important piece. For generations, a posted price was a promise: everyone saw the same number, and that sameness was part of the trust. As someone who builds a luxury footwear brand, I have learned that trust is the only thing a brand truly sells — the product is the proof of it. When two customers see a different price for the same thing, that trust quietly breaks, even if neither of them can explain why. What do you think businesses lose first when pricing stops being transparent — the customer’s loyalty, or the customer’s belief that the price was ever fair?
Airlines have been doing this before AI, so why have lawakers not done anything previously? It’s not like this problem is new.
These companies keep saying they don’t use user data for pricing. Then why the heck are they collecting them for?
Should be banned, waiting for the EU to get something going against it.