Price Gouging in the headlines

$200 hammers seems like a deal now.

 

Wouldn't it make sense to quote an aggregate price increase? Or a price increase by category or something? That the price of a 12-piece pot and pan set hawked by Drew Barrymore went up 51% isn't that compelling a story.

 

Coffee is going to go up even more in a couple months unless Trump stops politicizing tariff rates on Brazil in retaliation for his coup compadre.

 

Who a couple of weeks ago, just before he could go to real prison, tried to solder off his "anklet" (tornozeleira, ankle monitor) he wears for home arrest and zip 15 minutes across Brasilia to the airport, whisked away to the United States. An alarm was set off when he messed with the monitor so, No dice. Cops show up and send him early to the pokey.

Trump, that same day to reporters: (paraphrasing) "And I'm going to be meeting real soon with Bolsonaro. Witch hunt, very unfair...."
Reporters (taken aback): "Bolsonaro was just taken into custody for trying to remove his ankle monitor."
Trump: (pause, also taken aback) "That's too bad, that's too bad."

 

That's so shitty, but also completely unsurprising. This kind of flex pricing is going to come to brick and mortar stores soon enough as soon as retailers figure out a way to obfuscate it so it's not so obvious to the shoppers.

It has been trending that way with requiring shoppers to use kroger account and kroger app to clip in-app only coupons. Grocery stores can already track your exact location in the store so they can likely determine what what you're looking at. So if the store sees you standing in front of blueberries and ultimately walks away after picking it up and putting it down, the store can probably push a coupon to the app to push you over the hump. Now they know the maximum price you'll pay.

They'll also know who does coupon clipping and who doesn't care. My wife really dislikes grocery shopping so she usually just picks up exactly what she wants to buy and leaves without doing any comparison or coupons. So in the near future, her prices will likely be astronomical since the store knows that she's insensitive to prices.