Tiered pricing is EVERYWHERE now. In supermarkets, if you don’t have their app/loyalty card you have to pay higher prices. They frame it as a “discount” or “savings” for having the app, but clearly it’s just a punishment for not giving them your info and allowing them to track/advertise at you.
In restaurants/fast food places, you get “discounts” (i.e. regular prices) via the app/email list, and if you don’t have the app or give them your email address you don’t get the discount (read: you have to pay higher prices). And of course they can “tailor” personalised “deals” directly at you based on your past behaviour to optimise how much money they get out of you.
I just looked at a hotel and they’re advertising a “discount” if you give them your email address (read: a higher price if you don’t allow them to advertise at you).
I absolutely hate this behaviour. I know exactly why it’s there: some people are willing to pay more for convenience/no ads, and some are willing to go to more effort / put up with ads for a lower price. Either way they get more money out of you: the logical conclusion of capitalism and chasing higher profits.
It feels like this should be illegal. It feels like a cousin of price gouging, which is already illegal. Ofc it never will be outlawed in america - idk how much this happens across the pond though - but I hope one day this could be outlawed in europe.
I don’t think it’s wrong for shops to offer a simple, optional reward program (spend x amount, get y discount) as an incentive to shop there. Often you can enter a fake name and temporary email address or email alias (simplelogin.io has a free plan for aliases).
It’s excessive data collection for targeting advertising, the push to install apps, and dynamic pricing which I strongly oppose, especially when there is a lack of transparency surrounding it.
It starts that way. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult to navigate. Instead of straight discounts they have started with bonus missions where you have to buy x amount of this certain brand to get 1 more for free and stuff and it’s just maniacal
It’s just another thing which will enshittyfy with time
In my opinion dynamic pricing is the worst thing that any company can provide. I imagine it’s only going to get more popular in the future considering how much data is available now, too.
Even data collection from a grocery store isn’t inherently problematic. With all the perishables they have it helps plan inventory if they have more data.
Yes, analytics aren’t inherently bad. They can be helpful in planning inventory and improving services like you said, but that can be accomplished with anonymized data.
The problems arise when more data is collected than is necessary to make helpful business decisions, when highly specific individual profiles and digital footprints are created, and when the data is shared with third parties who can use it for purposes other than the ones listed by who you first gave them to.