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.
Yes, it’s clearly a prong of a breach of the public trust…late stage capitalism stuff.
In the context of a supermarket (but applies to most other sectors), the major players have functionally agreed to split territory rather than compete for existing ones. So, in lieu of competition, basically what we see is forced loyalty where they attempt to capture each consumer entirely in their networks. It’s the answer to the “Wal-Martification” of the west: there’s still a skeleton of anti-trust so we’re not seeing 3 Wal-Marts split up the world…we’re seeing alliances of mega-corporations from different sectors work together.
What this looks like is your grocery store soft forcing you to use their preferred bank, gas station, sporting good store, etc, in exchange for what used to be normal prices. The only way you can avoid it is by having more money so you can join a more elite network that gives you a different illusion of selection and deals.
The horse has almost entirely left the barn. Long ago we allowed retailers to envelop too many sectors, retailers to own their manufacturers, retailers to forge monopolies. It was, of course, all promised to bring savings to the consumer…but all it does is bring profits to the few.