Demand/Surge pricing coming to supermarkets soon
Discussion
They do it to some degree allready with expiring discounted stuff at the end of the day.
As has been said surge/variable/peak pricing is everywhere so doesnt bother me, so ling as theyre not underhand about what they want and what they allude to charge, eg phone co's charging for freephone numbers/excess usage etc
As has been said surge/variable/peak pricing is everywhere so doesnt bother me, so ling as theyre not underhand about what they want and what they allude to charge, eg phone co's charging for freephone numbers/excess usage etc
I love Scan as you Shop as you easily monitor your spending as you go along and confirm each item's price as it scans but most importantly you can pack the stuff straight away. I absolutely hate taking stuff out the trolley, putting it on the conveyor and packing it all at once.
To be honest this variable pricing stuff already happens to a certain extent.
To be honest this variable pricing stuff already happens to a certain extent.
Supermarkets do this already. For many things the time interval over which the prices change isn't that short, but it's no different in principle.
On the scale of things I worry about this doesn't even figure. Commercial organisations try to make profits in different ways all the time. The consumer just needs to be organised/numerate enough not to get suckered.
On the scale of things I worry about this doesn't even figure. Commercial organisations try to make profits in different ways all the time. The consumer just needs to be organised/numerate enough not to get suckered.
Roofless Toothless said:
What's the difference between this and the holiday industry putting up prices during the school holidays?
We seem to have gone along with this for enough years. Just call it 'supply and demand' and everything is OK.
Or just call it 'redistribution of wealth' and everything is even better...We seem to have gone along with this for enough years. Just call it 'supply and demand' and everything is OK.
cuprabob said:
I love Scan as you Shop as you easily monitor your spending as you go along and confirm each item's price as it scans but most importantly you can pack the stuff straight away. I absolutely hate taking stuff out the trolley, putting it on the conveyor and packing it all at once.
To be honest this variable pricing stuff already happens to a certain extent.
Much as I hate Tesco and Waitrose, who also do the scan and shop, not having this service is a real disincentive to shopping at their competitors. Pack trolley, unpack onto belt, repack bags. With scan and shop you can, for example put chilled and frozen stuff straight into cool bags, even ones with ice packs in ready frozen from home.To be honest this variable pricing stuff already happens to a certain extent.
Having said that Lidl etc certainly help with no nonsense pricing and cashiers. You do gave to be careful with the few branded goods they sell, odd ball pack sizes can sometimes mean the saving isn't what you think it is, though their own branded stuff is ususllynon the ball price and quality wise, though they do gave some products that are not so nice, but that's a matter of taste. Used to have a colleague who swore by Netto as he claimed to like overdone slightly burnt crisps.
Kermit power said:
Personally, I think it's a great idea, as the chances are most of the impact of this will be to bring prices down if you get smart about when you shop, rather than putting them up.
Yes, you might pay £3 for a sandwich at lunchtime and £2 for it at 11:00, but I suspect that at the moment, you'd be paying £3 for it at 11:00 as well. If shops can spread their customer load out more across the day, it works out better for them, as they're not paying more staff than they need for a couple of hours either side of the lunchtime rush just to make sure they're sufficiently staffed for said rush.
Where I could see prices increasing is if/when they get round to linking the pricing not only to time of day, but also to real time stock levels. That way, if something is starting to run low, they can do real time supply and demand based pricing, which increases the chance you'll get what you need if you're willing to pay a bit extra for it, but still have the option to walk away if you don't want to pay the increased price.
As for petrol pricing, if it's 5p a litre to fill up, let's say, at 23:00 Sunday-Thursday, then great! I'll avoid the peak price and just fill up when it's cheaper.
You have got to be seriously naive or a bit thick if you believe that this "will be to bring prices down". Yes, you might pay £3 for a sandwich at lunchtime and £2 for it at 11:00, but I suspect that at the moment, you'd be paying £3 for it at 11:00 as well. If shops can spread their customer load out more across the day, it works out better for them, as they're not paying more staff than they need for a couple of hours either side of the lunchtime rush just to make sure they're sufficiently staffed for said rush.
Where I could see prices increasing is if/when they get round to linking the pricing not only to time of day, but also to real time stock levels. That way, if something is starting to run low, they can do real time supply and demand based pricing, which increases the chance you'll get what you need if you're willing to pay a bit extra for it, but still have the option to walk away if you don't want to pay the increased price.
As for petrol pricing, if it's 5p a litre to fill up, let's say, at 23:00 Sunday-Thursday, then great! I'll avoid the peak price and just fill up when it's cheaper.
The reality is that the baseline prices will stay the same as they are now but they will increase at peak periods such as lunchtime, Friday evenings, Saturdays so the end result will be you won't be paying any less than you are now, but now you'll have to re-organise your life to ensure that you only do your shopping at 4am (maybe a slight exaggeration) otherwise your shopping bill will rise substantially.
It's got absolutely nothing to do with reducing footfall at peak periods, it is being done purely to extort more money from their customers in underhand ways to further increase their already sizeable profits.
What will be even better if the products sold at peak time are of smaller quantity than at all other times. Like they do when a new product is launched and then gains momentum the sizes usually get smaller (even though the packaging stays the same to fool the fools), e.g Nakd or Trek bars.
PS I want a cut if you ever implement this idea Tesco et al.
PS I want a cut if you ever implement this idea Tesco et al.
NoIP said:
You have got to be seriously naive or a bit thick if you believe that this "will be to bring prices down".
The reality is that the baseline prices will stay the same as they are now but they will increase at peak periods such as lunchtime, Friday evenings, Saturdays so the end result will be you won't be paying any less than you are now, but now you'll have to re-organise your life to ensure that you only do your shopping at 4am (maybe a slight exaggeration) otherwise your shopping bill will rise substantially.
It's got absolutely nothing to do with reducing footfall at peak periods, it is being done purely to extort more money from their customers in underhand ways to further increase their already sizeable profits.
The notion that you would consider me to be naive or thick is remarkably ironic given that you seem to believe the major supermarkets are going to win back custom from the likes of Aldi and Lidl by increasing prices! The reality is that the baseline prices will stay the same as they are now but they will increase at peak periods such as lunchtime, Friday evenings, Saturdays so the end result will be you won't be paying any less than you are now, but now you'll have to re-organise your life to ensure that you only do your shopping at 4am (maybe a slight exaggeration) otherwise your shopping bill will rise substantially.
It's got absolutely nothing to do with reducing footfall at peak periods, it is being done purely to extort more money from their customers in underhand ways to further increase their already sizeable profits.
You'd be amazed at how many supplier funded promotions don't get offered to the consumer due to it taking too long and costing too much to change the POS material inc the shelf edge label, especially in the non-food areas of the store, the entertainment category for instance.
Electronic POS will enable promotions to go live the same day we do the deal which is a great outcome.
Electronic POS will enable promotions to go live the same day we do the deal which is a great outcome.
Problem is people who will be there at peak times will likely be unable to make alternative plans
Eg. The spontaneous or the desparate shopper will find themselves half way round they supermarket wth a loaded trolley before they notice the prices and will have no option but to suck it up. Fine if they are "normal" prices but as others have suggested "normal" will be an increasingly vague concept.
Plus - i assume they have considered the impact and potential for customers to vote with their feet. Either they feel other chains will follow suit or they feel they will avoid the uncertainty by shopping online. Perhaps it is an attempt to drive the latter - the larger supermarkets esp. Tesco probably feel comfident that they have the best online shopping infrastructure that others such as Aldi/Lidl cannot match. Trouble is if it is a push to forced online shopping it will result in store closures and job losses. None of this is good for the consumer or for society.
Honestly I feel its time to vote with our feet and support businesses that support comsumers with honest pricing and local economies with employment. Being slightly antisocial when it comes to shopping i used to gravitate towards the self-service checkouts but am increasingly using staffed checkouts in an effort to protect those jobs.
lately, any time I visit a larger outlet its carnage and nothing can be found, stock locations make no sense, the isles are full of unloaded crates of produce- simply because there are barely any floor staff anymore. If you need help finding something its impossible finding a member of staff. this latest idea must be an effort to promote online shopping to justify store closure.
This opens fantastic opportunity for our friends in financial services - supermarket prices derivatives! Imagine how fun it would be to be able to bet on how much the price of that tuna sandwich will be at 1PM in 2 weeks time. The opportunities are endless!
PS I want a cut if anyone implements this idea.
PS I want a cut if anyone implements this idea.
Kermit power said:
The notion that you would consider me to be naive or thick is remarkably ironic given that you seem to believe the major supermarkets are going to win back custom from the likes of Aldi and Lidl by increasing prices!
Who said anything about winning back custom? Those are your words, not mine. I stand by my original comment : there will be no price drops in the supermarkets from introducing dynamic pricing. The reasons for this are two-fold :1. Greed.
2. They have no need to do so as the exodus of customers to Aldi and Lidl was short-lived when they realised they could only buy half of their weekly shop there and many of their favourite brands are not stocked, so they've mostly returned to Tesco/Asda and carried on as before.
Andehh said:
98elise said:
We did a city break in Vegas a staying in a suite in Mandalay Bay, for less than £500 per person all in. There is no way that was making money.
How did you manage that? 
Supermarkets already can react to price changes but when we are talking live time price rises then it is a TOTALLY different ball game than just changing prices overnight.
As someone else has said, this will mean all prices have a baseline which they are unlikely to go below and will only increase. There may be the rare case where some products go cheaper to get rid of them but I cannot see that happening for most product.
As someone else has said, this will mean all prices have a baseline which they are unlikely to go below and will only increase. There may be the rare case where some products go cheaper to get rid of them but I cannot see that happening for most product.
Matt.. said:
This sounds like a great way to get people to not use normal supermarkets and to go online. Ocado would do well from this.
They've already implemented this online.Tesco said:
Your shopping basket guide
Please note that the prices on our Grocery website are guide prices only.
The actual price you pay is the price charged in store when your order is put together for delivery. This is because:
Please note that the prices on our Grocery website are guide prices only.
The actual price you pay is the price charged in store when your order is put together for delivery. This is because:
- The prices of some products may vary between when you place your order and when it is delivered. (...)
VGTICE said:
Tesco said:
Your shopping basket guide
Please note that the prices on our Grocery website are guide prices only.
The actual price you pay is the price charged in store when your order is put together for delivery. This is because:
Please note that the prices on our Grocery website are guide prices only.
The actual price you pay is the price charged in store when your order is put together for delivery. This is because:
- The prices of some products may vary between when you place your order and when it is delivered. (...)
Wow, I did not know that. That is really poor form imho. I mean come on, this is not 1994 when the technology did not exist to ensure pricing is consistent. If they wanted to do this they could do quite easily. It's clear this bulls
t is done deliberately to extort more money from their customers. I wonder how many guesses one would need to make to guess the correct answer to how many times their actual online shopping bill has turned out to be less than the calculated "guide price" figure... 
NoIP said:
VGTICE said:
Tesco said:
Your shopping basket guide
Please note that the prices on our Grocery website are guide prices only.
The actual price you pay is the price charged in store when your order is put together for delivery. This is because:
Please note that the prices on our Grocery website are guide prices only.
The actual price you pay is the price charged in store when your order is put together for delivery. This is because:
- The prices of some products may vary between when you place your order and when it is delivered. (...)
Wow, I did not know that. That is really poor form imho. I mean come on, this is not 1994 when the technology did not exist to ensure pricing is consistent. If they wanted to do this they could do quite easily. It's clear this bullst is done deliberately to extort more money from their customers. I wonder how many guesses one would need to make to guess the correct answer to how many times their actual online shopping bill has turned out to be less than the calculated "guide price" figure... You can leave stuff in your basket for ages.
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