Online retail website prices offered to consumers
vary according to demographic and profile information about the consumer
available to retailers, a recent story in the Wall Street Journal and on ABC
News Thursday night says. The WSJ story,
by Jennifer Valentino-Devries, Jeremy Singer-Vine and Ashkan Soltani is here. One retailer mentioned was Staples.
Demographics include zipcode, age, marital status,
and possible social media behavior.
The biggest concern might be that differential
pricing will erase advantages to consumers of Internet shopping, where everyday
items in rural areas cost more because of lack of competition. Monday, I found that to be the case, as I
drove along US29 south of Charlottesville and found almost no businesses at all
for thirty miles; the one small gas
station did not have an operating restroom and relatively few attractive snack
items inside. The “boonies” really can
have this problem. I remember
encountering this sort of thing in tidewater North Carolina (“David Lynch Pee-Dee
country”) one time.
But Likeonomics could enter into the picture. I
wonder if this can affect the “best offers” on Priceline for airfares and
hotels.
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