Surge pricing is spreading to bowling alleys, restaurants, gyms, and more

midian182

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WTF?! Surge pricing – when a business dynamically changes its prices based on market demands – is a common strategy across several industries, especially ride-hailing services such as Uber. But the practice is spreading to so many other areas, including gyms, bowling alleys, movie theaters, and restaurants, that it could soon become the standard for all businesses.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Alex Yenni tried to take his wife and 5-year-old son bowling with another family in Petaluma, California, on the last Thursday of the year during winter break. He booked two lanes for two hours at 3pm and was quoted $418.90, double what it would have cost at 3 pm on a Thursday in February.

The bowling alley CFO explained to the WSJ that the price was based on demand for that day and time, "simultaneously maximizing guest happiness through reasonable wait times and maximizing profitability by scaling price when the willingness to pay is there."

Most people associate surge pricing with ride-hailing, travel, and event ticket companies, but more businesses are using the strategy to charge customers extra at certain times. Movie theaters have started using it for blockbusters, as was the case with The Batman. AMC is seemingly taking this to another level by charging extra for seats with better views during peak shows.

Even restaurants aren't safe. Instead of offering discounts or 2-for-1 deals at different times of the day, some are using AI-driven dynamic pricing to boost their bottom lines. Insider reported on a startup called Sauce that creates AI-powered software that can set surge prices for restaurant and online-shopping deliveries. "We've seen restaurants during a peak time raise their price 40%," said cofounder Colin Webb.

Gym classes and golf courses are other areas surge pricing has crept into. Restaurants could eventually use it against those dining in, not just for their delivery/takeaway services, and electronic shelf labels (above) could enable dynamic pricing to be applied to brick-and-mortar grocery stores.

Many companies are looking to tighten their belts and squeeze as much money as possible from customers in these post-Covid times of economic uncertainty. Unless the public protests the use of surge pricing by taking their custom elsewhere, expect this practice to become increasingly widespread.

Images: Bruce Mars, Franklin Heijnen

Permalink to story.

 
How is surge pricing in grocery stores a thing? I can see, though don't agree with, the point of surge pricing, but the grocery store thing is just silly. We have to grab all our own food then, in many cases, check ourselves out and bag our goods because they're too cheap to hire cashiers.

That is one business model that doesn't make sense.
 
How is surge pricing in grocery stores a thing? I can see, though don't agree with, the point of surge pricing, but the grocery store thing is just silly. We have to grab all our own food then, in many cases, check ourselves out and bag our goods because they're too cheap to hire cashiers.

That is one business model that doesn't make sense.

It makes sense for the company. With the relentless elimination of consumer choice in brick-and-mortar retail, the surviving outfits in each market are just going to put the screws to their customers ever harder. Wal-mart actually lobbied Washington for measures that *increased* their own cost of doing business during COVID because they knew that only themselves and a few other big outfits could absorb those costs. Smaller competitors were driven under exactly as planned.
 
"The Wall Street Journal reports that Alex Yenni tried to take his wife and 5-year-old son bowling with another family in Petaluma, California, on the last Thursday of the year during winter break. He booked two lanes for two hours at 3pm and was quoted $418.90, double what it would have cost at 3 pm on a Thursday in February."

LMAO yeah, its California. No surprise there.

Two lanes for two hours at $418.90. If that is double the price, then normal price is $209.45. Utter insanity. Here in the backwards evil midwest, three lanes for 4 hours is only $175.

That being said, this will hopefully drive states to outlaw surge pricing in its entirety. It shouldn't exist, period.
It makes sense for the company. With the relentless elimination of consumer choice in brick-and-mortar retail, the surviving outfits in each market are just going to put the screws to their customers ever harder. Wal-mart actually lobbied Washington for measures that *increased* their own cost of doing business during COVID because they knew that only themselves and a few other big outfits could absorb those costs. Smaller competitors were driven under exactly as planned.
And now they will utilize said screws to ensure that no competitor can open in the county every again. The greed of these corporations is going to drive mroe people towards profit caps and higher taxes.
 
"The Wall Street Journal reports that Alex Yenni tried to take his wife and 5-year-old son bowling with another family in Petaluma, California, on the last Thursday of the year during winter break. He booked two lanes for two hours at 3pm and was quoted $418.90, double what it would have cost at 3 pm on a Thursday in February."

LMAO yeah, its California. No surprise there.

Two lanes for two hours at $418.90. If that is double the price, then normal price is $209.45. Utter insanity. Here in the backwards evil midwest, three lanes for 4 hours is only $175.

That being said, this will hopefully drive states to outlaw surge pricing in its entirety. It shouldn't exist, period.
And now they will utilize said screws to ensure that no competitor can open in the county every again. The greed of these corporations is going to drive mroe people towards profit caps and higher taxes.
We do have a great equalizer and that is the internet. Groceries have become so expensive at my local grocery store that services like Hello Fresh are actually CHEAPER than shopping in the store. I even started trying to buy and bulk, meal prepping food, having frozen meals but I can go online and have food delivered to my house for cheaper than what I'm paying for at the store. If Big box stores really want to play this type of game they're just going to push people to e-commerce like amazon.

And, frankly, imagine a world without massive parking lots outside of strip malls and walmarts. I don't know how much of a bad thing that might really be. I actually HATE the experience of going to those super center stores.

Things like entertainment (IE, bowling) would be a bit harder to order online, but you can see where I'm going with this. If prices get too wild from stupid business practices the market will correct itself because at that point it WILL be worth peoples time to look for cheaper alternatives. I save almost a days worth of work everyweek by just being a smart shopper and spending a few hours online looking for deals. I'm fairly well off but I understand the value of my money because it took me 2 decades to get where I am. I don't part with my money easily. A penny saved is a penny earned, but when you start looking at it as the amount of days or hours you have to work it really changes your perspective on things.
 
Just, don't entertain these venues when they jack up these prices at certain times. Don't support this trend.

Let the restaurants be empty if they hike the price at that point in time. Eating at home will be cheaper.
Do exercise at home during peak hours.

Why is happening to this generation?

They are screwing the already f-ked up world.
 
We do have a great equalizer and that is the internet. Groceries have become so expensive at my local grocery store that services like Hello Fresh are actually CHEAPER than shopping in the store. I even started trying to buy and bulk, meal prepping food, having frozen meals but I can go online and have food delivered to my house for cheaper than what I'm paying for at the store. If Big box stores really want to play this type of game they're just going to push people to e-commerce like amazon.

And, frankly, imagine a world without massive parking lots outside of strip malls and walmarts. I don't know how much of a bad thing that might really be. I actually HATE the experience of going to those super center stores.

Things like entertainment (IE, bowling) would be a bit harder to order online, but you can see where I'm going with this. If prices get too wild from stupid business practices the market will correct itself because at that point it WILL be worth peoples time to look for cheaper alternatives. I save almost a days worth of work everyweek by just being a smart shopper and spending a few hours online looking for deals. I'm fairly well off but I understand the value of my money because it took me 2 decades to get where I am. I don't part with my money easily. A penny saved is a penny earned, but when you start looking at it as the amount of days or hours you have to work it really changes your perspective on things.
Entertainment venues have brass balls to be trying this. Especially theaters. they still struggle with shrinking audiences, and the slop that hollywood vomits out isnt helping. Surge pricing like this will only drive people to stream instead. Given wages are no longer rising but inflation keeps coming, hell even I have had issues, and despite efforts to cut spending I was shocked by last month. It's getting out of hand. Regular people just cannot afford things anymore.
Just, don't entertain these venues when they jack up these prices at certain times. Don't support this trend.

Let the restaurants be empty if they hike the price at that point in time. Eating at home will be cheaper.
Do exercise at home during peak hours.

Why is happening to this generation?

They are screwing the already f-ked up world.
People today have 0 self control. I watch my generation spend billions on sports gambling, spiral into debt to buy cars, buy WAY too much house, the latest iphones, ece all while their retirement accounts sit empty.

We need another major credit crunch.
 
"The Wall Street Journal reports that Alex Yenni tried to take his wife and 5-year-old son bowling with another family in Petaluma, California, on the last Thursday of the year during winter break. He booked two lanes for two hours at 3pm and was quoted $418.90, double what it would have cost at 3 pm on a Thursday in February."

The cost of bowling has jumped a lot over the past decade.

I don't know about renting out a lane for hours on end, but my wife and I used to take our two kids bowling. When it was just us and our daughter we'd look to bowl two games (usually take about 30 minutes), rental for shoes and it usually cost around $30 (give or take).

Over the next few years the cost went up and was around $50.

Add in our son a couple years later and we're now looking at almost $100 and this was maybe 5 years ago. I wouldn't be surprised if renting a lane for an hour would be $150 for 4 people and this is in MN. Then again, it also does depend on the day and time of day. If you want to bowl when a league is going and the open lanes are at a minimum availability, you'll pay more. If it's an off-hour time and the place is empty you're going to pay a lot less. If the kids are hungry and you get a pizza and beverages, add on another $30 easy.

The cost for a couple of games with 2 adults and 2 kids is just too rich for my blood. I'm not okay with spending $100+ to rent shoes and throw two games for about 30 minutes. We haven't been bowling for about 5 years now and I have no plans to go back. What used to be a fairly inexpensive way to kill some time and have some fun turned into an overpriced afternoon for us years ago.

I've started divvying up where I buy certain grocery items from because of the price hikes on everything.
Milk at Cub Foods = $3.99
Milk at HyVee = $4.29
Milk at KwikTrip = $3.09
Milk at Target = $2.99 (last time I saw, but before that it was $3.19)

Strawberries:
Cub Foods = $6.99
HyVee = $5.99 (sometimes $6.99)
Target = $4.99

Mac & Cheese:
Cub Foods = $1.29-$1.69
HyVee = $1.19-$1.69
Target = $0.99-$1.29

Eggs (the brand my wife likes, cost of 12 eggs last time I bought some a few weeks back)
Cub Foods =$5.99
HyVee = $6.29
Target = $5.99

Prices are close at times and sometimes way off, but when I can shave $50 off my grocery bill by divvying up where I buy things from, I'm all for it.
 
Entertainment venues have brass balls to be trying this. Especially theaters. they still struggle with shrinking audiences, and the slop that hollywood vomits out isnt helping. Surge pricing like this will only drive people to stream instead. Given wages are no longer rising but inflation keeps coming, hell even I have had issues, and despite efforts to cut spending I was shocked by last month. It's getting out of hand. Regular people just cannot afford things anymore.
My groceries went from ~$200/m to almost $700/m but I've managed to bring that down to $300-350/m. And going out has become almost a zero option, after a meal, drinks and a tip you're easily in it for $100. Although, I will say that It's been fun throwing small parts instead of going out where everyone brings something over and we either play games on the switch, Magic or just really any card game.
 
How in the hell are you going to put an extra charge on groceries? It's honestly amazing and brutally sad how every idea mankind comes up with we somehow use it to abuse ourselves.

marking up f**kin grocery stores, thats a low *** low.
 
Companies will begin to market these surge prices as "normal" and traditional prices as "discounts" and consumers won't bat an eyelash.
 
Just, don't entertain these venues when they jack up these prices at certain times. Don't support this trend.

Let the restaurants be empty if they hike the price at that point in time. Eating at home will be cheaper.
Do exercise at home during peak hours.

Why is happening to this generation?

They are screwing the already f-ked up world.
The problem is the Have's and Have Not's gap just keeps getting larger.

As the bowling alley CFO said, "maximizing profitability by scaling price when the willingness to pay is there."
 
I like the article picture. Not sure how hot babes exercising are related to surge pricing, but I'm sure I'll find a connection if I keep staring long enough. Just to clear things up: I'm not complaining.
 
Surge pricing? Great if you are a well off shareholder but sucks big time if you are at the lower end of the spectrum already struggling to make ends meet.

Wouldn't it be nice if clever software could help equalise these two extremes.................
 
These are the same companies that will be scratching their heads trying to figure out why they are losing customers or going out of business.
 
I think it works for a while but only to a point for rational people think that it would be a good idea to change their habits
 
Considering how people have been lining up in long lines to work for grocery stores (and stores like WalMart) rather than having people check them out, it seems there is considerable consumer appetite for paying more for less.

Just call it freedom. The freedom to overpay. The freedom to have increasingly worse customer service. The freedom to waste one's life (time/energy) doing a job more inefficiently than a pro.

In terms of restaurants, though, this surge pricing actually makes sense. If they can entice people to come in at odd hours to receive cheaper meals it could be a win-win.
 
I guess the retailers are trying it out and will continue down this path if enough people pay up. I personally haven't run into this locally - certainly not at a grocery store. It probably helps that I have 2 Vons, 2 Trader Joe's, Sprouts and other random grocery stores within 5 miles of my front door. I used to love bowling but wouldn't pay $400 for all-you-can-bowl monthly pass.
 
I thought 10 pin bowling in NZ wasn't cheap .
My city has one - not sure cost of lanes - kind of what you want - if just 2 people as game can be quick.

Anyway a family of 4 is US$35 for 1 game - so probably $70
game anytime is $13.5/person - think subsequent games 50% off ( could be wrong )
after 7pm Sun to Thurs 3 games $13 - so probably now best one to just take my son.

Think shoes are free

Opposite of surge pricing is going to big sold out sports game - and someone's friends can't make - they just give them away for free- seen it reasonably often - most ticket holders here in NZ just want face value - maybe different at concerts - definitely scalpers online
 
It's discriminatory and predatory practices.... but it is Kalifornia, where rules and laws don't apply.



 
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