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Dead Pressed posted:Yeah. I don't get it either. As a rider its awesome. Uber keeps dropping their prices because they have so many drivers set up that they have to in order to have any demand at all. Early adopting drivers seem to be pissed about this. Customers, on the other hand, don't hate it so much. The point is to put pressure on drivers. That was always the point. Just the first drivers were cab drivers. Now it's the inefficient Uber drivers.
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Oct 30, 2014 04:42
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There's a little reputation effect in play, as well. Yes if you show up and the entire city is sold out you could probably charge 2k and get a room because the guest traveled hours to get there, but you'd basically forever have no business afterwards due to it. Don't quote that as some insane justification for hating variable pricing, because it's not. It's the logical evidence you have that the variable pricing ISN'T gouging, because Uber plans to exist tomorrow and would avoid a 1 time winfall that would scorch their future profits unless that 1 time winfall was massive (and this is no where near that size). Seriously, variable pricing rocks and this was a great example of why it rocks. What sucks? Gas shortages for people evacuating from disasters due to not allowing surge pricing, or shortages from lack of supply when prices are fixed too high (the cab industry during off-peak hours).
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Dec 16, 2014 20:07
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posh spaz posted:I actually have an MBA - Finance, but thanks. I'm familiar with the concept. I disagree with your perception of the steepness and location of hotels on that curve. And it is curvilinear in this case, I don't think it's a straight line. Curves change slope depending on time. You're arguing that it's inelastic due to a time limitation, which is inherently a fine claim (and true) but the falsely claiming that that in-elasticity is somehow exploitative. A high short run price (and profit) signals to suppliers to enter a market, which is the sole goal of surge pricing. To get more drivers on the road in response to more passengers. If there was ACTUALLY a necessary evacuation, surge pricing would be far superior to flat rate pricing in providing resources for people to leave, and in the long run surge pricing signals to people who are not Uber drivers to consider becoming Uber drivers to take advantage of it.
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Dec 17, 2014 02:41
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jabro posted:A hotel raising their rates because people are willing to pay a premium to be close to a convention is not price gouging. Even that type of gouging has benefits that people poo poo on. Ever lived in a Hurricane path? The water in every store sells out and so does all of the gas. People load down their cars with cases of water because once a state of emergency is declared stores can not alter prices. Demand rises, prices fixed, shortage. This is only a problem because no one will bring more water in to resupply; if there was more flexibility in pricing, there'd be better supply response to the demand, because every store within 100 miles would love to sell their water at 500% markup. So yeah, both the $1000 cab and the $500 hotel are good for people, generally. Sure, they can be bad, but neither of your examples are cases where they are. No one is arguing semantics. There's zero difference between price gouging and surge pricing. I literally just use surge pricing because when you say gouging idiots say "THAT'S A BAD WORD" and salivate or something, so I avoid using it since it's a loaded term that misrepresents that a resource is in high demand and short supply in a temporary flux in the market, and the absolute sole reason that prices exist is to be a nexus of information between suppliers and consumers regarding the relative scarcity of goods. The fact that we're having this conversation with someone who has an MBA is loving astounding. FunOne posted:Typed in "Taxi kidnapping and raping a female passenger" into Google. Boston Uber is the first result. Next Fort Lauderdale cab driver, New York, Capitola Village, New orleans, Columbus. Whoa whoa that New Orleans' cabbie totally claims he was innocent and was just involved in a mutually consensual fling with an insanely drunk woman that he observed get into a fight and leave her boyfriend. I own a cab in New Orleans, so I'm pretty sure I read that article to quickly make sure it a) wasn't my driver/cab and b) wasn't my company. I'm not sure to what extent the liability extends to the companies, though, depending on their business model. In New Orleans, our company is actually an umbrella brand for a lot of companies that each "own" their own CPNCs such that I'm not sure who gets left holding the bag. The amount of poo poo that cab drivers do and the continued existence of the companies leads me to believe they tend to never get held liable for anything, however.
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Dec 24, 2014 08:24
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