Abstract This paper discusses a recent controversy in which Amazon.com was found to be pricing the same product differently for different customers. This paper addresses the ethical implications that such an action could have on such a young industry. Is it discrimination or is it justified research?
Imagine this: you are strolling through the aisles of your favorite grocery store. You have the sudden craving for some sweets so you head to the cereal aisle. There you see a seemingly endless array of colorful boxes. You stroll on over, pushing your cart all the way, as you finally end up in front of a cheerful box of Cap'n Crunch. You look at the price, and, lucky you, this product is on sale! Normally $4.13, it is now only $3.85. You are so pleased with this find that you drop the original in your cart and reach for another box. You think everything is fine until you happen to glance at the price tag. This one says $4.00! Thinking you made a mistake, you check your original box and there you see that, indeed, the price is different! In a whirl of confusion, you begin randomly selecting boxes of Cap'n Crunch flinging them aside as you read the price tags. $3.75, $3.90, $4.10. All different! You realize that someone out there either has a very bad short-term memory, or they must think you are truly oblivious.
Don't think this can happen? Think again. This same ordeal happened to nearly 7,000 shoppers on the popular e-commerce site Amazon.com last September as they were innocently shopping for their favorite DVDs. As a shopper went online for a particular DVD, they would be granted a discount of either 20, 30, or 40 percent for a specific DVD. Problem was, the different prices were given simultaneously to different customers! At first, Amazon thought they would get away with what they called "a random pricing experiment", but as customers began comparing prices on Amazon's very own forums, strange anomalies began to arise. Customers found that, not only were different people getting different discounts, but sometimes if a different browser were used, the same person could get different discounts on the same computer! Needless to say, consumers bitterly attacked Amazon's betrayal of trust and demanded their money back. Within days, Amazon's CEO extraordinaire himself, Jeff Bezos, issued an official apology and refund to their customers, all the while denying that any
...t be in business very long. But, for instance, what if RGIS was offered the chance to perform one “test” inventory for a company that had many stores and the inventory went extremely well because of the customer service levels provided? RGIS would have the opportunity to service this customer’s other stores not because of the data, but because of the service they received. This human factor played huge role in garnering business for the RGIS and yet their employees have no chance in earning any more compensation than they would have for simply putting data into a machine. Let’s look at other ethics principles and see where an example like the one above would fit in.
mind, he would not let her, and that made her feel like she was less of a
It is important that we examine their poems so we can know what they experienced. It is helpful to others because they may have experienced the same situation. They may have also wanted to speak.
same time imposes his will on her. He hinders her from having her own thoughts.
to the powerful imagery she weaves throughout the first half of the poem. In addition, Olds
does so she can break his heart and the pain will be even worse. This
only this, but Dickinson illustrates poetic skill in the unity of the poem. She makes her
.... He is a fool and doesn't see that she 'played' him and used him to satisfy one of her desires.
Treanor, T.. (2010). Amazon: Love Them? Hate Them? Let's Follow the Money. Publishing Research Quarterly, 26(2), 119-128. Retrieved February 24, 2012, from ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry. (Document ID: 2377177581).
...eable quality in a woman is her beauty. In addition, Duffy makes the protagonist annihilate her husband even though in the original myth, Medusa was decapitated, thereby challenging the speculations that a characteristic of women is to be defend less and insubstantial, dating back to ancient times, by showing that women too are vengeful conquerors.
Few other companies can compete with Amazon’s ability to use ecommerce to cut costs of manufacturing, selling, holding, and making its products as affordable as possible. This is an attribute that has become increasingly important to American’s as they try to recover the massive loss in average income that accrued during the recession of 2008 and 2009. In a scholarly article written by two University of Chicago economic students, Ethan Lieber and Chad Syverson, in 2011, “Online vs. Offline Competition” there is a comparison made by the competition for book sales with the traditional retail store Barnes & Noble and Amazon’s online book sales. In the article the two writers focus on Amazon’s ability to undercut Barnes & Noble’s costs due to their ability to hold less inventory, buy in bulk if needed, and have a lower employment cost per book sold. This was contributing to Amazon’s lead in book sales, becoming the “World’s Largest Bookseller” and current control of the book sales market. Another huge advantage that Amazon online sales has over retail stores is the absence in income tax due to having buyers adopt these costs while still keeping the price of the product lower. “Only when the online seller “has nexus” in the consumer’s state is the sales tax automatically added to the transaction price by the firm. (16, Lieber, Syverson)” This shows
...mmunity. In addition, businesses should not play by their own rules because they would put rules to their own advantage and ignore consumer’s rights. There is no doubt that businesses want to motivate themselves to maximize profits; however, that should not be acceptable it the consumers livelihood is at stake. Businesses and organizations influence the community at large therefore they should be responsible for their community and indeed implement ethical behavior.
Price Discrimination exists when sales of identical goods or services are transacted at different prices from the same provider. In a theoretical market with perfect information, no transaction costs or prohibition on secondary exchange (or re-selling) to prevent arbitrage, price discrimination can be a feature only of imperfectly competitive markets. Otherwise, the moment the seller tries to sell the same good at different prices, the buyer at the lower price can arbitrage by selling to the consumer buying at the higher price but with a tiny discount. However, market frictions in oligopolies such as the airlines and even in fully competitive retail or industrial markets allow for a limited degree of differential pricing to different consumers. Price discrimination also occurs when it costs more to supply one customer than it does another, and yet the supplier charges both the same price.
In the business world, price discrimination can be detrimental to small businesses trying to compete with larger organizations pricing. In the 1930s congress was worried about large multimarket firms using predatory marketing techniques in certain markets to bankrupt smaller firms in the area. In response, Congress enacted the Robinson-Patman act which prohibits larger forms conducting pricing strategies that contribute towards becoming a monopoly by getting rid of their rivals, the smaller family owned stores. With this measure in place the smaller mom and pop stores are better protected from the larger chains and can help to contribute more to the local economy. A downside of the act from a consumer standpoint is that the larger chain firm
Imagery is a common form of technique used in poetry in which the author uses visualization to demonstrate