Back in the mid teens, I lived across the street from a bar in New York that had dynamic pricing for beers on tap! It felt like a novelty at the time, but that was also before Uber and surge pricing became a regular feature of my life when I later moved to San Francisco. The thing with surge pricing was that we then had alternatives in public transportation, or walking if we had the time. To your point, Wendy's seems to have flubbed the announcement by not recognizing the price sensitivity and lack of options of their customers. Perhaps they could have charted a different course by offering "dynamic value," deals or freebies for visits during quiet parts of the day. Nevertheless, I think it's a good idea for cities to explore!
While I think dynamic pricing has a place, I'm worried about it's implementation when it's not easy to predict the cost.
Amtrak works in the case because visiting New York is nice, but not essential. You'll check and decide to go if it's cheap. Same for Uber. However, I'd argue that changing people's habits would actual be more effective with different levels of static prices. If you want to spread the passengers to off peak, make sure everyone knows when peak charges are and let them factor it into their day-to-day life.
This is totally reasonable. I guess I would agree that some static tiers of pricing is maybe the best way to go in general, but I also really like the Philly arts example. I am so glad they were able to cash in on their nights w/ Sting! I think about this also with big events that are coming to Philadelphia in 2026 -- World Cup, 250th anniversary of the country, etc. How could we optimize this from a tax revenue and equitable visitor experience perspective?
Back in the mid teens, I lived across the street from a bar in New York that had dynamic pricing for beers on tap! It felt like a novelty at the time, but that was also before Uber and surge pricing became a regular feature of my life when I later moved to San Francisco. The thing with surge pricing was that we then had alternatives in public transportation, or walking if we had the time. To your point, Wendy's seems to have flubbed the announcement by not recognizing the price sensitivity and lack of options of their customers. Perhaps they could have charted a different course by offering "dynamic value," deals or freebies for visits during quiet parts of the day. Nevertheless, I think it's a good idea for cities to explore!
While I think dynamic pricing has a place, I'm worried about it's implementation when it's not easy to predict the cost.
Amtrak works in the case because visiting New York is nice, but not essential. You'll check and decide to go if it's cheap. Same for Uber. However, I'd argue that changing people's habits would actual be more effective with different levels of static prices. If you want to spread the passengers to off peak, make sure everyone knows when peak charges are and let them factor it into their day-to-day life.
This is totally reasonable. I guess I would agree that some static tiers of pricing is maybe the best way to go in general, but I also really like the Philly arts example. I am so glad they were able to cash in on their nights w/ Sting! I think about this also with big events that are coming to Philadelphia in 2026 -- World Cup, 250th anniversary of the country, etc. How could we optimize this from a tax revenue and equitable visitor experience perspective?