Teacherjh wrote:
But look at how angry people became when Amazon experimented with the old
fashioned approach. ["customized" pricing]


Amazon did it the sneaky way, by (as some economists might put it) taking
advantage of the consumer's ignorance, and of their special knowledge of each
individual consumer (gained through logging their purchases, and perhaps even
spying on their web surfing and correlating it with other databases). This is
a Bad Thing, no matter who does it, be it the credit card companies, the
neighbor across the street, a high school student in Pakistan, or the TSA.

Well if you're talking about customized pricing then the credit card
companies charge different interest rates depending on whether you
got their 'teaser' rate, your credit score, how long you've been with
them, etc.; the neighbor across the street (in other words a case where
you know the seller) probably will sell his used items to you at a
different price depending on whether you're a relative, close friend,
casual acquaintance, etc.; the student in Pakistan is likely to
negotiate the price of anything; and I wouldn't trust the TSA enough
to buy from them no matter what the price.