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I have chalked most of the price hikes I see on Amazon to COVID.
A particular brand of salsa that I like and have bought in the past at $4 a jar are now being sold at almost $9 a jar. Same company. Same salsa. Same jar.
WTF is that? 
Edit/correction: seems the prices are starting to come down since I last looked a few months ago. $5-6 now per jar, give or take. Still too expensive in my opinion to what it used to be.
Arriba Hot Salsa[^]
modified 17-Mar-21 10:50am.
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Well, if it's supply and demand, it would be called "capitalism" - however it's not, since I've seen prices that don't have much of a link to supply/demand take off. Price gouging. But, I mean, salsa? Mrs. Wife just noted that one of the local bagel bakeries just jacked up it's price massively to $1.50/ea. Personally, I'd let them keep 'em until they rot. Will the others follow with the price hike (take-it-or-leave-it) or will business decline enough to punish them or, as is all to common, take the other "CP" route: Complain and Pay.
In the context of a particular brand you like they might think "they have you!" but since they're competing with a ton of other salsa brands, I don't see how they get away with it.
Some (non-online) items I but are suffering a bit from COVID, but we're talking about maybe 25% more the lowest "on-sale" price. It's all a magic mystery.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I recently heard that that's exactly what some vendors do.
If you search for something, you might "buy it on a whim if the price is low enough", so they give an enticing price.
But if you didn't buy it, and come back to "look again", now you're "serious" and you'll likely be willing to pay more.
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In this case, it's interesting that there are 3 sizes and the only one that went up happens to be the one I bought. Sure - just a coincidence.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I bought some SSDs from eBuyer a couple of weeks ago, and they are now 17% cheaper. But I know if I had waited the price would almost certainly have gone up.
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Tech is one of those things that (almost) always keeps getting cheaper over-all and for a specific item as it becomes less current (except extreme legacy needs - buying antiques).
The one reverse in the spike, for a short while, was from the tariffs on China which had their obvious effect. There, too, it eventually all gets absorbed. No one want to be caught holding last week's stuff.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I bought a woodworking vise from Amazon and asked my son if he wanted one for xmas present and he said yes.
The next day I went back to buy and the price had exactly doubled, from like $75 to $150. WTF...24 hrs?
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Not really, I saw fluctuations in both directions. The second time I bought Starbucks coffee it was more expensive than the first while the third time it was way cheaper.
GCS d--(d+) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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I would expect in this instance it is more a case that "the item was bought" rather then anything to do with it being bought by you specifically.
That is... the more an item sells = the more it's in demand = the more the vendor should charge.
Rather than... oh look, this mug is back again, let's charge him more this time.
Now if you had only browsed it yesterday (without buying) and it had gone up today, that would be more worrying - but still not something that couldn't be put down to coincidence.
Personally, I have never seen it myself, but I very very rarely buy something and then go back for more the day after, so I wouldn't notice. I have heard it mentioned somewhere before though, maybe even on CP (I can't recall exactly).
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musefan wrote: That is... the more an item sells = the more it's in demand = the more the vendor should charge.
The more the vendor could charge, not necessarily should charge.
But in this case, it was kitchen dish-washing gloves (also good when doing electrical work, caulking the shower, etc.). I really don't think that between yesterday and today they had a big run on rubber gloves. It's far beyond that. I just look at things I bought just this year and it's typically the same. Maybe, following your idea, if the vendor even sells one via Amazon they send in a price increase.
Interestingly, I'm not a big Amazon shopper. My history (orders/year) is at a high for 2020 at ten, but going back years, mainly eight or nine, the low was seven. Essentially no COVID bonus from me. Logically, they need to still attract my interest.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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It could be an automated pricing algorithm that Vendors configure via settings? who knows, versus, a vendor manually up-charging for the same recently purchased product.
which, if this is true, then I would be very upset that Amazon would allow vendors to price gouge "repeat" customers....or customers period.
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Slacker007 wrote: which, if this is true, then I would be very upset that Amazon would allow vendors to price gouge "repeat" customers....or customers period.
Actually, with the type of shyte and fake items and fraudulent description now covering Amazon, I'm sure they'd not blink an eye - except, perhaps, for a wink if they get to keep a percentage of the selling prices on items.
I, fortunately, didn't ever buy into Amazon Prime and thus invest in spending money with them. I only managed 9 or 10 orders/year - always with free shipping (not enough spent then I don't order). Even, however, if I spent on the shipping I'd never make back my hundred bucks.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I have seen this, prior to the pandemic, with some odd items. I get a particular calendar every year, usually as a gift, and one year I didn't so I went to Amazon in February to look for it and a normally twenty-dollar item was selling for over 900. I couldn't believe it so I went without the calendar that year. FWIW, that was in 2018.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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I have seen first hand someone with a paid Prime subscription see a price of 4.99 for buying a TV series to stream, and then another person with a trial subscription seeing the exact same series with the same definition in the same country for 6.99.
Not that Amazon's price manipulation is underhand or opaque.....
It goes without saying
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Forward you the link to the item per email and open it on a computer with another public IP (from a private browsing session from your phone, for instance), without logging in, of course. If the prices are different than from your own session, then you have your answer.
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: I shop and buy something on Amazon (in particular) and if I look to buy it again it's always more expensive.
Stop breaking things so you don't have to buy it again.
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Seriously you are just realising that now! It has been happening for years, especially with travel tickets, do some research and note down the prices then when you return to purchase the price has risen by x%. Cmon we are coders here tracking that information would be trivial, the only complex issue would be how much you raise the price to maximize the return.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Haven't had that problem with travel tickets - which in my case would have been airline tickets.
Actually, several sites present the tickets and within my travel constraints I can usually find the same flights. The difference happens as I move the dates around.
Now, as it turns out, I usually go back-and-forth more than once since I'm generally coordinating them with available hotel reservations (also seem unaffected).
Caveat: I am generally booking well in advance to have the choices (as in vacation) and if your experience happens to depend upon the near-term, a flight selling out may have the last tickets boosted in price if they think they can get it based upon demand.
For now, Amazon stand alone in this. Walmart.com, a decent competitor in some aspects, doesn't seem to do the price boost, but the prices on some of the items they sell online can sometimes be a bargain and other times be many times (literally!) what it cost elsewhere. It's common enough where it's not an oversight. NewEgg once was a favorite of mine but now, with the Chinese majority stake (== ownership) it's looking more and more like Amazon in the pricing and even worse, selling absolute junk. Specials are not so special any more but there are "apparently" more of them.
As they said in the good 'ol days and it still rings all too true: Caveat Emptor !
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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This is why you should use multiple browsers. One to do your research, one to buy. Much easier than trying to remember to clear all the appropriate cookies. (I hate clearing ALL my cookies, a small percentage of them are actually useful!) Of course repeat purchases can still be a problem; fortunately there are lots of browsers out there! Get the item in the basket first, then log in.
Or, accept that the vendor probably isn't making much on the initial sale, and needs to average things out - otherwise prices will go up anyway. ![Java | [Coffee]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/coffee.gif)
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All my browsers flush cookies when they close - and I often do an intermediate flush if it's been browsed with for a while. For that matter, flash cookies are purged as well. Also pixel graphics are blocked and ads, as well (CP is one of the few exceptions to the ad-blocker).
In addition, I tried on more than one base IP: my home system vs. my desktop at work in another city.
Right after I bought the item that finally pushed me to post (rubber kitchen gloves) that same link showed the Small and XL at the same original price and the Large (only the three sizes available), which I had purchased, increased about 14% . I tried all the "tricks" so to speak, except I've not looked at the price via the VPN on have on yet another machine. I think the price was raised as soon as it was sold by the third-party vendor because of the increased demand. Only a theory.
The logic - that they don't make enough on the initial sale . . . . or prices go up anyway. Why would this not apply to retail stores, as well? Normally, it would seem, they take items that are good sellers (and thus attractive to the most customers) and put them on sale to draw customers into the store (in the hopes they buy other items as well).
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Long ago before there were flow control and subroutine structures all we had only GoTo's. As a result it was really hard to follow the flow of the program. We had spaghetti code.
I am currently working with a middle age programmer that has only worked with C# and WPF. Very little Windows forms. He has 15 years of WPF and is a better at it than I. But everything is binding. He hardly ever updates a control directly. Everything is binding. Working with his code you never know were things are going. It is like the new spaghetti.
So many years of programming I have forgotten more languages than I know.
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Lasagna code!
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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I'm a "non-binder". Possibly a control-freak part of my nature but, when it comes down to it, everything thing is in-your-face. The closest I get to obscurity is using SQL Stored Procedures rather than hard-coding the TSQL.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Me too, I do everything in code so I know exactly what's going on. And what's not. We have a couple apps here done by other (lazy) programmers and everything is done with binding. I have no idea how some of it works or why you'd elect to do that.
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That's what makes WPF so powerful...binding.
I'm currently working on a WPF project, and yes it takes time to wrap your head around it but once you do it's awesome.
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