The Rent Is Too Damn Algorithmic - Washington City Paper
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Attorney General Brian Schwalb is investigating RealPage, a company that helps landlords set rent prices, for potential antitrust violations.

The rent is too damn algorithmic — DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb is investigating RealPage, a company that helps landlords set rent prices, for potential antitrust violations::Attorney General Brian Schwalb is investigating RealPage, a company that helps landlords set rent prices, for potential antitrust violations.

  • @[email protected]English
    55•9 months ago

    While they’re at it, investigate the use of digital price tags on store shelves, especially grocery stores

    • PikaEnglish
      18•9 months ago

      I would much rather have to deal with digital tags then stupid paper based ones. If they were done properly it should just be a simple “update price” and it sets to both. With paper tags you have employees that don’t update all locations so you get discrepancies.

      • @[email protected]English
        24•9 months ago

        I think the worry is that they can change the prices dynamically based on who is in the area.

        • @[email protected]English
          6•9 months ago

          That… seems like a silly concern? At best I think you could pull off tricks based on specific timeslots of the day/week (e.g.: lunch rush, weekends, business hours) and most of that was already realistically feasible through bossing around normal humans – no tech required.

          Maybe I’m off-base, but it seems to me like the following things would severely hamper the efforts of anyone attempting to do this at scale:

          • Exploding the complexity and error surface across all price-setting procedures
          • Micromanaging, per location, when/how prices change to compensate for locality-specific stuff like daylight hours and foot traffic
          • Avoiding the very legally dubious scenario of prices autochanging in the time gap between taking an item off the shelf and paying at the register

          All of that effort in exchange for what? A few extra quarters on the margin if you do it right but losing a few dimes on the margin (or a class action suit) otherwise? I can already see middle-manager heads exploding in contrition. It might happen someday once active AI store management finally oozes into place… but until that day comes I think shoppers can feel safe knowing that they are merely getting gouged in the same old fashion as their forebearers.

        • PikaEnglish
          0•9 months ago

          that’s gonna been with paper-based as well but yeah I can totally see it happening

          • deweydecibelEnglish
            6•9 months ago

            With paper based, they’re paying employees to go around and alter the prices, which is too expensive and time consuming.

            Digital price tags can be changed on the fly, at once, potentially even automatically.

      • @[email protected]English
        4•9 months ago

        And with digital tags they can update at any time, so unless you’ve got a video camera running to price that bread was $3.99 and not $4.99 when you picked it up off the shelf…

      • @[email protected]English
        13•9 months ago

        They commonly don’t reflect the actual price at checkout. It’s difficult for consumers to track and catch, and be if apathy (they didn’t get around to changing the prices which are sometimes volatile) or malevolence, it’s still an issue.

        • @[email protected]English
          7•9 months ago

          Just wait until you use that stores phone app for “discounts” and the wifi/mac address sensors stores already use to track generic customer habits also dynamically updates the price based on your past purchases and public data about you as a person.

          Some stores have moved to scanner guns/pick it up and go checkout so once you pick it up it gets easy to leave, reducing price checking/indecison.

          Bundle all this together and you can have dynamic, person to person gouging based on socio-economic level.