As I noted earlier, the music industry is desparately trying to alienate its customers. For some reason, it took Steve Jobs to come in and create a usable way for people to download music and let the labels make money. … Read More
Monthly Archives: February 2005
Retailers, Clothing Makers Fight Over Lost Margin
After a brutal holiday retailing season, stores are asking clothing makers to pay “markdown” money, to cover margin lost to heavy discounts. The clothing makers say the stores discounted too aggressively, but most have little choice but to pay. When … Read More
Couldn’t Ask for Better Timing
7-11 selects KSS PriceNet to manage gasoline pricing. I had no idea this would get announced when posted earlier. See the press release here.
Really Cheap Gas
An unfortunate gas station owner in Kansas accidentally sold gas at 19 cents a gallon. He lost a couple of thousand dollars due to computer glitch that let customers buy the underpriced gas with a credit card while the station … Read More
Using Pricing to Kill Your Industry
An alert reader sent me this piece called “The Buy-Rent Scam” about the music subscription pricing model. Essentially, you pay a monthly fee, and as long as you pay that fee, you have access to the company’s music library. It’s … Read More
Online Pricing Errors: Who Pays?
A court in Singapore handed down a decision ruling that an etailer did not have to honor prices posted by mistake. (See the story at CNet.) The judge ruled that the etailer could get off the hook because customers deliberately … Read More
Blockbuster’s “End of Late Fees” Program Draws NJ Lawsuit
CNN reported yesterday that the Attorney General of New Jersey is suing Blockbuster, Inc., accusing the movie rental giant of consumer fraud. Blockbuster touts an end to late fees, which previously made up a big portion of its profits. High … Read More
HP Fires Shot in Price War, Aims at Foot?
As CNet reports, HP made its first big post-Carly move yesterday, announcing plans to price printers more aggressively. This makes sense on a couple of levels: The profit in the printer business comes primarily from ink, not the printers themselves, … Read More
Why am I doing this? To add dollars and sense…
For years, as my more digitally-literate friends talked about the wonders of blogging, I never understood why anyone cared. We get bombarded with enough junk without going out of our way to find more, I reasoned. While many blogs are … Read More