The curious economics of being ripped off on holiday
I've long been thinking about this topic. I sometimes call it the "Grief economy" -- The entity which can suffer the most grief "wins" .  For example, calling Comcast to cancel. The company is paying pennies per hour to have you on hold. But its costing you your real time. Therefore comcast can easily suffer more in the process and ultimately could just wait you out...<p>Another example is the idea that some people get a better price because they jumped through arbitrary and non-cost affecting hoops. Things like coupon codes or buying on an arbitrary sale day.<p>The best customer is one that comes in and says "I want this item, I will pay a reasonable price right now and walk out a happy customer"... Instead we give the best price to those who waste sales people's time with negotiations and give the worst prices to those who dont first put in a bunch of work extract the information about the right price. We are increasing the total cost of our products by making the purchase filled with uncertainty (am I getting a good price?) and external costs (I searched 2 hours for a $5 coupon) .<p>I would propose this. If you're going to give a customer $5 off then give them all $5 off. If you cant give them all $5 off, then give none (maybe give them all $1 off?).