Absent or Swinging Prices Keep Consumers Guessing
Absent or Swinging Prices Keep Consumers Guessing
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Credit...Video by Timo LenzenDoes Anyone Know What Paper Towels Should Cost?Online shopping was supposed to give consumers more power and freedom. Instead, costs are so fluid that household goods fluctuate almost like Bitcoin.Credit...Video by Timo LenzenPublished Feb. 26, 2022Updated Feb. 27, 2022When a holiday toy catalog from Amazon arrived in the mail in late October, Krista Hoffmann noticed something amiss.In 100 pages of Lego sets, princess castles, action figures and the impossible-to-find Sony PlayStation 5, the catalog presented just about everything — except the prices.“At first, I thought I wasn’t looking close enough, so I flipped through a few more pages,” said Ms. Hoffmann, a stay-at-home mother of three children in Colorado Springs. “Then I realized, ‘Oh, this is intentional.’ Why would you not put the prices there?”The absence of prices was not an oversight; it was the natural evolution of two decades of online shopping.In the early days of the internet, there was breathless excitement that e-commerce would lead to greater price transparency, allowing shoppers to know exactly where to find the best deals. This was supposed to be good for consumers and bad for retailers forced to compete with one another in a profitability-killing race to the lowest prices.Instead another reality has emerged: Shoppers are losing sight of what things cost.Retailers have an incentive to shift the lens away from prices, dangling other carrots like convenience and ease of use. At the same time, shoppers are increasingly overwhelmed by the complexity of product options, prices, discounts and payment plans.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT