Beer Pricing - A Moral Responsibility?

I live in perpetual fear that at any moment, karma will kill me with a flaming chainsaw of ebola ridden shark teeth to the crotch. It is this fear that makes me do things like tell the bodega guy that he really, really, REALLY needs to check into that price. Then I'd probably be even more of a dick (as viewed by some perhaps) by showing him a price discussion thread on it. That's just me though. Not judging what others may do.

 

"Buy a 4-pack, be glad you got a great deal, leave the rest for other folks to get a lucky price? (Possibly assuming that they AREN'T undercharging, due to some error in the process - distributor error, etc)"

Having lived in NYC for 5 years I am never complaining about finding a good deal or something mislabeled. In all seriousness I don't see any other option than what I quoted. Sellers pick the price and we reap the benefits (or complain about high prices). And leaving one for the next guy is the right thing to do.

 

-Buy a 4-pack, be glad you got a great deal, leave the rest for other folks to get a lucky price? (Possibly assuming that they AREN'T undercharging, due to some error in the process - distributor error, etc)


The owner priced the product in their store, where they are making some money, maybe they get a higher return on other products than beer, or maybe they price the product to move instead of letting it take up valuable shelf/fridge space.

Hell i would almost go back a week later and buy a 2nd 4 pack and compliment them on their pricing.

 

I say the moral thing is to say something to the store manager / worker that the pricing might appear to be off waay under, so the store can fix it and not cut their income / losses due to an error. Also might cost someone a job if not caught in time. Then the moral thing to reciprocate would be for the store clerk / owner etc still should sell you a 4pack for $10 IMO as listed because that how businesses work (you pay for the listed price). Just don't buy them out and resell for more...that is slimey IMO.

 

Does the fellow not pay for the beer before he sells it? I mean that is very low. I would say ,morally, that if you want that fellow to remain in business, for your convenience of course, perhaps a polite question and a little chit chat would suffice. "Gee I was so happy to find this it is usually so much more expensive, before I buy it would you check that price?"

 

This. It's their responsibility as business owners to make sure that they're charging properly for their products. Buy a 4 pack, say thank you and be happy that the world shined down on you today.

 

I generally inform a retailer if I see a product that I know to be priced well below the going rate if there's no indication that it is an intentionally low, promotional price. Unintentional mispricing due to asymmetric information or human error results in deadweight economic loss and allocative inefficiency. Sure, the purchaser gains a windfall of a larger than expected consumer surplus, but that is purely an unintentional redistribution from the seller to the purchaser. And of course the guy who is unable to purchase the product at all because it sold out quickly at the unintentionally low price loses out entirely on his potential consumer surplus. You certainly are doing no net good to society by not bringing up the potential pricing problem in that respect. On the other hand, proper pricing generally is the responsibility of the seller, and perhaps there is some benefit in not absolving him of that responsibility. Caveat vendor. Still, I would tend to say that you are doing some net economic good by pointing out a likely pricing problem; you are providing information that helps to resolve a localized market inefficiency. I think of it as mainly an economic issue rather than a moral or ethical issue, however, and I don't think it's at all limited to the product of beer.

 

If its a local mom and pop shop I would want them to do well so I would tell them to up the price and then I would post a thread on here telling everyone in the city about the fact that that shop still had hella beers. I would leave many more for others and help out the shop. If it were a whole foods or any large chain store I would say nothing, buy a little bit more than necessary. Say 6 bottles. And then I would tell people to buy the beer before they realized that they could up the price to make a marginal amount more money that doesn't effect their profits even by a fraction of a percentage.

 

You win some and you lose some, on both sides of the cash register.

 

IF YOU CAN BE SELFLESS LIKE OP IS IMPLYING...I SAY KARMA SMILES UPON YOU...

 

If there's no limit, I'm buying all of that shit. Can't believe I'm the first to answer that but I see no moral issue whatsoever in doing so.

 

I'm a little unclear on the economic distortion caused by an isolated incident of undercharging. What, exactly, is the deadweight loss? You sort of hint at the issue of quick sellout issues, but isn't that moot on a beer like KBS? I mean, the stuff sells out in hours regardless. I guess I'm just unclear on what this market inefficiency actually looks like or results in here.

 

Pricing a beer for less than the wholesale price they paid is obviously an error and not just "undercharging" or some type of a "loss leader" deal. The ethical thing to do would be to tell the retailer of their mistake.

 

Even if you perceive no ethical problem in taking advantage of the possible mispricing for yourself, you could make your purchase and then tell the seller, "Hey, by the way, you probably should be charging more for this product. It's going to sell out quickly at this price, and you're leaving money on the table." You extract your windfall of a large consumer surplus and, hopefully, the problem gets corrected going forward. The fact that I don't do this, that I speak up prior to purchase, I suppose suggests that I do indeed see some ethical component to this situation, at least for me. I don't necessarily begrudge anyone else for reacting differently, however. I do think that the notion that you are doing some sort of good deed by not speaking up is rather short-sighted and displays economic ignorance.

 

My first thought was that I'd definitely pick up at least two 4-packs and not feel bad at all. My limiting factor would be more that I still have most of a case of BCBS at home and my beer "cellar" is completely full already. I would assume lots of people would do the same whether they'd cop to it publicly or not.