In my seminar on spontaneous order, the topic today was road design. One of the articles discussed experiments with variable rush hour pricing for certain lanes (in California, I think). The idea is that there is always a certain lane that will have 65 mph travel, but it might cost $20 to use it at 6 pm. Anyway, I explained other applications of this idea.
For example, why don’t movie theaters operate like the opera, and have specific seats? That way, during opening weekend for a blockbuster, you wouldn’t have to get to the theater an hour early in order to have a decent seat. Or what about grocery stores? With computerized cash registers, I think WalMart and other big chains should do the following: Have at least one cash register be a dedicated “No Waiting” one; no matter how busy the store, there is at most one person being checked out. This happens because above the register there is an electronic display indicating the surcharge that will be added to your tab after being rung up. The price gets raised until people in line at this register go to the other lines, and there’s only one person “on deck” waiting to get rung up at this register.
Now here’s the true innovation (I think I invented this, but for all I know I’m stealing the idea from Steve Landsburg or somebody and I don’t remember it): In order to prevent customer backlash against this greedy exploitation, WalMart (or whatever) doesn’t pocket the extra revenue. Instead, whenever a customer pays for his or her order at the special register, the surcharge is divided equally among the other customers being rung up at that moment. For example, if there are a total of 21 registers open the day before Thansgiving, and the current surcharge for the special register is $20, then everyone at the other registers has $1 subtraced from his or her bill after the order is tabulated. This would reinforce the idea that the move is designed to help customers, not add an extra layer of gouging.
Why would the store do this? Because people would be more likely to shop at this store after the innovation. Again, with electronic cash registers, I don’t think it would be costly to implement. And after customers got over the initial suspicion, I think they would love it. And not simply for the novelty, but for the original purpose: If you’re in a rush, you can always pay in order to get checked out immediately.
