Dynamic Pricing

The same price for everyone — the department store's invention of 1852 — was first given up by the airlines. Through the Super Saver fares of 1977 and deregulation in 1978, American Airlines built «yield management»: seat prices that move with demand. In January 1985 it aimed fares up to seventy per cent off at the low-cost carrier People Express, whose chief executive later testified: «We had been profitable — and we went to losing fifty million dollars a month, at once.» A rare case of a competitor felled by price design alone. The system was credited with $1.4 billion of extra revenue over three years. In the internet age, Uber's surge pricing made the moving price a household argument — six times the fare on New Year's Eve 2012, eight times in the blizzard of 2013 with a $175 minimum, and a 2014 agreement with the New York attorney general to cap it in emergencies. In Japan, the SoftBank Hawks were first in professional baseball in 2017; USJ followed in 2019 (with prices actually fixed two months ahead — not so dynamic); the first bullet train was JR Kyushu in July 2024. Prices drifting back toward the market rate — the red line to the Dojima rice exchange is this map's own reading.