The Rent Is Too Damn Algorithmic - Washington City Paper
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Attorney General Brian Schwalb is investigating RealPage, a company that helps landlords set rent prices, for potential antitrust violations.

The rent is too damn algorithmic — DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb is investigating RealPage, a company that helps landlords set rent prices, for potential antitrust violations::Attorney General Brian Schwalb is investigating RealPage, a company that helps landlords set rent prices, for potential antitrust violations.

  • PikaEnglish
    18•9 months ago

    I would much rather have to deal with digital tags then stupid paper based ones. If they were done properly it should just be a simple “update price” and it sets to both. With paper tags you have employees that don’t update all locations so you get discrepancies.

    • @[email protected]English
      26•9 months ago

      I think the worry is that they can change the prices dynamically based on who is in the area.

      • @[email protected]English
        7•9 months ago

        That… seems like a silly concern? At best I think you could pull off tricks based on specific timeslots of the day/week (e.g.: lunch rush, weekends, business hours) and most of that was already realistically feasible through bossing around normal humans – no tech required.

        Maybe I’m off-base, but it seems to me like the following things would severely hamper the efforts of anyone attempting to do this at scale:

        • Exploding the complexity and error surface across all price-setting procedures
        • Micromanaging, per location, when/how prices change to compensate for locality-specific stuff like daylight hours and foot traffic
        • Avoiding the very legally dubious scenario of prices autochanging in the time gap between taking an item off the shelf and paying at the register

        All of that effort in exchange for what? A few extra quarters on the margin if you do it right but losing a few dimes on the margin (or a class action suit) otherwise? I can already see middle-manager heads exploding in contrition. It might happen someday once active AI store management finally oozes into place… but until that day comes I think shoppers can feel safe knowing that they are merely getting gouged in the same old fashion as their forebearers.

      • @[email protected]English
        1•9 months ago

        But what happens when they put the items in their cart and walk to a different area before walking to the checkout? Seems like that’d be difficult to track in a brick and mortar store. Online, this absolutely does happen.

      • PikaEnglish
        0•9 months ago

        that’s gonna been with paper-based as well but yeah I can totally see it happening

        • deweydecibelEnglish
          7•9 months ago

          With paper based, they’re paying employees to go around and alter the prices, which is too expensive and time consuming.

          Digital price tags can be changed on the fly, at once, potentially even automatically.

        • @[email protected]English
          6•9 months ago

          Uh not instantly. Not storewide in a moment. Make it networked and you can change prices per customer as they walk each aisle.

          • @[email protected]English
            1•9 months ago

            And that’s my point. The digital tags are already being setup that they can adjust within under a minute. People get off work at 4-5pm, better jack up prices for the next few hours!

            A bunch of people buying bread at a given time, jack up prices!

            Recorded a larger number of people entering through the front turnstile. Yup, pump up those prices!

    • @[email protected]English
      4•9 months ago

      And with digital tags they can update at any time, so unless you’ve got a video camera running to price that bread was $3.99 and not $4.99 when you picked it up off the shelf…