Dynamic Pricing Is Dynamically Breaking Us

Remember when prices were… the price?

A ticket cost $40.
A carton of milk was $2.49.
A hardcover book was $19.95… printed right there on the cover.

Those days may be ending… or already have (and, wow, I’m really dating myself here).

Dynamic pricing isn’t new.
Airlines and hotels have used it for decades, but it’s seeping into everything.
It’s a topic I covered back in 2012: The Frightening Ramifications Of High-Frequency Pricing.
Concert tickets, baseball games, parking spots, ride sharing apps, even some grocery chains are experimenting with it.
Airlines are experimenting with charging more if you’re a solo traveller.

The idea is simple: the price floats.

It reacts to demand in real time.
High demand pushes prices up… low demand pulls them down.
Location, weather, even device type can nudge it further.
To an economist, it looks efficient.
To a consumer, it feels like quicksand… anxious uncertainty.

Because here’s what dynamic pricing really does: it erodes trust, comfort and care.

When a carton of milk can be $4.19 at noon and $6.59 at 6 p.m., who feels safe?
And why would anyone then be loyal to any brand?
When the ticket you hesitated to buy yesterday is double the cost today, you feel punished.
When the same concert seat is priced differently depending on whether you’re on your laptop or phone, you feel scammed.

Dynamic pricing doesn’t just move numbers… it shifts culture.

It turns shopping into gambling.
It makes everyday life feel like a stock exchange.
It teaches us that waiting, hesitating or simply logging in at the wrong time means losing.

That does something to us psychologically.

It makes us anxious.
It makes us competitive.
It makes us resentful… of platforms, of companies… even of each other.

Yes, there are benefits.

Dynamic pricing can keep events full.
It can reward flexibility.
It can smooth out supply and demand in crowded markets.
It can ensure that the company is getting paid the actual market value.

But what it can’t do is build loyalty… build a true brand.

If everything feels like surge pricing, then everything feels like exploitation.
Dynamic pricing points to a world where the price tag itself disappears.
Where every purchase is a negotiation with an invisible algorithm.
Where consumers no longer have a sense of value… just a sense of volatility.

That’s the real story here.

It’s not just about scalpers or Ticketmaster or basketball games.
It’s about whether society is ready (or wants) to live in a perpetual auction house.
Because if every moment is “pay what the market will bear,” then maybe the market bears more than just the price.
Maybe it bears the weight of our patience, our sanity and our trust.
Imagine your parking app quietly charges extra because there’s a concert nearby.

Now add AI into the mix.

Suddenly, it knows exactly how much you make… how you spend… what you can’t resist.
Prices tuned not just to demand, but to your psychology.
The final evolution of dynamic pricing might not be supply vs. demand… it might be you vs. the machine.
And maybe the only way to win… is to let someone else shop for you.
A human VPN for your wallet.

So the question isn’t whether dynamic pricing works… it’s whether we want to live in a world where it works everywhere.

This is what Elias Makos and I discussed on CJAD 800 AM.

Mitch Joel · Dynamic Pricing Is Dynamically Breaking Us – The Elias Makos Show – CJAD 800

I also discussed this topic on CTV National News…

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