by Karen Aho
Posted by Mike Hughes
In the age of Web commerce, shoppers can find the lowest price with a click. The grim reality for businesses is that the lowest price tag usually wins. How can a business raise prices and still compete? Isolate a cost, tack it on to the bill and call it a fee. The price tag is intact, and "fee" and "surcharge" sound almost inevitable, even downright governmental.
"Increasing the price creates challenges for companies," said Tim Calkins, a clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "But creating fees is a little out of sight and out of mind." At hotels, cable companies, banks, airlines, stores -- nearly everywhere -- the fees are mounting.
"I call it the death of the price tag," said Bob Sullivan, who writes MSNBC's Red Tape Chronicles blog and is the author of "Gotcha Capitalism: How Hidden Fees Rip You off Every Day and What You Can Do About It." In his survey of 2,000-plus consumers, charges added to everyday bills averaged $950 per year. Here's a sampling of our "favorites"
No comments:
Post a Comment