https://TapRun.com The Official Blog of TapRun.com https://taprun.com/articles/free-market-approach-to-eliminating-price-collusion Have you noticed that goods are becoming more expensive? Prices are rising, and we, as customers, are suffering. Vendors are quick to explain that it isn't their fault. They have to raise prices, because their own costs have increased. Of cou... Tue, 14 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://taprun.com/articles/improve-walmart-curbside-pricing What is Walmart's curbside pickup? Given the constant discussion of Covid-19, it's not surprising that people are trying to avoid contact with strangers. Many shoppers see Walmart's curbside pickup as a means of acquiring food without coming into ... Mon, 12 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://taprun.com/articles/why-are-you-not-selling-insurance I wish that more business owners would ask themselves a very simple question: "What will customers buy from me?" Manufacturers often think in terms of products that roll off an assembly line. Service providers tend to focus on the labor that th... Thu, 02 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://taprun.com/articles/the-next-big-thing-is-not-the-next-big-thing So, What's Next? People are always asking themselves, "What's next?" They graduate from high school and ask, "What's next?" They read a chapter in a novel and ask, "What's next?" They follow a step in a recipe and ask, "What's next?" B... Tue, 20 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://taprun.com/articles/stop-badmouthing-work-in-process It was more than two years ago that I told my readers to stop badmouthing hourly pricing. I'll admit that the system of hourly billing is far from perfect, but it has its time and place. Today I'd like to step forth to protect another unfortunate... Mon, 22 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://taprun.com/articles/venn-diagram-of-communist-and-capitalist-writing Relatively few people have taken the time to read both Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto and Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. This isn't surprising. Neither is particularly light reading, and each targets a very different audience. Fortunat... Thu, 17 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://taprun.com/articles/product-samples-cost-free-not-risk-free It seems like product samples are everywhere these days: When you walk through a mall's food court, you're inundated with samples of food. When you sit down at a movie theater, you're subjected to a handful of trailers (movie samples). When yo... Tue, 11 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://taprun.com/articles/van-westendorp-price-sensitivity-meter-is-useless I recently listened to a consultant speak about Peter van Westendorp's price sensitivity meter. Although the presenter listed all sorts of facts about it, he missed the most important one of all: the van Westendorp price sensitivity meter is so unre... Thu, 01 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://taprun.com/articles/amazon-pricing-power-conspiracy Introduction and a Disclaimer I like listening to conspiracy theories as much as the next guy - and the next guy seems to really like them, considering that the show Ancient Aliens enjoys higher ratings than CNN's prime-time reporting. Neverthele... Fri, 19 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://taprun.com/articles/the-wrong-kind-of-price-discrimination One of the beta readers for my book, Premium, raised concerns over a section that dealt with price discrimination. Unfortunately, the topic is often viewed with distaste and cynicism because of its unfortunate name - a name that evokes thoughts of r... Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://taprun.com/articles/sometimes-metered-pricing-is-not-good-enough People who aren't students of economics seem to love one pricing method above all others: metered pricing. Under that system, prices are based upon usage. The more of a product that a customer consumes, the more he is required to pay. The popula... Mon, 17 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://taprun.com/articles/louis-xvi-pricing-power Louis XVI was born in the year 1750, more than a quarter of a millennium before my theory of pricing power was revealed to the world. His reign was brief, lasting only a decade and a half until he was removed from office and beheaded. While most ... Tue, 14 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000