What is surveillance pricing, according to Lindsay Owens?

Lindsay Owens defines surveillance pricing, also called personalized pricing, as collecting information about a person to decide exactly how much to charge them. She says willingness to pay is not just income: urgency and desperation count too. Her examples include Expedia charging more for the same Manhattan hotel to people browsing from wealthier areas, and JetBlue telling a flyer whose fare jumped $230 on the way to a funeral to clear his cookies.

• Owens said loyalty programs are data harvesting, and that about 30% of Kroger's net operating income comes from what it calls alternative profits.
• Owens cited a 2015 ProPublica finding that Princeton Review charged more for SAT prep in zip codes with many Asian American residents.
• Owens said Staples charged more where shoppers had no nearby Office Depot or OfficeMax.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von (2026-11-03). Read the whole episode summary →

▸More from this episode