When anyone buys package delivery service, that one pays a price. All prices conform to the inescapable Law of Prices. The Law of Prices holds the winning bids of demand in the face of supply set the price.
With its fixed number of trucks, drivers, hours and days to deliver, the supply of delivery is fixed. Yet, demand for overnight and short-term delivery has skyrocketed.
Most understand English auction pricing (highest bidder wins) when it comes to competing against others for products sold through eBay. Yet, for other products, many believe such products are constitutional rights, and if not, should be.
Stupidly, UPS execs had spokespersons point fingers elsewhere, blaming bad weather and online shoppers.
Likely, UPS execs have at their disposal, reams of data, letting them know what their package volume is down to the hour. Using other numbers, smarter execs could have forecast demand and adjusted their price offers, publishing such offers long before the holiday crush.
Those who truly wanted late-in-the game shipping then could have ponied up the requisite bids to win the shipping slots, thus having their packages delivered on time, barring
accidents to delivery vehicles, of course.
The USA Today has published a sob story about the fiasco.
Economics. It's righteous. It's not tricky.
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