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Comment by zeroonetwothree | Hacker News Reader

In practice coffee shops have tiny margins so they can’t afford to do that.

I refuse to believe that bean water has tiny margins.

The bean water has huge margins but is only a tiny part of the expenses.

I also hate tipping everywhere, but coffee shops might also like to adjust their prices slightly for customers that don’t mind paying a bit more for well paid staff and for those customers to whom price is a major concern when choosing where to purchase their coffee.

Dynamic pricing makes some sense in the concept of trying to capture maximum demand, it just feels horrible as a customer.

we are not machines, if i'm paying more (or even less) than the person in front of me at the line:

1- I'll make a scene

2- I'll never come back

3- It is probably a discrimination lawsuit waiting to happen

I mean, this is what is happening with the dynamic tipping system and none of these things appear to be happening.

There's a critical difference between dynamic pricing and tipping: one is optional, the other is not. That makes a huge difference in the psychology.

Ok, you can replace dynamic pricing with dynamic tipping in my original comment if that makes it more comprehensible for you.

Because it is thinly veiled as a customer-choice.

Again, not saying the outcome is different, but socially it won't be accepted, as it removes that veil.

They also have $6 cups of coffee.

I'll reiterate: the resolution is an answer to a question of whether it is true that "if a coffeeshop wants to pay their employees more they will have to raise prices".

If you have a defense (or a response where the phrase "in practice" appears anywhere, really), then that's a separate matter, but it does not follow strictly from the matters presented that the coffee shop "will have to raise prices" in order to pay their employees more. That's, in fact, a stronger claim than the factorable defense that the author (and others who make the same argument) is depending on.

In other words, both "have to" and "can't" are doing a lot of heavy lifting.

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