Fixing Prices

Fixing Prices reveals how retail shopping was transformed by the posting of prices through the invention of new techniques and technology. The book delightfully captures how these innovations had to be learned by store owners, sold to customers, and created new and unforeseen opportunities. We now take these innovations for granted but as the authors suggest, they continue in the digital age to evolve in startling ways. -- Neil D. Fligstein, University of California, Berkeley, US Markets are built on price setting. Yet we dont know how price setting works. Drawing on brilliant scholarship from three leading scientists of our times, Fixing Prices is the first book that gives a definitive answer. A must read for anyone who wants to understand what makes a price. -- Koray Caliskan, The New School, US

Franck Cochoy, Professor of Sociology, University of Toulouse Jean Jaurs, and Senior Fellow, Institut Universitaire de France, France, Johan Hagberg, Professor of Business Administration Specialising in Marketing, University of Gothenburg and Hans Kjellberg, Professor of Marketing, Department of Marketing and Strategy, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden

Contents: Introduction: studying the display of prices 1. Indexing prices: prices and the fingers of the invisible hand 2. Tagging prices: the proliferation of price tag technologies 3. Managing prices: price cutting strategies 4. Ruling prices: price ceiling policies 5. Printing, sticking, and stamping prices: rebalancing power between manufacturers and retailers 6. Infrastructuring prices: from paper to digital price systems 7. Digitalizing prices: the long history of Electronic Shelf Labels 8. Conclusions References Index