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Prismattic comments on Open thread, October 2011 - Less Wrong
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I've actually considered leaving a note in my supermarket's suggestion box, to the effect that there should be a $1 congestion charge to enter the parking lot between 10am and 5pm on Saturday and Sunday. The wait in line doesn't bother me anywhere near as much as fruitlessly driving around the parking lot looking for someplace to park.
($1 is a starting point. The point being trial and error to hit the equilibrium of a moderately full parking lot at peak hours.)
I suspect this supermarket would actually not lose customers on net, because it is so much better than its competition that people previously deterred by the crowds would balance out people deterred by the congestion charge.
I share your sentiment, but you want to be a little bit careful doing this sort of thing by trial and error as there can be hysteresis effects, as with the Israeli day care experiment made famous by Freakonomics. You may find, for example, that offering sales that start after 5pm works better than charging a fee before 5pm, but only if you do it first.