TY - GEN
T1 - Seasonal goods and spoiled milk
T2 - 17th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS 2018
AU - Ghomi, Atiyeh Ashari
AU - Borodin, Allan
AU - Lev, Omer
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (www.ifaamas.org). All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/1/1
Y1 - 2018/1/1
N2 - We consider a "price-committment model" where a single seller announces prices for some extended period of time. More specifically, we examine the case of items with a limited shelf-life where storing an item (before consumption) may carry a cost to a buyer (or distributor). For example, eggs, milk, or Groupon coupons have a fixed expiry date, and seasonal goods can suffer a decrease in value. We show how this setting contrasts with recent results by Berbeglia et al [4] for items with infinite shelf-life. We prove tight bounds on the seller's profits showing how they relate to the items' shelf-life. We show, counterintuitively, that in our limited shelf-life setting, increasing storage costs can sometimes lead to less profit for the seller which cannot happen when items have unlimited shelf-life. We also provide an algorithm that calculates optimal prices. Finally, we examine empirically the relationship between profits and buyer utility as the storage cost and shelf-life duration change, and observe properties, some of which are unique to the limited shelf-life setting.
AB - We consider a "price-committment model" where a single seller announces prices for some extended period of time. More specifically, we examine the case of items with a limited shelf-life where storing an item (before consumption) may carry a cost to a buyer (or distributor). For example, eggs, milk, or Groupon coupons have a fixed expiry date, and seasonal goods can suffer a decrease in value. We show how this setting contrasts with recent results by Berbeglia et al [4] for items with infinite shelf-life. We prove tight bounds on the seller's profits showing how they relate to the items' shelf-life. We show, counterintuitively, that in our limited shelf-life setting, increasing storage costs can sometimes lead to less profit for the seller which cannot happen when items have unlimited shelf-life. We also provide an algorithm that calculates optimal prices. Finally, we examine empirically the relationship between profits and buyer utility as the storage cost and shelf-life duration change, and observe properties, some of which are unique to the limited shelf-life setting.
KW - Indivisible storable goods
KW - Limited storage
KW - Pricing
KW - Stackelberg game
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053272954&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85053272954
SN - 9781510868083
T3 - Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS
SP - 901
EP - 909
BT - 17th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS 2018
PB - International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (IFAAMAS)
Y2 - 10 July 2018 through 15 July 2018
ER -