Bliss English Club

Coming soon:"Let's talk about the gender" by Wisely on 9/5

Thanks for Ellen’s introduction about the articles from The Economist during the meeting on August 22nd. Through the article, Costly Comparison, we learned how to utilize comparison website wisely since price comparison websites would actually cost you more.  

Typically cost comparison websites earn a commission for each shopper who uses them to buy products or service. That referral cost is actually incorporated into the price the consumer gets. Furthermore, some comparison sites also sign contract with retailers and service providers to ensure they have the lowest offers over other comparison websites. Hence, the increased costs offset the saving the consumer acquires, making the comparison costly for consumers.

To be a savvy consumer, according to Mr. Ronayne, this problem could only be avoided if consumers go throughthe trouble of checking every site. Nevertheless, this usually takes more time.

The article also suggests that the authority could run the comparison site itself for the public. For instance, the U.S. government now runs comparison websites for health insurance under the regulation of Obama Healthcare.

Through this meeting, we discuss about how to save time, don’t need to spent more time on searching.

 

Host: Ellen
Participant: Annie, Kevin H., Daniel Yang, Jeff, Barkley, Angel, Selina, SharonWu