US schools face big price swings for basics under Amazon’s ‘dynamic pricing’, report claims

Amazon calls the report ‘flawed and misleading’ and says it offers lower prices than competitorsSchool districts and local governments across the country appear to be overpaying for basic supplies because of Amazon contracts that bind them to dynamic pricing, according to a new report based on government data and public records analyzed by the non-profit Institute for Local Self-Reliance.A school district in Denver, Colorado, would have saved about $1m in 2023 had it been able to negotiate for and lock in the lowest of the platform’s continuously changing prices, according to one estimate cited in the report. Denver public schools, which spent $5.7m with Amazon that year, “could have saved 17 percent” had it “consistently received Amazon’s lowest prices”, the report said. Continue reading...