Marketers are accused of selling people products they do not need. This can frustrate consumers and eventually lead to angry social commentators. The authors define hard-sell as an effort to match customers to goods that is so annoying to the average consumer that the displeasure exceeds its potential benefits. Using this definition, they derive three results: Hard-sell (1) prevails in the market because it mitigates price competition, (2) injures all consumers, including the often-overlooked customers who avoid direct encounters with the practice, and yet it (3) may increase social welfare because sellers gain more than consumers lose.
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