Key Points
Walmart is rolling out digital shelf labels and expects the technology to be in all U.S. stores by year’s end. Kroger also has begun experimenting with the technology.
The nation’s largest retailer says the digital price tags help associates do their jobs better and stresses that prices on items will be exactly the same for every consumer in every store.
Some legislators are wary of the technology’s potential to be used in dynamic pricing models that disadvantage consumers, with Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) introducing a bill to ban it.
Hot take but I don’t see a problem with this… It’s no different than paper labels being swapped out daily by employees or whatever.
A much bigger issue would be conditional pricing, as in, the price for an object is different for one person than another person.
That’s exactly why it’s different than swapping out labels daily.
Walmart employees can’t change prices fast enough with physical labels. With digital labels the time to change prices drops to zero and now Walmart prices can change instantly hundreds of times a day.
I’ve heard they actually take a while to update, like a couple of minutes, due to being super-cheap e-ink screens, but I have no way to personally confirm this.
The problem is that you may have grabbed that item at its lowest point, and updated to a higher point by the time you get to the register.
Yeah, I’m not arguing with that, just with the claim that they update instantly. Never said anything about anything else, and don’t plan to :)
Gotcha, obviously laws are going to have to catch up to this. But in many places, it won’t.
It makes sense. Still faster than employees can do it!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: People WILL CATCH if they do this. Let someone THINK it happened and thousands of people will start taking pics of the prices on the shelves and compare to prices on checkout.
It is extremely unlikely that they would try it. But even if they did, it is extremely unlikely they would get away with it for more than a day or two.
I’m not sure why you think this is a conspiracy theory, it’s already documented as happening and is common in some segments. It’s not a secret.
Uber led the way on this years and years ago, with systems that would offer every driver a unique price for each ride based on their recent history. If you took every ride that came up you would get lower prices, but if you started declining rides you would get an increased rate to bait you back in… until you bit and took one where it would decrease the rate again.
Each driver being offered a different fare for the same customer is the kind of dynamic pricing that digital displays offer for grocery stores. Maybe at the busiest time of day prices are suddenly more expensive. Maybe when it’s hot outside cold drinks go up 20%. Maybe you don’t notice because you’re too busy thinking about all the other stress of daily life.
Oh? Where are the pictures comparing pricing on shelves vs. checkout pricing?
Oh, you’re bringing other things into this that have nothing to do with the subject at hand?
Sorry, we were discussing pricing tags on grocery store shelves. Please try to keep up.
That’s an impressively shortsighted and silly argument for someone trying so hard to sound smart.
Aww you’re cute.
Only not really.
How would that even work with a shelf edge label? They’re not instant, most take like 20 seconds to redraw the screen. They’re also not smart at all.
If they wanted pricing per customer, they’d have a generic price on the shelf, and make you scan on an app/handheld scanner for “offers”, and everyone gets a different discount.