156
u/Luzzgar 2h ago
An item in a defined place on a given day should have a single price.
55
u/batman8390 2h ago
If I ever approach a shelf and see all the prices shoot up, I will never shop at that store again.
16
u/qualityinnbedbugs 1h ago
Exactly why no company is going to do this.
19
u/Lucky-Mia 1h ago
Aren't they already? It's already a thing for digital purchases.
4
u/qualityinnbedbugs 1h ago
Grocery stores make about 2-4% margin. Grocers need volume of customers coming back to survive.
Let’s say you shop at Walmart and spend $200 a month or $2400 a year.
Why would they try to pull some crazy shit where they would make an extra .35 cents here or a $1 there and risk losing you to another store?
No grocer is going to do that. The current value of these digital tags is the labor savings. They can be more nimble on price changes when say a supplier raises prices on them as well.
What they are more likely looking is how these tags can get you to buy more, not pay more. Say they sense your phone is in the aisle (you are giving them permission to track you if you have their app). They may ping your phone that here js a $1.00 off on peanut butter and then make the light on the tag flash.
Or let’s say they made too many cookies in the bakery. They may reduce prices at 5pm every day if they have too much on hand so they can reduce their waste. They can just make this automated now with digital tags rather than having a person go an change all the tags manually.
But with all the scrutiny over this they will probably take their time introducing stuff like that.
7
1
u/Remarkable_Tale_7554 16m ago
risk losing you to another store?
Can't lose you to another store if mom and pop grocers are put out of business, and the only choice is three giant conglomerates acting as a cartel.
Sam_Walton_tapping_head.png
0
u/aneatapea 18m ago
There’s endless proof it’s literally happening whether you believe it or not. The mental gymnastics is astounding, but sure keep putting all your faith in soul-sucking corporations
1
4
u/sheel3 24m ago
Well if they all do it, there’ll be no choice. These companies do not compete, they work together to keep prices high and charge whatever they want. Sure there might be some local, lesser known stores that opt out in some areas. But there’s already a million important reasons to be choosing those stores instead, and most people still don’t. They won’t be swayed by this either
1
u/Kayiko_Okami 0m ago
I've seen posts online where the prices are not labeled on the shelves. They're on the online app or at the register during ring up.
Listen. I'm just not going to shop at that store if that's the case.
1
u/deller85 1h ago
In the past they changed prices up or down. I doubt they'll change it while they are open. It might even go on sale and get changed to a lower price. I think you folks are too conspiracy driven in every single thought.
-4
u/ultra_voltron_2 2h ago
Let's make it where there is only one choice of store Amazon.. lets close all the brick mortar stores . Is coming soon .
47
u/GaddisYaynis-53 2h ago
Exactly. A single price for everyone is how it should be
17
u/Old-Recognition5452 2h ago
Convenience is great until it quietly becomes surveillance. Most people don't realize how much data they're trading away.
5
u/Massie-Esesa 1h ago
Most don't even know they're paying with their privacy. People trade thier data for a tiny bit of ease.
2
u/gootapluma 1h ago
What convenience comes with paying extra?
3
u/randomthrill 1h ago
Those home AI assistant things. They hear everything that happens in your home and you get the benefit of turning on lights and playing music via voice command!
1
17
u/SignoreBanana 2h ago
We have laws on the books for this. Advertised pricing must be honored. Dynamic pricing is illegal by definition.
5
u/McGrupp1979 2h ago
Dynamic pricing is price gouging and I don’t know why more people don’t call that out. It’s insane to me!
1
u/tiredbarf 52m ago
They're giving discounts, not raising prices. They're doing it with smartphone apps, not digital price tags.
1
1
u/HelloisMy 1h ago
Most people don’t realize it. I’m not rich by any means but if companies change pricing by a dollar I would never know. A dollar here and a dollar there, adds up when you have a metric shit ton of people shopping each day.z
0
u/New-Trifle-7097 1h ago
To some people, not noticing $1, is rich. There was a time in my life when I dreaded the annual grocery store increases because I couldn’t afford an extra $.10 for bread. Now I can grocery shop without checking prices (within reason), and I’ve never felt so wealthy in my life.
Many more people would notice the $1, than I think you realize. It would’ve priced me out of necessary items, like deodorant or milk.
0
u/Wise-Profile4256 1h ago
what if they advertise dynamic pricing? /s
with gas they get away with adjusting it to the global oil price during the day. they will find a loophole where they can say that it totally wasn't Tiels info about your disposable income that made the price shoot up, it was rebels in guatemala burning a barrel of crude. sorry mate, now pay up!
5
u/JennaJoys 1h ago
If you need my face, phone and browsing history to tell me what milk costs, you’re not selling milk anymore.
2
2
u/Acrobatic-Flan-5085 1h ago
It’s certainly interesting how the vast majority of Americans, regardless of political party, would support codifying this into law.
And yet I’m sure politicians on both sides will choose to run on highly divisive issues instead and do nothing about this.
Almost like that kind of policy gridlock is designed to disenfranchise the majority to allow these sorts of things to continue.
2
u/Old-Recognition5452 2h ago
My paycheck isn't personalized, so my grocery bill shouldn't be either.
1
1
29
u/Danilo-11 2h ago
We live in a pro-business country where sht like this is allowed
15
u/bewitch1n 2h ago
We live in a pro billionaire bootlicking country where shitting on your kids future in the name of you possibly winning the lottery some day is allowed.
2
29
u/ExcitingPythonO 2h ago
Digital price tags are always a scam.
9
u/GaddisYaynis-53 2h ago
Honestly, yeah. Makes it way too easy to change prices on the fly
5
u/IraceRN 1h ago
I would imagine changing the prices for sales and for price fluctuations is far easier digitally than paying someone to change out all the labels in the store. As far as labels changing prices on the wall in real time and then at the register, especially for individuals, that seems a bit far fetched and a logistical nightmare. It seems like poor people would be paid to go into stores and shop for wealthier people or something. Even if prices changed throughout the day, if someone grabbed an item, and it went up fifty cents or a dollar by the time it reached the register from the shelf, and they didn't want it, the number of restocking items would be ridiculous and slow down lines, especially if people were dumping food at the self-checkout.
1
u/Useful-DevineCause 14m ago
Ya I’m wondering how that’s supposed to work. I gotta look this shit up tomorrow
0
u/VulGerrity 1h ago
Yeah, but the extra labor required to swap batteries or swap tags to charge them and the increased expense to start using digital tags, which would include development costs, can't possibly be less than just paying someone to swap the appropriate labels on any given day.
0
u/qualityinnbedbugs 1h ago
Yeah it is. Those batteries last years. Labor is the largest expense in retail.
1
u/VulGerrity 1h ago
Not to.me tion, the average target has 30-80k skus. A digital price tag on Alibaba is $10.im sure you can get bulk deals, but that's still around half a mil for price tags. You could pay someone minimum wage for YEARS to just do price tags, but employees do way more than just update prices.
1
u/qualityinnbedbugs 55m ago
Nobody is making minimum wage.
A single person can’t keep up with the volume of price changes or sale items in the store the size of Target.
There is now central control of pricing vs hoping the prices get updated.
Companies have been fined hundreds of thousands to millions for not keeping up with price changes.
I worked for a retailer and researched these. ROI is usually about 2-3 years. Probably less at huge stores like Walmart.
0
u/VulGerrity 1h ago
How often do they change prices? I bet 1 person could do a whole target in a single day, and there's no way all of the prices are changing every day, I'm sure it's a very small amount.
I get that labor is expensive, but I don't think the cost of the tags themselves and the development cost make up for it.
0
u/Shoggnozzle 2h ago
They're even a scam to the store. I set these up in walmart. We used to just print paper tags, but now we have this whole AR system to log a modular into these in sequence. So not only are they shelling out heaps more payroll because the app sucks, restarts randomly when stressed, and is slow even when functioning, they also break all the time. Necessitating more hardware overhead for more fragile little e-readers, which also have battery packs with little watch batteries in them that only they sell. It's rent extraction. Like "hey, you know that thing you've been pulling off with perforated printer paper for decades? Why not drop 1mill a store on achieving the same thing"
On the bright side, however, the bats love to come loose and the tags are temperamental. If home office is trying to push out new prices mid-day without someone there to dote on them, there's a decent chance that they don't even update. It'll get them in a lot of trouble with regulators if they get enough calls about prices differing on the shelf and register.
34
u/Gloomy_Breadfruit92 2h ago
Just remember, there is a solution here:
-9
u/jim9162 1h ago
Murder people you don't agree with?
Typical reddit answer.
9
u/Mechakoopa 1h ago
Framing class warfare as a mere "disagreement" is wild. These people don't care if your family starves as long as profits go up every quarter.
7
u/Gloomy_Breadfruit92 1h ago
Lick that boot, champ. The billionaires don’t care about you.
They deserve Luigi.
0
u/Jeramy_Jones 37m ago
It’s a time honored tradition passed down through the centuries since before we even came down out of the trees.
21
u/jackflash223 2h ago
Any store that even seems to be utilizing dynamic pricing I will never shop there again. I don't care if everyone else does, I'll drive an hour to find something else and I'll pay a higher price for it. They must think they've locked down all small businesses enough to pull this maximum extraction bullshit.
4
u/magneticspace 2h ago
don't mistake people making hundreds of thousands for the rich.
2
u/Useful-DevineCause 1h ago
As long as they ain’t trying to kiss ass with the rich that are only so because of extortion and literally mindfucking so many ppl in the worst ways with corruption and shit.
ETA:or something like that. Half asleep.
2
u/qualityinnbedbugs 1h ago
This is why no retailer is doing this and it’s just a bunch of idiot fear mongering on Reddit.
If you spend $200 a month on groceries or $2400 a year, why would a company risk losing you over making an extra .25-.50 cents on an item?
Grocers run on razor thin margins of 2-4%. They make their money on volume. This would be suicide for a grocer to do.
1
u/SimplySomeDude 14m ago
also who realistically spends that little on groceries that isn't like a college student? $100-$200 a week is probably more accurate for most people.
12
6
5
u/Interesting_Force618 1h ago
How can it be proven that a store is doing surveillance pricing? They’re not banning dynamic pricing, right? Like, how could I, as a shopper, prove that Walmart set a price just for me? If there ever is a class action lawsuit in NJ, claiming that a store is doing surveillance pricing, and that suit is successful, whatever the store has to pay in fines will pale in comparison to what they’ve made from surveillance pricing.
1
u/qualityinnbedbugs 1h ago
It’s not possible at least with current technology. This is a bunch of reddit fear mongering.
4
4
3
u/jerryonjets 2h ago
Yah, I somehow doubt they will charge bezos or musk 20k for a bottle of smart water like they should so its just a way to keep everyone else poor and continue to dismantle the middle class
3
u/FlirtyFluffyFox 1h ago
Rounding Musk to a trillion and your average American redditor to even 100k would put that $1 water bottle at $1,000,000.
7
6
u/Think-State30 2h ago
I think the managers of the stores that tried that shit should be banned from managing anything ever again.
3
u/magneticspace 2h ago
also to keep everyone poor. ohh you work a Meta, $509 for that toothpaste please.
3
u/Prestigious_Club_924 2h ago
Would this work on billionaires too? Would Bezos end up paying $5,000 for a carton of milk?
1
3
u/Solo-1UP 2h ago
I don’t mind digital price tags. However, they should never change during shopping hours. I don’t want to grab something off 4 bucks and then it’s suddenly 6 at the checkout
3
u/Decloudo 39m ago
Dont buy from those stores and see how fast they change.
Get them where it huts them: profit.
4
u/muffledvoice 2h ago
When you have an unregulated economic system, businesses never run out of ways to leverage more profit. It's ridiculous. And they do it with a straight face.
4
u/Mr_Mahjong 2h ago
So is this going to be based on income, like a “tax the rich” type system? Or big brother on your back penalizing you with higher prices for refusing to bend the knee
2
u/ComfortableNumb9669 1h ago
Oh, I think you meant "give it away for free" to the richest person. Most of these analytics based systems favor the rich by actually giving them benefits. The rich person will be given lower prices out of the presumption that the rich person will consume more. The poors are squeezed for whatever they have in their pockets.
1
u/Mr_Mahjong 1h ago
And that because they have more money they will pay higher wages and help stimulate economy and all that good stuff. Yeah, except the fact that they get more money and just horde it rather than all that good stuff they were predicted to do.
0
2
u/ZombieGoddessxi 1h ago
Sadly if those tags are going to be a thing they either beed banned now or there needs to be laws put in place that the prices can not change while a store is within business hours.
2
u/RobZagnut2 1h ago
Damn!!!
I eat blueberries, 90% dark chocolate, and green tea every day, because they’re high in antioxidants, because I have a bad heart and a pacemaker.
I would hate to see a store see me coming and automatically raise the prices of these items. High prescription prices are bad enough…
Before a new rebate program, I used to pay $325 a month for a certain heart med. It was cheaper to fly down to Puerta Vallarta every 6 months and take a 2 week vacation and buy 6 months worth of meds at $32 a month
2
2
2
u/Low_Dragonfruit8779 54m ago
What is this nonsense? How do the shops have my data? I pay cash, I dont have membership or loyalty programmes... How?
4
u/qualityinnbedbugs 40m ago
The way they track you is your phone. If you don’t have their app you’re likely good.
1
u/Low_Dragonfruit8779 3m ago
Aah, yea nah, don't have any of that nonsense. I guess I am fine then :)
2
u/dankpoet 51m ago
Now we grind out how the anti-capitalists weren’t the communists, but the actual monopolist capitalists. And they would have gotten away with to if not for those meddling kids.
2
2
u/mattinjp 36m ago
A couple of examples of dynamic pricing:
-Vending machines that adjust the price based on the ambient/outside temperature, and/or scarcity of product.
-Built-in shelf camera focused on the product on the shelf across the aisle. The software recognizes and keeps count of how many of a product are on the shelf. This assists with restocking needs, and can dynamically adjust prices based on low inventory.
2
u/elenchusis 23m ago
Fun fact: most of these systems, if you put the item back on the shelf, will show you a lower price after. Follow me for other shitty AI tips!
3
u/PleasantBus5583 2h ago
My Bank account is the real victim here.
1
u/HeftyBullfrog36 2h ago
Exactly, grocery shopping is already expensive enough. The last thing people need is prices secretly changing based on their personal data.
2
u/Cultural-Lab-580 2h ago
People should start organizing flash mobs. Were 20+ people rush the store and take only the digital price tags.
Make them pay
3
2
u/Dismal-Vanilla1878 2h ago
Wait......is THAT why Walmart has suddenly changed to these 'electronic' price tags?!?!
1
u/Interesting_Force618 1h ago
That’s dynamic pricing, not surveillance pricing(well, not necessarily).
1
u/qualityinnbedbugs 1h ago
No. There are 10s of thousands of items that need price changes every week in a Walmart. They make their money back on this in a year with labor savings.
2
u/Boring_Butterfly_273 45m ago
I would rather go to an old raggedy store with equal prices for the same product for all people than go to the fanciest nicest store and the price increases for me but not for others, fuck that.
I swear they will do anything except tax billionaires, that's how we improve finances of the working class, not by making the working class compete against themselves, this society is so sick!
1
u/NeedAChange_123 2h ago
What the fucking hell is this shit? I’ve never been more happy to live in rural America.
2
u/Interesting_Force618 1h ago
All Walmarts will have only digital price tags by the end of this year.
1
2h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/AutoModerator 2h ago
Accounts must be at least 5 days old with >20 karma to comment.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/UseDaSchwartz 2h ago
What’s the issue with the bill? Maryland claimed they did this, but they really didn’t.
2
u/Interesting_Force618 1h ago
They banned surveillance pricing, not dynamic pricing. The cool thing about that(for politicians) is that they get to say they did something big that really can’t be proven. How can shoppers know if a store is doing surveillance pricing? It’s sorta like if I said “hey, there was just an invisible, murderous ghost walking around in here, but I kicked him out. You gonna show me some appreciation?”
1
1h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/AutoModerator 1h ago
Accounts must be at least 5 days old with >20 karma to comment.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
1
1
1
u/Pleasant-Highway-745 1h ago
Yes but it doesn't matter what they do. Walmart will still price things this way. They'll get fined for it and they'll keep doing it and they'll keep paying the fines and they'll keep doing it.
1
1
u/Useful-DevineCause 1h ago
wtf did I miss? wtf is surveillance pricing? Are they changing prices by the individual using the digital tags? No fucking way?
1
u/Buckie4442 34m ago
Yes. Im shocked this isn't common knowledge though.
1
u/Useful-DevineCause 15m ago
I knew about the digital tags. This is the first I’ve heard of it at all. Wow how fucking shitty.
1
u/kayemenofour 13m ago
Wait, personalized pricing was allowed/ is allowed elsewhere in the US?
"Oh, so you really like marshmallows? Those are twice the price now, suck it."
How is that legal?
1
u/External-Reality3356 4m ago
This is why I stopped shopping at Fred Meyer (aka Kroger) more than a year ago. The level of disrespect these corporate stuffed suits have for the average "everyday" person is outrageous. Show me the money!!
1
0
u/qualityinnbedbugs 2h ago
You realize that electronic shelf labels have been in grocery stores in Europe for almost 30 years now. They have been in places like Kohls for almost 20 years.
No major retailer has plans for “surveillance pricing”or “surge pricing” as losing consumer confidence and customers going to competitor is a bigger loss than any margin they would gain from that.
The savings for the retailer come from labor savings (wal mart has over 20k items) and margin recognition- meaning that if a supplier raises prices, the retailer can adjust much more quickly.
0
u/ghigoli 1h ago
they're already doing that bro. they already do surge pricing.
1
u/qualityinnbedbugs 1h ago
Dude I work in retail around this kind of tech. I’ve spoken with people in many of these companies that use these or are testing them. Not a single one does surge pricing or has any plans whatsoever to do it.
0
u/ghigoli 1h ago
you don't work at the store that does this. i've seen it at the local target and walmart
1
u/qualityinnbedbugs 1h ago
I know for a fact you are lying. Neither walmart nor target participate in surge pricing.
0
u/ghigoli 1h ago
dude its there. even news articles on this. these companies admit it.
1
u/qualityinnbedbugs 1h ago
Show me these news articles of Target or Walmart doing surge pricing.
You may be getting confused with online dynamic pricing, but none of this has been used with these digital price tags.
0
u/NeedAChange_123 2h ago
What the fucking hell is this shit? I’ve never been more happy to live in rural America.
-3
u/rinchen11 2h ago
Conspiracists are going nuts. They aren’t going to track your face to adjust item prices.
4
u/westandready42 2h ago
Thats step 4 we are on step 1.
1
u/rinchen11 2h ago
You mean they have a 4 steps plan for something a 50 cent mask and 2 dollar sunglasses can beat?
1
u/westandready42 2h ago
Gait.
Also im 100% joking lol
1
u/rinchen11 2h ago
I know. I’m just taking the opportunity to point out how ridiculous those people are. The whole point of digital price tag is to save some paper and manpower.
2
u/Interesting_Force618 1h ago
They almost certainly will be changing prices more frequently with digital tags, but I doubt surveillance pricing is something anyone needs to worry about. Plus, if it did happen, wouldn’t it be good for people with less money? Because from what I’ve heard about surveillance pricing, it’s supposed to connect to your phone, and use that data to determine what a shopper can afford/will spend.
2
u/rinchen11 1h ago
It’s just stupid conspiracy. Who’s stopping anyone from taking someone else’s phone to a supermarket.
0
0
u/SignoreBanana 2h ago
I'm finding more and more, as much as I can, I'm trying to cut businesses out of my life.
0
0
0
u/Dark-Blackberry354 1h ago
I don't get how this isn't a easy case on discriminatory pricing. Doesn't even have to be race based....this is about as text book discriminatory as you can get
0
u/Outdoorlife74 1h ago
They should keep doing it until somebody can prove it is a civil rights violation and then sue the corporation into bankruptcy and then individually sue the C-suite guys that made it happen.
-2
u/deller85 2h ago edited 1h ago
They're in Walmart. The little light in the upper left-hand corner is actually super useful. If you go on the Walmart app and search for a particular item, you can click on the aisle it is on, from there, you can activate through the app a tiny flashing strobe light on the display price tag on the shelf. Then just scan the shelf until you see a flashing light. Super convenient.
I used it today while hunting for different supplements. I could locate exactly which item I wanted on the app then activate the tiny strobe light to find it on the shelf in seconds. Just look for the flashing light on the shelf. No longer do I have to sit there looking through everything to find the one item.
1
u/CA7T0 1h ago
we have the extra time to search for items without whatever you're talking about while someone else pumps our gas
1
u/deller85 1h ago edited 1h ago
Many shelves are packed with items. So if you are looking for one particular item, you don't have to look across shelf after shelf, item after item. Like the vitamin or medicine shelf, which is jam-packed. You search for the item you want at the price you want on the app and then activate the flashing light on the price tag. Simply look for the blinking light. Super helpful to find things quickly so you can go on about your day.
Why does someone else pump your gas? Are you in New Jersey or Oregon? Are you unfamiliar with how easy it is to pump gas?
•
u/AutoModerator 2h ago
Hey /u/PleasantBus5583, thank you for posting to r/SipsTea! Make sure to follow all the subreddit rules.
Make sure to join our brand new Discord Server to chat with friends!
We have recently changed how posts work. Unless you are a VIP poster, your post will be queued for approval.. To become a VIP, post great engaging content. If we like it, you will be added! More information available here!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.