To date, I've only seen digital pricing at Whole Foods but we also live in a town with one grocery store. That's about to change though so I'm going to guess we will run up against this once we move. Will need to keep eye on this.

torrid said:

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I had no choice but to get the grocery store discount card a few years ago because of the savings. However every time I use it, the clerk addresses me as "Mr. Shackleford".

Also for the times I don't have the card with me, I discovered the phone number consisting of the local area code plus my childhood phone number (long ago disconnected) was in their system. I have literally used this number for twenty years.

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And Jenny's phone number with 713 in front of it always works
For the not Olds

867-5309
For a low price just call

Ryan the Temp said:

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flown-the-coop said:

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"Scan your item to see your exclusive price! Remember loyalty customers who give us all your data receive the best, most up to date pricing!"

Doesn't need to be regulation other than for them to disclose their practices. People can then decide where to shop.

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Stores like Kroger effectively punish shoppers for not participating in loyalty programs by making them pay more for groceries. The "loyalty price" at Kroger is often the same as the normal everyday price at HEB.

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Safeway is reaaaalllly bad about this with their loyalty cards. I forget who runs the little grocery store in Breckenridge but when I didn't have the loyalty cards, he swiped his info to give me the employee discount to get the prices back down to dime normalcy. Look on his face said he'd been yelled at too many times to care or want to force me to hold up the line setting up the app.

waitwhat? said:

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The technology exists, and is used, to recognize individuals walking around a store and build a profile on them. Amazon has those stores in some airports where you just scan your credit card, pick up whatever you want, and walk out without scanning the items by using dozens/hundreds of cameras in the ceiling to track what you're grabbing.

They could identify you, buy more information on you to determine your income/spending level, and adjust the prices of items on a digital display as you walk up to it without you ever knowing the price was changed. When you walk away, it turns to the "normal" price or adjusts for the next person it sees walking up.

I can't express how much I would detest this becoming normal.

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Amazon's "technology" was an army of Indians, and they backed away from it after initially claiming it was all AI.

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-just-walk-out-actually-1-000-people-in-india-2024-4#

So riddle me this Batman, picture a typical HEB on Sunday afternoon, Super Bowl weekend or Christmas. How exactly do you track all those customers, with all those SKU's, picking up and putting back, having two different people grab the same mustard and the same time, and keep track of who pays what dynamic price? Not to mention Deli, Bakery, pre-packaged items, and the meat counter.

You could maybe do surge pricing at peak times, but all it would do is shift traffic patterns. Occam's razor suggests the electronic shelf labels are to eliminate the labor and inconsistency of changing paper shelf tags every week.

Sq 17 said:

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torrid said:

---

I had no choice but to get the grocery store discount card a few years ago because of the savings. However every time I use it, the clerk addresses me as "Mr. Shackleford".

Also for the times I don't have the card with me, I discovered the phone number consisting of the local area code plus my childhood phone number (long ago disconnected) was in their system. I have literally used this number for twenty years.

---

And Jenny's phone number with 713 in front of it always works
For the not Olds

867-5309
For a low price just call

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281-330-8004

Not sure how this is a surprise. Fast food places charge more at different times for a burger etc. too. 'Rush hour' tolls in places like the peoples republic of Austin are much higher vs. off-hours I think. Businesses, like government, try to figure out how to maximize revenue from consumers/subjects.

Algorithms and AI, it's all maddening. I pine for the simple days in the 70's and 80's.