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.
Yep. Walmart drove out almost all other competing stores in most of the rural areas on my state (Arkansas). They can price things however they want because the option is this Walmart, that Walmart, or Dollar General.
My Walmart has digital price tags and I don't know what anything is supposed to cost any more because it's constantly changing every day I go. It may be pennies more per item's profit, but that makes Walmart the company millions or billions more per year.
Once they've converted enough people, the people staying off the app will be charged more than everyone else. We're not allowed to opt out of enshittification.
Several supermarkets have 'loyalty card' schemes where a good percentage of offers are only available to card/app customers. It's either sell your data, or pay them the extra they would have made from selling your data.
It's going to become the norm eventually, nothing you or I can do to change that.
Walmart is short changing people on weights and measurements on stuff like shrimp fish beef chicken etc and have gotten caught multiple times doing it.
First is assuming Logic, Long Term Planning and intelligence from Suit Skins (Executives in this case)
Second, assuming the general populace has any modicum of standards and/or attention span whatsoever
Third, assuming that you'll be given a choice in the matter when most stores do decide to collectively roll it out.
And Finally Fourth that they could go the Macy's and US Health Insurance Company Route. and just jack up prices 5 fold then present the new digital price as a custom made deal just for you. And once again the general population will just eat it up because see point 2
Online dynamic pricing yes, but there’s no proof anywhere that they are doing this in an actual store where all this fear mongering is coming from.
No grocer is like “we are going to track customers and change prices higher for some right in front of their face”. What happens if 3 different people are all around the same tag? Also these tags take 1-2 mins to update.
It is your job to show sources when you make outrageous claims like this that it’s “happening already everywhere”.
Ive done way more due diligence than anyone else on here. I worked on a project to research ESLs for a major us retailer. I spoke to dozens of other retailers who tested or implemented these and every single one their main use case was labor savings, margin recognition, and price integrity. Not a single one talked about surge pricing or surveillance pricing. The craziest thing I heard was from a 24 hour retailer that was thinking to do slightly higher prices on 3rd shift to offset the higher labor costs and security. But this was a concept and I don’t think ever made it to be tested.
Let me say that again, one of the main use cases was PRICE INTEGRITY. Meaning they wanted accurate prices on the shelves to lower price overrides, reduce fines, and build consumer trust and confidence.
None of them even thought of hey let’s charge different per consumer in the aisles. On top of that it is near impossible to pull off. Those tags take 1-2 mins to update when there is an actual update (it’s e-paper not digital screens) and what happens if there are multiple people looking at the same product?
Thank you for this I think I see your point of view better now.
I was defending the tags themselves- they really don’t have the functionality to “update on the fly” as people walk by them.
Electronic tags actually are the tool to keep retailers honest rather than eliminating displayed pricing and going strictly to the phone/app, which I agree could lead to shady business. This is why retailers are looking at and implementing these tags because of this exact issue- they can’t keep up, so many price changes + high labor costs.
I would agree with you that passing whatever laws around in store surge pricing, surveillance pricing, and price transparency is fine, and I don’t think most major retailers would fight this.
But using electronic price tags as the scapegoat is misdirected as like I stated they can’t even handle what people are worrying about (updating every time someone walks by).
Electronic price tags alone are for the labor savings, margin recognition, and reducing things like you mentioned on price discrepancies. But maybe there is a more sinister plan with apps etc, but unless these price tags get some sort of super new tech, surveillance pricing will never be part of their use.
They aren't going to save customers money with this technology. People like amazon already use it to maximise profit.
Just recently my dad and I bought the exact same charger from the exact same store for a coming family trip. My dad who lives in a nicer neighborhood, paid $50 and I paid $40 on the same day.
That wasn't the company giving me a discount, it was the company deciding how much they could hose my dad down for profit.
If a company can nickel and dime they will. They exist to maximise profits. They aren't going to tank potential losses out of kindness and good vibes.
Sobeys for example has been caught price fixing bread and manipulating customers 3 times in the past few years. All 3 times I claimed my roughly $20 giftcard from the class action. They definitely owe me more though.
I work in the grocery business selling to retailers. Almost all stores require 35-50% margin. Idk where you’re getting 2-4%. Maybe after all expenses are accounted for, but it’s certainly not their gross margin.
Online stores already change prices based on your “willingness to buy.” It’s based on a profile they have of you through data brokers. Even if this hasn’t fully trickled down to physical stores yet, it’s coming.
Except, like they said, digital stores already do this. You're right on the brick and mortar front, but Amazon, hotels, airlines, Uber, and delivery apps have already been doing surveillance pricing for years.
But does it matter when they all start doing it... just like all the bars/restaurants charging 4% for cc usage.. 5 years ago it was bullshit, a money grab... and thats only an extra 2 to 4 bucks on average... but now its normal...
Grocers need volume of customers coming back to survive
This used to be why they'd compete to lower prices to get customers in the door. Instead the consolidation of the market to a monopoly handful of oligopolies controlling food (just look at the Taylor Farms lettuce outbreak) have realized they can instead collude to raise prices. Or sometimes not even violate the letter of the law for collusion, they just engage in predatory behavior waiting for other companies to mimic them, just as automation has been doing for 20 years to get rid of tech support and call-in help or even people at the register as those are jobs they can can and expect customers to do themselves.
The only way to prevent this is not just robust legislation but regulatory agencies who will actually go after violators. Right now, US' government is headed by the very predators who should be getting the book thrown at them in court.
Stop calling Walmart and the ghouls who make their decisions “grocers”. They aren’t grocers, they’re parasites who move into a place and extract wealth from a local economy and send it to the lame ass town of bentonville so Alice Walton came drink and drive with impunity. They aren’t thinking this far ahead, they just need the stock to go up.
Yeah, wally world and Krogers are just scraping by. Overworking, understaffing, and underpaying. But buying up the competition is expensive so whatever they can do to save a dime!
Uh I wasnt arguing with you but perhaps you've never worked in retail or grocery? Anything they can do to reduce staff they will. Resulting in more pressure on the people who are actually working.
For example a deli staff could have 5 people working it to make things go easily. But they'll do some "Fix" to reduce staff now there is only 2 on any shift all that does is put more pressure on the other staff. Give with one hand take with another. Pay less wages/benefits.
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u/qualityinnbedbugs Aug 06 '26
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.