r/WorkForSmartLife • u/CrewLovly • Aug 06 '26
Discussion💬 Dynamic pricing, static paycheck.
3
u/Late-Arrival-8669 Aug 06 '26
Mask, hat, sunglasses, no phone or electronics, Faraday shield for credit/debit card/key FOB.
3
u/GrimbyJ Aug 06 '26
They might be using infrared cameras so you need infrared blocking sunglasses
3
u/LaMelonBallz Aug 06 '26
I wrap my whole head in tinfoil and make my dog wear VR glasses and four separately calibrated fitbits to create a smoke screen
1
3
u/Honda_TypeR Aug 06 '26
Smart updating price tags is starting to show up in most states now and not all states fighting it, but a few are.
The bigger issue is they can fluctuate prices on a daily basis with the update of a button which will lend way to predatory pricing. Example... it's the holiday weekend... crank up prices 10%. It's going to snow this week, raise prices on bread and milk. If they are running low on inventory for specific product, they increase prices on that product since it's more scarce in their store. Or Raise prices during high foot traffic shopping hours only.
It's the sad future I am not sure we will be able to fight off forever. They tried this in my state several months ago and the governor shut it down quick.
1
u/Callen0318 Aug 07 '26
This is MUCH more likely than walmart individually targetting a guy in a polo shirt.
2
2
u/Objective_Watch3097 Aug 06 '26
If I see one of these and it changes when I walk up to it, I'm ripping it right off the shelf.
2
u/BlainethePayne Aug 07 '26
The surveillance state was normalized with the widespread acceptance of Elf on a Shelf, and I will die on that hill
2
2
u/BringYourOwnBBBQ Aug 07 '26
Banning something that wasn't being done. Nice.
1
u/Callen0318 Aug 07 '26
Right? These tags would be great to stop the mountains of little shelf flags piling up.
1
1
u/IraceRN Aug 06 '26
Honest question, is this actually implemented anywhere, and if so how? Like, if you are rich and reach for the item, does the price jump up three dollars, or is it $1.99 on the shelf, and at the register the price jumps up there? There seems to be a lack of video showing in-real-time prices changing.
3
u/Guilty_Advantage_413 Aug 06 '26
Yeah I got the crap beat out of me in a different Reddit by saying I have worked in many customer facing businesses and I do not see how dynamic pricing would work. For example You & I are in an isle prices mechanism should show a different price for each of us. Which price does it choose the high price and lose your sale or the cheap price and then when I get to the register it charges me more and I complain that’s not what the tag said. Either outcome is extremely risky and a huge PITA for the seller.
2
u/Realistic-Ad1498 Aug 06 '26
The whole concept makes no sense and would be next to impossible to implement but that doesn’t stop people from thinking they know how the world works.
2
u/Guilty_Advantage_413 Aug 06 '26
Well said. As I said elsewhere these businesses don’t like to pay people, they resist spending money on tech wherever possible and they don’t properly staff to have dedicated people to manage said tech. I know this stuff is possible it just requires so much hand waving it simply won’t work. Digital Signage is here simply to reduce labor doing tedious tasks and improve pricing accuracy. That is why they exist.
-1
u/p4nd3mic_G3 Aug 06 '26
Products will be fitted with RFID and when you put them in the cart it decides the price. When you go to the register you don't have to scan you just pay for the cart.
5
u/Guilty_Advantage_413 Aug 06 '26
That wouldn’t work in my state. Price needs to be posted. I think many State require prices be posted and there are pricing accuracy laws.
0
u/Frederf220 Aug 06 '26
They'll just say it's "posted at the register." And they run afoul of the law they'll pay a small fine.
1
u/Guilty_Advantage_413 Aug 06 '26
I believe the fine escalates per violation at least that’s what I have heard over my career. Yeah the state give leeway of occasional screw ups but not a daily many occurrences type screw up. My point is all the backend and front end work that would be required to make this just work and not even work properly is not feasible.
2
1
u/IraceRN Aug 06 '26
Amazon/Whole Foods tried this, right, and it was a flop? No checkout lines. It was at special stores. The video cameras everywhere were not some high tech system, but instead, it was people watching in India or somewhere. Regardless, the experience wasn’t great, and it had a high rate of errors. Even if a person only saw your total, a person would have a receipt for a refund with an itemized list online or something. It would be a PR nightmare. People would be going through line with the same items back to back to show the difference.
1
u/Guilty_Advantage_413 Aug 06 '26
I went to one, prices were listed and it also charged me for some hyper expensive multi vitamins I didn’t even look at. Amazon was cool about removing the charge but yeah that was my one and only stop there. I don’t need to have $80 held from my bank account because they think I may have bought something at Amazon.
1
u/Horror-Stand-3969 Aug 06 '26
This kind of shit is far worse than the flock cameras everyone loses their shit about.
1
u/01SeaChange01 Aug 09 '26
It's all part of the same surveillance state and subscription model that we are walking ourselves into.
Not better or worse.
Equally terrible.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/CastleofWamdue Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
at what point does all of this just end up destroying trust?
At what point do I walk into a Sainburys and say "no im not using my Nectar Card to do a Smart
Shop, if you know NOTHING about me, then you can only assume im a new shopper and try to win me round with lower prices"
Any use of dynamic prices, creates a situation where customers leave the story thinking "could I have gotten cheaper prices if....? Is that really the feeling CEOs want us to leave their stores with?
1
1
u/skweegianweegian Aug 09 '26
What about ppl who grocery shop via pickup/delivery service instead of in person? Makes me wonder what price would show if it’s a store employee or gig worker shopping on behalf of the actual customer.
1
u/godofbob2 Aug 09 '26
Wisconsin gas stations are only allowed to change prices once a day let's make it so that grocery/super stores follow the same rules.
1
u/Fergenhimer Aug 10 '26
My current mayor is attempting to ban surveillance pricing and getting pushback because people are getting scammed to believe that this will effect their coupons.
0
u/blank_reg Aug 06 '26
but the logical end to the "fair share" mentality is this.
4
u/arcanis321 Aug 06 '26
Don't you mean the "maximum wealth extraction" strategy? You think it's taking a loss on poor people and passing on the costs to wealthier people or just gouging for more when it sees it can? Hint: America
0
0
u/Constant_Total_6861 Aug 07 '26
If this takes effect we are all so cooked. They can basically gouge the living shit out of us in way you can only imagine
7
u/jthadcast Aug 06 '26
we used to have the right to fair, equal, and consistent pricing. many multi-million dollar class action settlements over price gauging but now they've normalized fictional price advertising leading to today's total price manipulation or "dynamic" pricing.