Walmart Says It's Not Using Personal Info To Set Prices As It Expands Digital Shelf Labels (apnews.com)
- Reference: 0185885568
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/09/28/060245/walmart-says-its-not-using-personal-info-to-set-prices-as-it-expands-digital-shelf-labels
- Source link: https://apnews.com/article/walmart-pricing-dynamic-pricing-1488b3614058c9452426c0e2e656f653
> Walmart is aiming to assuage customers' fears about its new pricing technology as it rolls out digital price labels at its stores. In [1]a statement posted on the company's website, Walmart's CEO John Furner vowed that the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer isn't using personal information like income, shopping history or a customer's willingness to pay to set prices, and it [2]won't be doing so in the future either . "We don't set different prices based on who you are or the time of day, and we won't," Furner wrote Friday. "Whether you're buying groceries or electronics on a hot afternoon or in a sudden rush for an item, it's never a reason to charge you more."
>
> The pledge from Walmart comes as concerns are mounting from some shoppers, consumer advocates and lawmakers skeptical about the rollout of digital price labels by the discounter and other stores. Digital price labels are rapidly replacing paper shelf tags at U.S. supermarkets and let stores change prices instantly from a central computer instead of having workers swap out paper labels by hand. [...] Walmart said in March that 2,300 Walmart U.S. locations already use digital shelves, and it expects this technology to be chain-wide within the next year.
[1] https://corporate.walmart.com/about/everyday-affordability/letter-from-our-ceo
[2] https://apnews.com/article/walmart-pricing-dynamic-pricing-1488b3614058c9452426c0e2e656f653
Missing the important pledge (Score:2)
If they could just pledge not to change prices during standard business hours, or save it until overnight for 24 hour locations, their pledge would mean something.
I'm all for getting rid of the waste from paper tags that sometimes don't get updated. But the price on the item when it goes in my cart had better still be the price by the time it makes it to the register.
no need to (Score:2)
they are charging you more if you shop in store. they want you to shop online and have walmart+ and they will offer you the lowest price if you do
other stores like HEB are doing the exact opposite: they claim no curbside fees on their website, but they lie and they will increase the price of the item 5% if you choose pickup. try logging to an account to confirm what i am saying
I've literally seen it done (Score:1)
Our walmart installed these price-as-you-go tags a while ago and I have literally seen them change as I walk up to them, and then change again as I walk away. The trick to get them not to change is to be holding your phone at them - the store's AI won't change the tags if it thinks you're filming them.
Re: (Score:2)
Uh, huh, sure.
Re: (Score:2)
This is BS.
Impossible Promise to Keep (Score:1)
I truly believe John Furner CEO of Walmart truly believes what he is promising. However, market forces are like gravity, and cannot be defied. The pressure on every marketing person, product buyer, campaign leader, and up-and-coming whomever to "create value" by engaging in high frequency retail pricing is going to set up an army of motivated, intelligent, hard working people to constantly ask "is it OK now?" until they just ultimately backpedal and start doing it. In the mean time they will weasel around w
I can believe both things (Score:3)
That leaves a lot of room still, for example they can raise prices on trending items or proactively raise prices on cold beverages ahead of a heat wave... But they could have done that before too, it only would have cost more to do.
Re: (Score:2)
None of this makes sense. They already run a large web store and they could have done this anytime but it's clear they have not. They'd be caught very quickly if they did this in a retail store.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh yeah? How is googles "do no harm" going?
This is just corporate speak for "please dont regulate us", which we absolutely should.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not worried about the idea of personalized pricing. It just doesn't seem feasible. Implementation hurdles are abundant, the likelihood of complaints in-store is very high, and for not that much benefit.
Re: (Score:2)
> I'm not worried about the idea of personalized pricing. It just doesn't seem feasible. Implementation hurdles are abundant, the likelihood of complaints in-store is very high, and for not that much benefit.
I’m with you, how do they know what price to charge once you are at the checkout line? If you shop with someone and they track by phone, which phone to use at checkout? Both? What if one person doesn’t go to the line? It’s not as easy as change digital tag.