Another grocery giant is following in Walmart’s footsteps, hitting shoppers where it hurts — their wallets.
Walmart recently found another way to nickel-and-dime shoppers before they even get to the checkout, as back in December, the retail giant revealed it would add dynamic pricing to its store shelves.
Also known as surge pricing, the controversial practice is where businesses constantly adjust prices on their products in real-time with the use of digital price tags. The changes are based on market conditions like demand, competitor pricing and inventory — or so they claim.
When Walmart — the largest retailer in the US — adopted the ever-changing price tags, shoppers were furious and worried prices would constantly rise. The behemoth even scored a patent for a demand forecast tool that will not only predict what customers will buy, but it will also recommend a price based on the projection.
But now there’s another chain taking the heat.
Kroger will expand its already large number of stores using the sneaky shelf practice. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that hundreds of more locations in the Cincinnati-Dayton division — which includes Northern Kentucky — will now use digital price tags.
The powerhouse has been rolling out electronic shelf labels — or ESLs — to hundreds of its stores across the country as early as 2018. Kroger previously shared that nearly one in four of its locations nationwide have them.
ESLs are supposed to reduce paper and save the company hours of labor, and free up workers to help shoppers with other tasks. However, customers smell something fishy.
Much like the system Walmart uses, Kroger’s ESLs will have the ability to change the price of any item sitting on store shelves in just seconds — a potential cash grab.
Kroger denies that the pricing system will be used for surge pricing. But shoppers are buying it.
“Bad idea. You can literally get a higher price on your entire cart before you get to the register. That doesn’t even sound legal,” a shopper wrote to Facebook.
Another wrote, “There [are] too many other stores out there to shop at, so Kroger, just lost me as a customer.”
“It is an effort for these corporations to squeeze every last cent out of a consumer. This is a real application of AI and how it will play a role in life going forward for everyone,” A worried shopper wrote on Facebook.
Lawmakers aren’t falling for it either, as putting trust in huge corporations with little oversight on the matter may not be the best practice — shocking.
“Digital price tags may enable Kroger and other grocery chains to transition to ‘dynamic pricing,’ in which the price of basic household goods could surge based on the time of day, the weather, or other transitory events,” Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bob Casey wrote in a letter to the grocery chain.
Kroger has not gotten back to The Post’s request for comment on surge pricing.
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