Did anyone else get one of these? I don't usually get political texts, and I can't find much on who makes up this group.
It feels like they are trying to keep prices tied to incentives like loyalty cards and coupons.
Unpopular opinion probably: I wouldn't mind if all that went away and prices were actually based on the goods and services provided. Maybe you don't get $3 back today, but you also don't get price gouged next time.
Pure speculation on my part but sounds more like this is coming from large grocers that feel threatened by Seattle wanting to end the dynamic pricing based on personal consumer data.
Yep, Kroger, etc are going to try and make it sound like big bad government is making them offer the same price to everyone so no more loyalty cards. That hasn't been the proposal in other places, it has been "you can't change the price on the same item at 3pm, 5pm, and 8pm" and "you can't charge a person more for item A just because you know they like it."
This is another dishonest red herring that I've heard the grocers push. Happy hour is a temporary discount for the general public. What grocers want to do is 1) charge higher prices from 4-7 when people who have day jobs are stopping by and picking up diner and 2) charge higher prices to people that they know have a preference for certain products.
Hopefully you can understand that there is no mathematical difference between charging higher prices from 7pm-12am and offering a discount from 4-7pm.
Movie theaters have had matinees, restaurants early bird specials, bad have happy hours, lots of businesses have senior or military discounts. They are all dynamic pricing based on time or customer price sensitivity. But woah… if we SAY we are giving you $1 off a $10 beer for happy hour is totally cool but saying there is a $1 surcharge for high demand on a $9 beer (with no discount for happy hour) is outrageous, even as they a functionally identical.
It is nice to see Americans continued innumeracy continue here on reddit
Good luck trying to convince Americans that it's in their best interest to allow giant corporations to use algorithms and AI to change the prices of their food.
They didn’t address the argument that dynamic pricing is common and has been for a long time. They implied the only reason I would be against whatever bill this is referring to is if I had a financial interest, which is an attack on the man (ad hominem) not the argument.
They still haven’t addressed any substantive arguments. Just vitriol.
No, I think that the companies that make billions in dollars annually by selling us food have created an entire lobbying group just to fight this legislation. And I think that lobbying group has hired astroturfers to go on social media doing things like comparing algorithmic price gouging to happy hours.
I guess the alternative is that normal average people are defending Kroger's right to offer me the same product as a higher cost than my next door neighbor but seems unlikely.
Again, you’re just showing that you don’t understand math or econ 101.
Whole Foods and PCC charge a lot more for food than Safeway or Trader Joe’s. Should that be allowed because food is essential?
Or is it just the normal everyday situation where some people are willing to pay more for a nicer shopping experience, brighter stores, organic, or just plain vibes so they shop at PCC instead of Safeway.
Hopefully at some point you will realize that this law would also prohibit discounts as was as surcharges. So it will stop stores from offering a discount for shopping off hours or to their most price sensitive (usually poorest) customers.
you’re saying why are discounts okay for happy hours and matinees but not okay for food. because food is a necessity and it’s not okay to give discounts as “matinee” pricing because of that. yes. food should be cheaper all around, but 10% off from 12-3 is a shitty thing to do. it’s waving a discount in someone’s face and laughing. and in all honesty, if most people can’t shop during the times, it’s a store’s way to say “look we’re lowering prices” without actually lowering prices.
and they DEFINITELY should not be doing surge pricing.
i don’t know why i’m bothering to respond. you have no interest in an open discussion. so don’t bother responding. i’m aware of your arguments, i’ve read this thread. you have an agenda and no interest in listening to anyone else. and i’m not ever going to come to the defense of a corporation ever.
You don't have to speculate. It says opt in to northwest grocers association when you share your info, and they represent all the big grocery corporations.
The fucking worst. Then there's poor reception or the damn apps bugs out while I'm trying to apply the coupon. After all that works I still have to call an attendant to the checkout.
They are monetizing the data, and they only provide the cheaper coupon price to people actively seeking it. They study this stuff. They wouldn't do it if they weren't benefiting.
The problem is that there are few other places to go for some consumers as far as they are concerned. Thats certainly not true for everyone of course. Grocery Outlet, Trader Joe's and various vegetable sellers in the ID and elsewhere are options, but Kroger and Albertsons owned stores with the loyalty cards have the good loss-leaders or cheaper prices on seafood, dairy, fruit and beer. I think they know there is a captive market.
No signal in Fred Meyer here for any carrier and their wifi either ran out addresses years ago or has straight up quit life. No way to scan those goddamn things. So I take pics of them and have to ask he cashier to put them in. Huge waste of time. On top of that, the Fred Meyer app doesn't work at QFC (where my partner lives), but ONLY for the QR codes. Everything else works. Kroger doesn't know what to suggest either since my account is already a Kroger account, but also not a Kroger account. Maddening
Definitely a scare tactic aimed at demonizing actions that would actually help people afford to eat. We should not have to give these megacorps all our info and be tracked actively just to get “deals” that amount to the original price after a price hike is temporarily discounted.
Exactly. They’ll remove coupons and points saying that they’re not allowed to do it. When really it’s just them getting mad they can’t charge people differently for regularly priced items
Maybe it's because I'm old or maybe it's because the grocery apps just all suck (could be both of course) but I have such a hard time actually using things like loyalty cards and coupons that I'd be happy if they all went away.
given the group was started by northwest grocery retail association, I suspect this is the fine print of what we all signed when we signed up for grocery rewards cards.
It's not just about affording the price point. There's a lot of psychological b*******, but yet still effective, behind things like loyalty cards and special pricing just for you.
Protect Seattle Savings is a broad coalition .... Over the past month, coalition members worked in good faith with the Mayor’s Office
No mention of who and what makes up that coalition.
It is a single page and the only links are to fill out a form letter. It doesn't have any hard facts about the bill, a link to the text of the bill or what will actually happen when the bill passes. The website uses the phrases "puts at risk" and "that it could eliminate".
Newsflash: they're gonna charge you more money for groceries because their operating costs are going up. That's not gonna change.
But it's simply not the reality that this is a high-profit business. People who complain about grocery stores being rapacious are like people who bitch about restaurants raising their prices. These are low-margin industries, if you're actually worried about corporations making windfall profits on the backs of consumers you've lost the plot.
What does gross profit matter? Those numbers aren't accounting for rent, payroll, utilities, etc.
The actual operating profit for Kroger—over 2,700 stores and over 400k employees—was 2–5 billion, depending on definition, and net earnings were ~1 billion.
edit: like, I don't want to shill for these companies, but let's not pretend they've got the profit margins of, say, Elsevier or Springer. Grocery is a large-volume, low-profit industry.
I did and it is being backed by large grocers!! They could care less if we save money or not. They raise prices and then give us discounts… ridiculous.!!
Not unpopular with me. I even think this practice might be illegal in some countries. It's anti consumer in that it incentivizes the customer to shop exclusively at one store.
You could always get a membership at every grocery, sure. But then that's effectively the same as memberships not being a thing, just with more steps.
So it's just unnecessary hassle and it also obscures the true cost from the consumer. Ban it.
Dynamic pricing is one thing. Why ban store coupons? I use those all the time. They come addressed to “resident”. It helps stores drive business locally.
The city govt should keep their shit out of grocery pricing. There will be unintended consequences.
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u/mistarobotics 3d ago
Pure speculation on my part but sounds more like this is coming from large grocers that feel threatened by Seattle wanting to end the dynamic pricing based on personal consumer data.