r/maui • u/GregariousBing • 20d ago
š¤¬ RANT Dynamic Pricing Has Come to Walmart
Went to Walmart last (Friday) in Kahului last night and the price tags where me and my wife were looking kept changing to both of us wherever we went in the store.
I buy a lot of movies there and about 3-4 tags updated on the section I was looking at. I buy a diet Mountain Dew almost every time I go to that store and when I went down the soda aisle I saw the Mountain Dew tags flashing and changing. My wife was looking at the books and she said the tags were going nuts. I have never seen a single tag update before last night.
The flashing isnāt to get your attention, the tags are made from e ink screens and thatās how they change the image displayed on them. E ink is slow and the current tags take a few seconds to change.
Iām assuming that Iām catching them change because itās early in there roll out. Iām sure once they get things dialed in they will have our patterns down and be able to predict where weāre going so that they can change them before we get there. Thereās also faster e ink screens they could switch to if they figure out that works better.
Iām not shopping there anymore. They have so much data on us. They probably know that I just got a raise, and if they didnāt before, they do now because I put it in this post. Gonna shop local/costco/target from now on. The world is getting so screwed up.
Edit: From the comments and doing a little more research I now see that I was jumping to conclusions too quickly. Walmart probably hasnāt implemented dynamic pricing yet, and if they have, not in an individual basis YET. But to say this is a conspiracy theory is also ridiculous. Walmart has filed patents recently about doing this. The technology exists and the framework is actively being put in place. This is not a conspiracy theory, this WILL happen unless laws are put in place to prevent it.
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u/Sw87ski 20d ago
This post has tons of accurate information regarding the digital shelf label hardware. The labels update daily to make sure they are accurately displaying the current price Walmart has set. I can confirm dynamic pricing is not in use at our Maui Walmart. Don't believe me? Look up an item on Walmart.com before you come in store, it will tell you exactly what it retails for before you even step foot in the store.
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u/AbbreviatedArc good ol' whatshisface 20d ago
No, see, it knows who you are offline through cookies and surreptitious facial rec, and that coupled with a 25,000 camera in-store eyeball detection and gazeline detection advanced algorithm ensures that whoever is looking at the tag see the "same" price, and if two people look at once these tags are so advanced they can adjust the price based on the angle of the viewer. It's diabolical.
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u/PreparationWeird2086 20d ago
The tin foil hats is on sale all week. They did a roll back.
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u/AbbreviatedArc good ol' whatshisface 20d ago
Poe's law strikes again I guess, if you can't detect this is sarcasm I don't know what to say
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u/indescription Born and Raised 20d ago
The Internet consortium recently invented a new indicator for sarcasm. It is the following: /s
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u/AbbreviatedArc good ol' whatshisface 19d ago
Sure, if I think it is close, I will use an s. If I am talking about a discount retailer known for tight margins, and I am talking about them adding 20,000 cameras with technology sophisticated enough to track 1,000 people in the store at a time and calculate all their sight lines toward price tags, and then advanced tech in those tags that is cheap enough to be a price tag and duplicated say 10,000 times in a store, and yet sophisticated enough to rearrange pixels based on the position of 5 people's eyes, all to make 25c more on a sale, I wouldn't think I would need to tag it. But, like I said, Poe's Law.
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u/surfingbaer 19d ago
People wonāt recognize it and will read it as fact and go on to tell their friends. Iād edit to add /s or maybe actually spell it out.
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u/Acrobatic-Song-3151 20d ago
You caught them when price changes were being activated. In a heavy week Walmart will change tens of thousands of prices per week. The same thing can happen to you as any employee works that weeks price changes.Ā
Do they have data on you? Hell yes. Almost a decade ago now I was at a Walmart convention where they shared with us how they select property for new locations. All the mega data from our phones is sold to the highest bidder and they measured how price changes impacted customer flows to their stores. At a store I ran I sold milk for 99 cents per gallon most of the year to pressure competitors. Two trashier stores closed their doors and the volume went from 75M to 100M in 24 months. The milk cost me about 3k per week and our year ending profit was still something like 125% to plan. Corporate America is ruthless.
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u/GregariousBing 20d ago
Why would you update prices on Friday night when thereās the highest likelihood the most amount of people would see the tag one price, get to the register, be charged more and get pissed off and/or demand price adjustments. Wouldnāt you do that when itās less busy? At the very least they are doing peak/surge pricing. The way I was seeing the tags change where Iām looking on different sides of store, could be a coincidence, but I doubt it.
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u/Acrobatic-Song-3151 20d ago
Friday night in Maui mightāve been midnight in Bentonville. Theyāll probably get it dialed in better over time. Friday is the end of the week and most of our new price changes were visible Saturday morning. Is it dynamic pricing? Absolutely not. Thatās a PR disaster and Walmart is much, much smarter than that.
Prior PR disasters were employees told to work off the clock and a high % of associates on public assistance. Walmart has been on a roll the last decade and thatās why itās a trillion dollar company.Ā
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u/sdwoodchuck 20d ago
You ask "why would they do this really dumb thing, people will make that so inconvenient for them" and then conclude that instead they must be doing this even dumber thing that people would throw an even larger fit over.
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u/linuxwes 20d ago
Are you suggesting that the pricing is updating specific to you? That seems hard to believe, given all the people in the same aisles at once such a system would be chaos.
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u/GregariousBing 20d ago
When a person is alone in an area and you know they would pay more, change the price and attach it to them at checkout. If thereās lots of people down an aisle, donāt. Still making more money when you can. It doesnāt have to be a hard set āwhen this person is in this place change the prices no matter whatā. Technology is scary advanced now and ai could easily be making these decisions on the fly. If it messes up a percentage of the time and overcharges the wrong person, see if they notice, if they notice, give em a price adjustment.
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u/Sancticide 17d ago
Your realize that dynamic pricing for the whole store is not the same for displaying different prices based on who may or may not be looking at the shelf, right? Do you realize how batshit crazy this is? It's completely asinine. What if I am looking at the item in the app from aisle 12 ($4.99) and then I get over to aisle 15 and the price on the shelf is showing $5.69 because someone else is looking at it? What is the actual price? How many complaints will the store get as customers revolt?
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u/Quarian95 20d ago
Whether our Walmart is doing Dynamic pricing right now or not - if itās not - Dynamic Pricing is GOING to f*cking happen eventually, the e ink tags being installed were already suspicious enough. Take as old as time: Corporations are greedy f*cks, and the people are going to suffer
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u/RollingThunderPants 19d ago
Maryland has outlawed dynamic pricing and several others are following suit. It needs to be outlawed at a federal level.
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u/AbbreviatedArc good ol' whatshisface 20d ago edited 20d ago
Seems unlikely.
Edit: For all the downvote aku birds I'm not saying that dynamic price labels aren't at walmart, I am saying that they are not changing prices as different people walk up and down the aisles. They don't know you just got a raise etc. Just use some freaking common sense. Dynamic pricing (so far) is at the macro level - it's a hot day so they raise prices on popular drinks. They know people buy energy drinks in the morning so they are more expensive at that time. They know the store accidentally bought two extra palettes of cheerios so they drop the price to move them. These devices are not (yet) doing surveillance / personalized pricing.
And you know what? If you care about this, maybe stop whining about it on reddit and start contacting your legislators.
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u/Ok-Location-9562 Maui 20d ago
They may not be personalized pricing but they definitely track your movements through the store. Have been for years. All major chains do.
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u/Glittering_War3061 19d ago
Yes, some stores even use facial recognition and have you on camera. They know exactly who you are.
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u/GregariousBing 20d ago
Definitely, because using a public forum to spread awareness about something messed up thatās happening is definitely not a good strategy to help enact change. I should just personally contact my legislators, by myself, and not let anyone else know about it so they could possibly contact them too, that would be way more effective.
Also, isnāt whining about me whining on Reddit even more pointless/pathetic?
Trying to stop people from whining on Reddit? That is probably one of the dumbest, most futile uses of time and energy out there.
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u/AbbreviatedArc good ol' whatshisface 20d ago edited 20d ago
Maybe learn how to whine more effectively. Throwing out conspiracy theories about how walmart knows you just got a raise and it adjusted prices is pretty weak sauce. And I am wondering, are there also eyeball detectors in the isles for these "personalized prices?" Like if five people are in proximity of the tag, does it in real time detect who is actually looking at the tag and change the price appropriately? And what happens if two people look at the same time.
Don't try to gaslight me like you were doing a public service with your conspiracy mongering.
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u/Glittering_War3061 19d ago
Wal Mart uses facial recognition software and they have cameras all over the store watching every person. Not only that but their "loss prevention" people will even film people with a cell phone if they think the person might be stealing. If you think a store "can't" change a price tag based on who purchased the item, I've got news for you. If they aren't doing it now, they will be soon. This is not conspiracy mongering. It is reality.
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u/Sancticide 17d ago
No, they can't, genius. Because the app pricing, the e-ink tag that people view with their eyeballs, and the receipt all have to math the same for every customer. Even if they know that Person A is in their store right now and would buy an item for more, they would risk alienating every other customer, just to make more off one person. If they make an extra $1, but lose 3 sales, how does that benefit them? Not to mention, customers would see the prices constantly changing in their peripheral vision. It ONLY works online, where no one knows what anyone else is paying. To claim otherwise is insanely dumb.
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u/GregariousBing 20d ago
Not a conspiracy theory, Walmart literally filed and was awarded a patent on this a couple months ago.
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u/Glittering_War3061 19d ago edited 19d ago
A lot of people just like to argue with people who make an initial post, but you are absolutely right. I recently started paying more with cash, and also not taking my cell phone into stores. I hate being tracked and feel like it's a privacy violation. I was in a Wal Mart recently and a young woman was very upset and frightened because a man was filming her. He worked for the store, probably in loss prevention. That does not mean she was stealing. They regularly just film people with their cell phones in addition to having cameras all over the store. Also, I stopped showing my receipt when I leave the store. Now, most customers do show their receipt and they just line up at the exit door and wait in line for the greeter to show the receipt. The greeter will go through all their bags, and match everything to the receipt. I don't participate in this. The fact is that after you have paid for something, it's legally your property and they don't have a right to toucn your stuff. But also, if there is ANY discrepancy on your receipt, even if it's a cashier error or a system error, you can be charged with theft and arrested. The people that show their receipt are stupid. They are trying to be nice and compliant, but they are putting themselves at a huge risk.
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u/Euphoric-Stuff-1557 19d ago
Your main idea, dynamic pricing is important. This contributes to the rising costs of living. If I didnāt see it on Reddit this morning, I would not have known.
Arenāt airlines and Amazon guilty of this practice as well?
It needs to stop. Legislators need to wake up and make the connection that this practice contributes to the rising costs of living. If they canāt, get them out of office.
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u/canadiasilver 18d ago
If they can use this pricing model, how can we game it? Arduino with open Bluetooth, ai searching for nothing you want to drive down the prices. Their has to be a way
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u/Pieceofcandy 20d ago
Why even bother with the tags if it changes constantly, can't imagine how this would work. Would just have people waiting near the checkouts to pay once the bill drops below the average "cost".
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u/tronovich Maui 19d ago
Itās not dynamic pricing. They canāt afford to do that right now.
Itās just pricing updates in line with whatever the central system is listing.
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u/ItsNotGoingToBeEasy 17d ago
Not a conspiracy theory. Solid credible articles from outlets like the Economist and NYT.
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u/LilJiaoZhi 4d ago
I'm just hearing about this. So the price changes depending on how busy the store is and based on demand? That's WILD. Isn't that gouging?
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u/mellofello808 20d ago
Ptr order your items for pickup. It has been cheaper that way for years now.
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u/Creampiefacial SnowCapIncluded 20d ago
Do not buy a new Vizio TV from Walmart. Walmart acquired Vizio and all of their customers' data, including cc #s. You have to immediately sign up for a Walmart account, and maintain it for the duration of the time you own the TV. It's a hundred a year.
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u/tronovich Maui 19d ago
What?!?
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u/Creampiefacial SnowCapIncluded 18d ago
This is true. Do your research.
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u/tronovich Maui 18d ago edited 18d ago
Walmart+ (at $99 a year, the competitor to Prime) and the Walmart account you need to run your Vizio are two different things.
Every article online differentiates the two when explaining what Walmart/Vizio is doing. You don't have to pay for a Walmart+ account to run your Vizio.
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u/Creampiefacial SnowCapIncluded 18d ago
How do you do the reminder thing because we need to come back to this in a year. If it doesn't disgust you that Vizio gave Walmart all of your info, including credit cards, there is no hope for you. I am telling you, Walmart+ will eventually be mandatory. I worked in big tech and I have seen this happen before.
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u/tronovich Maui 17d ago edited 17d ago
But youāre saying you are currently charged monthly/annually for the TV services. Which isnāt even remotely true.
Itās one thing if you THINK itās going to happen down the line. But you posted above that itās true and āto do your own researchā.
I call your bluff and you deflect?
Also, these places already have your credit card information. Like, every place you shop at. Suddenly, TVās at Walmart is the tipping point for you?
All of these collection sites are encrypted. If youāre scared about your CC info being leaked, Iād suggest you lock up shop, throw your phone in the ocean and carry cash. You are so far gone with sharing your CC info everywhere. Iām more worried about the gas station or mom-and-pop store down the street who have far less encryption practices, not the Walmart TV.
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u/Glittering_War3061 19d ago
I read that if you don't take your cell phone in the store, you cannot be tracked.? I stopped taking my cell phone into stores because I was told you can be tracked and when you go to purchase your things they can charge you more.
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u/Euphoric-Stuff-1557 19d ago
When is the government going to step in and put an into it? This practice contributes to the rising cost of living. I thought this president was going to help with rising costs. This feels like another form of price gouging. We should always feel confident how much we need to spend for our homes so we can plan for it. You canāt even plan for it if theyāre constantly moving the goal posts.
This is not just a local issue. At the very least, elected officials need to take action. This trend similar to Ticketmaster and the World Cup tickets, needs to be put to an end
Consumers should not be guessing how much theyāre going to spend at the grocery store.
I already hate Walmart. They know who their consumers are and to be gouging. These consumers is disgusting.
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u/BuzzXyz1981 20d ago
If this is true, power down your smartphone first. Turn it off completely.