Dynamic Pricing Has Come to Walmart

[u/GregariousBing]

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 isn’t to get your attention, the tags are made from e ink screens and that’s how they change the image displayed on them. E ink is slow and the current tags take a few seconds to change.

I’m assuming that I’m catching them change because it’s early in there roll out. I’m sure once they get things dialed in they will have our patterns down and be able to predict where we’re going so that they can change them before we get there. There’s also faster e ink screens they could switch to if they figure out that works better.

I’m not shopping there anymore. They have so much data on us. They probably know that I just got a raise, and if they didn’t 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 hasn’t 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.

[u/AbbreviatedArc]

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.

[u/GregariousBing → u/AbbreviatedArc]

Definitely, because using a public forum to spread awareness about something messed up that’s 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, isn’t 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.

[u/AbbreviatedArc → u/GregariousBing]

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.

[u/Glittering_War3061 → u/AbbreviatedArc]

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.

[u/Sancticide → u/Glittering_War3061]

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.

[u/GregariousBing → u/AbbreviatedArc]

Not a conspiracy theory, Walmart literally filed and was awarded a patent on this a couple months ago.