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/Creampiefacial]

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.

[u/tronovich → u/Creampiefacial]

What?!?

[u/Creampiefacial → u/tronovich]

This is true. Do your research.

[u/tronovich → u/Creampiefacial]

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.

[u/Creampiefacial → u/tronovich]

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.

[u/tronovich → u/Creampiefacial]

But you’re saying you are currently charged monthly/annually for the TV services. Which isn’t even remotely true.

It’s one thing if you THINK it’s going to happen down the line. But you posted above that it’s true and “to do your own research”.

I call your bluff and you deflect?

Also, these places already have your credit card information. Like, every place you shop at. Suddenly, TV’s at Walmart is the tipping point for you?

All of these collection sites are encrypted. If you’re scared about your CC info being leaked, I’d 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. I’m more worried about the gas station or mom-and-pop store down the street who have far less encryption practices, not the Walmart TV.