Consumer, we have detected that you are above the poverty line. The 99¢ price printed on this Arizona tea can only applies to those below the poverty line. Your total comes to $3.67.
I think it's cute that people think the dynamic pricing is charging the poor less,
If you see someone shoplifting anything from Kroger or one of their subsidiaries, no you didn't. Now cause a distraction while that shoplifter does the Lord's work.
So in the future, we pay the homeless in front of the store to get groceries for us for 5% of the price we would have to pay, with a 20% tip? Ah, wolt 2.0.
"If you're starving, we'll use an API with your bank to charge you $10 more than your entire net worth. In that moment we'll offer you a credit card with a 37% adjustable interest rate that only adjusts up to cover the overage (but credit card takes 6-8 business days to process, so you will go over). We'll then be left with no choice but to also process an overdraft fee on your bank account with daily penalties for the overage since you are being irresponsible.
And we'll use AI to generate a picture of everyone you love in a room laughing at you, because fuck you. By overdrafting, you triggered a clause in our user agreement (that you agreed to) which states that we can charge you whatever we think it's fair for that picture. The picture will then regenerate each month, indefinitely, on an auto subscription, unless you cancel by hand delivering a paper cancellation form to our cancellation office in Guam."
Dynamic pricing should be illegal. A price for a product should be the same for everyone and not dependant on their income, which smartphone brand they use or how much yoghurt they eat per day.
It'd probably be the opposite. I bet they'd charge more to specific demographics - and common convenience store beverage brands would probably cost more for poorer people.
Plus, without controls, they'd probably end up charging different ethnic groups more for specific goods - they'd probably obfuscate it somehow, like to charge white people more for something they'd probably say they were doing it because you're a model train enthusiast or something. Or like "our consultants have told us that Tejano music fans are willing to pay a premium for coca cola" and so they jack up the price of coca cola for Mexicans without saying it's because they're mexican.
But yeah, I bet poorer people who have less free time would be "willing" to pay more for essentials because they often have less choice in where they get groceries. In other words you could force poor people with fewer options to accept jacked up prices whereas non-poor people may have the luxury of shopping around or paying someone else to get their groceries.
Also, if poor people were charged less there'd be a whole industry of personal grocery shoppers who'd get discounted prices for rich people and charge them a service fee in exchange.
The business model for many many many businesses is to give the rich a good deal to encourage more business, and to give the poor a mediocre to poor deal, because they have less options and the volume is lower.
I am going to go to Kroger, speak with the manager, and scream loud enough while complaining for the entire store to hear, and never return the first time this happens.
I'm lucky enough to have options. A lot of small towns aren't. This idea needs to die fast, and it won't unless we are loud and borderline violent in pushing back against it. Tank their sales and reputations as quickly as possible.
Edit: because people think I hate th manager, changed wording. And yea, it sucks that I can't scream directly at the CEO, but if you've silent, this gets implemented with no friction at all, and they declare it a success.
I'm less worried about the idea that people are charged groceries based on income and more worried based on need.
Will the person who buys cigarettes twice a day pay more than the person who pays once a fortnight because it's clear that they require it more? Will the shopper of the family of 6 pay extra because they don't have the time or energy to drive to the next place that offers groceries without this system?
Introducing this based on income seems like a sugarcoating of something far more insidious.
Thats not the way it will work. They will give discounts to the rich and charge the poor more. This is essentially what dollar general is. A added cost for being poor.
This is why so much money is being pumped into AI. This is the future and our politicians are too old to understand any of it. It isn't sentience you should be worried about folks.
Demonstrating the inherent contradiction of capitalism in practice.
Capitalism is allegedly the only fair way to price things, via the "Price Mechanism". However, capitalists have simultaneously been creaming their pants at the idea of charging specific people or people in specific situations more, because they can get more profit, in service of Profit Maximization.
I'm sure I'll get a lecture on how they are not at all mutually exclusive but I don't care, honestly. It's either going to price gouge when the customer is perceived to be in more need (low battery pricing for taxi apps) or have a price based on the customer's ability to pay... at which point why not socialism?
Essentially, the capitalist will support what is best for themselves and make up reasons why it theoretically might benefit consumers (but not really).
Security cameras feed goes through an AI model to classify customers into wealth bands based on appearance, and continually updates the e-ink price labels nearest each customer accordingly.
If this were just "it costs more to be rich" I'd be all for it, but more likely it's just about jacking up prices based on other factors. So it'll probably hit poor people, too, by charging more for things they want more, forcing them to give up other stuff they want less.
You know a much better way to do this? Government oversight on pricing of staples to prevent shit like $4 cartons of eggs and $5 sticks of butter like we had in 2022/23
Stop these companies from gouging us on products we need by making it impossible for them to get away with it.
Getting pretty sick of being bled dry by greedy wealth hoarders who have captured the regulatory system. Looking more and more like they WANT violence.
Ya'll, this already happens - wholesale and retail pricing vs consumer pricing. This exact principle is why many states refuse sales tax - those disproportionately affect poorer people because a lot of rich people can buy items through their LLCs and get bulk or retailer pricing.
Costco has memberships based on this - there's the regular and then the executive memberships. You spend more on the higher level memberships (essentially an income check) and also get more money back later. Credit card promos function like this. Credit scores and loans function like this.
Grocery stores (capital) will never give us a break on food (money). They will always try to find a way to make the poor pay even more. That's why it's called capitalism - all that is valued is capital and capital accrues more capital. That's the game.
These corporations are so dumb. You need to start it as "discounts for those in poverty" and then gradually raise your prices overall until you get to the same dystopian hell.
This is why you shouldn't skip evil-marketing 101 in villain school people.
This sounds like the capitalistic version of communism (Soviet regime), the politburo (the billionaires) have decided that a family should be able to buy a loaf of bread every week, so we set the price of bread to yearly income/52