1y ago

A supermarket trip may soon look different, thanks to electronic shelf labels

www.npr.org /2024/06/17/nx-s1-5009271/electronic-shelf-labels-prices-walmart-grocery-store

Grocery store prices are changing faster than ever before — literally. This month, Walmart became the latest retailer to announce it’s replacing the price stickers in its aisles with electronic shelf labels. The new labels allow employees to change prices as often as every ten seconds.
“If it’s hot outside, we can raise the price of water and ice cream. If there's something that’s close to the expiration date, we can lower the price — that’s the good news,” said Phil Lempert, a grocery industry analyst.

42 comments

- All companies that plan to have dynamic pricing, please let me know.
  I've already stopped going to Wendy's; I'd love to add you to the list of places never to patron again.
  
  if you hsve a list I would love it if you cpuld share it with me
- Semi-cold? That's extra, you'll be lucky to afford it. The affordable water been sitting out on the pavement for a few weeks.
- I love how reality manages to combine the most comically exploitative parts of cyberpunk fiction with literally none of the intense, vibrant, or interesting parts. It's just a dull, gray, sexless, post-industrial dystopia with ugly cars, chronic obesity, and fentanyl addiction. And now surge pricing.
Isn't the real use case just so they don't have to waste staff time changing labels manually when stock changes or moves?
- This way they can spend more time rearranging the store so nobody knows where anything is, in turn making us walk past a bunch of stuff we don't need in an effort to try and induce an impulse purchase!
  Efficiency!
  
  A bit of that, but hopefully if they piss off too many people they'll just go elsewhere
- Why not both? (Until the laws are catching up)
  
  I offer you a third option: at least one Lidl in Croatia uses blinking tags for stuff they really want you to look at.
  Sometime soon we're gonna have to invent a spam filter for real life. Hey, maybe that's the use case that the Vision guys at Apple have been looking for?
Yes, this is regularly seen throughout Europe for years.
You can buy such tags in bulk from China, they are very cheap at any scale really (and their use isn't limited to just pricing).
But yes, I think some EU countries already have laws preventing price changes throughout the day or (to some extend) price differences between eg countryside and cities.
\ I think there should be an EU directive for this tho.
- Also, because they are so cheap they just throw them out when the battery is empty instead of replacing the battery. It’s great for the environment! /s
This is news? I have seen those labels here in Sweden a lot already. Just no idea if they do those scummy on the fly price changes.
- I'm quite sure such on the fly price changes are illegal. At least here in Denmark.
- Best Buy has them too, here in the US. Its nothing new. This analyst making these comments about the price increases is just full of shit and trying to get his name out there or something.
  
  Checks out with being an analyst I guess.
- Same here in New Zealand. Had them around for a while but never heard about flexible prices like this (other than items on sale of course)
Loblaws has had this for a while, we no longer shop thete, but it was frustrating because an item would fluctuate in price depending in what day you went. No way to budget for random pricing
- To be fair to Loblaws, I've never seen them change prices with these mid-day, so they're not engaged in "surge pricing" that I've heard of. (I haven't been to Loblaws since the start of the boycott, but I don't expect it's changed.)
  But I do wonder about the legality of that; right now, if the price at the till doesn't match the item price, you get the first one free and the rest at the marked price (up to $10 items; above that it's $10 off the marked price for the first item). But my impression is that policy is from Loblaws signing some sort of grocery code ages ago when scanners came in, essentially to assure consumers that they wouldn't be scammed by scanners ringing up items at higher prices than advertised. I don't think that is legally mandated.
  So, then, what happens if the price changes between when you put it in your cart and when you arrive at the till? Anyone engaging in surge pricing where the timing isn't clearly marked in advance is going to get into a lot of trouble with consumer backlash, at the very least, but I hope it's illegal, too.
  
  I would think the price changes happen overnight. With their system each RFID type price label can be flipped when the push the pricing to the register system.
  I'm sure the old way was a deterrwnt in changeing prices because they had to call staff in to swap labels. Now it is computerized, so on a whim they can adjust.
  We had an oat drink we liked one day 4.99 go back to grab another the next day 7.99. Few days later 3.50...we said screw this company and just got it at Walmart where price was consitent every time.
  
  Separate point, but are beehaw now not defederated from the world? When did this happen?
If the price I saw when I picked an item is different to what I pay at the counter, I'll never be back at that place again, even if it means I'm paying less.
- If that happens, I will force a 1000x refund, per instance.
It seems like they want people to shoplift.
I get the convenience part so the staff doesn't have to go around do it by hand, but it just seems infeasible to do it for the other examples mentioned.
E.g. you go in, pick up item listed for $10, finish shopping in 20 mins, item now costs $15 at till.. probably leave it (so now the staff has to re-shelf it) and start shopping at a place that is not trying to scam you.
For the other example, if there are a few packs of something expiring and they reduce the price for all the items on the shelf, everyone will just take the ones which have a reasonable shelf life left leaving the expiring ones.
Both of these just seem stupid.
- Easy legislative fix. If the price is changed after the customer picked it up but before they checkout, store must refund item 1000x.
They're already widely adopted in supermarkets here (Germany).
- That would also explain why Aldi in the UK also has these while other stores don't.
  
  Seems the two German supermarket chains really like to have the same infrastructure everywhere. Everywhere I go the Aldis look exactly the same. They have slightly different products depending on the country. But the price tags, interior, ... is basically the same. Okay and we don't have "Flaschenpfand" everywhere... (deposit on the plastic bottles and the machines where you can return bottles.) I bet all of this makes it a lot easier for their techs and management. And it could also explain why they sometimes redo a store that still looks fine and fit it with the latest shenanigans.
  And as an aside: I've shopped in the first Aldi store ever. It's not far from where I live.
The real change in retail pricing might be discrimination pricing (or 'surveillance pricing' as it is now called sometimes). Simply speaking, it uses personal data to personalize prices not just for each customer, but also for each customer depending on actual circumstances such as day time, weather, an individual's pay day, and other data, collected through apps, loyalty cards, ...
As one article says, there is One Person One Price:
"If I literally tell you, the price of a six-pack is $1.99, and then I tell someone else the price of a six-pack for them is $3.99, this would be deemed very unfair if there was too much transparency on it,” [University of Chicago economists Jean-Pierre] Dubé said. “But if instead I say, the price of a six-pack is $3.99 for everyone, and that’s fair. But then I give you a coupon for $2 off [through your app] but I don’t give the coupon to the other person, somehow that’s not as unfair as if I just targeted a different price.”
The linked article is a very long read but worth everyone's time. Very insightful.
Aaah aaaaaaaaah aaaAaaaah aaaaaaaaah aaaAaaaah fuck this shit, fuck it all fuck it fuck it fuck it.
- Hint: stores are flammable
Maybe this would make it comparable to the overproced convenience shops round the block
🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles: ::: spoiler Click here to see the summary This month, Walmart became the latest retailer to announce it’s replacing the price stickers in its aisles with electronic shelf labels.
If there's something that’s close to the expiration date, we can lower the price — that’s the good news,” said Phil Lempert, a grocery industry analyst.
Companies across industries have caused controversy with talk of implementing surge pricing, with fast-food restaurant Wendy’s making headlines most recently.
The ability to easily change prices wasn’t mentioned in Walmart’s announcement that 2,300 stores will have the digitized shelf labels by 2026.
Walmart’s not the first major grocer to make the change, as you can already find electronic shelf labels at Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh stores, and the Midwestern chain Schnucks.
While the labels give retailers the ability to increase prices suddenly, Gallino doubts companies like Walmart will take advantage of the technology in that way.
Saved 76% of original text. :::

42 comments