Wait – grocery stores are using ‘dynamic pricing” to raise prices on my favorite stuff? Higher prices for me alone?

Photo above - screen shot from the Barbie movie. She does not repeat her iconic line "math is hard" from the 1992 teen-talk-Barbie era. Evidently driving still is, though.

Kudos to New Jersey (where I don’t live) for getting out in front of this. The state is drafting a bill to prohibit dynamic pricing by stores, with repeat violators fined as much as $20,000 per incident. (see link below).

What is dynamic pricing? It began life as a Texas soda machine which raised the cost per can dramatically as the air temperature went up. Stop laughing. Someone really thought they could get away with this. Public outrage appears to have put an end to it. The production and transportation expense per can of Coke is the same whether the air temperature is 55 degrees of 95 degrees. This scam is also variously known as “demand pricing” and “surge pricing”.

Supermarket chains – clever corporations that they are – are poised to use Artificial Intelligence to identify shoppers individually, and jack up prices on the stuff we routinely buy. If someone’s preferences run to Tide detergent, Bounty paper towels, and Tyson buffalo Chicken Tenders, they could wind up paying A LOT more than some guy buying it for the first time. The more you buy, the less you save.

This of course is completely unrelated to the cost of raising, plucking, and breading a chicken. Does everyone understand now why customers constantly suspect supermarkets of inflating grocery prices, even before AI enabled dynamic pricing?

Amazon has its toe in the water here too, but so far no legislation has appeared to put a stop to online retailers. There are documented instances in the past where female Amazon Prime shoppers were charged considerably more than a male shopper for the same item. Is the presumption being that women are still living in the 1992 “math is hard" teen talk-Barbie doll era?

Let me inoculate this post against thread hijackings about women’s salary inequities, women getting shorter prison terms, men paying more for car insurance. Today’s topic is whether Acme should be allowed to charge you – personally – more for a package of frozen nuggets. This is the sort of stunt which a street corner meth dealer pulls on his most addicted customers.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

New grocery store ban proposal includes $20,000 fine for repeat violators

/www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/new-grocery-store-ban-proposal-includes-20-000-fine-for-repeat-violators/ar-AA21JtYF?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=69edfa93957443a88154daa1c6ecd74d&ei=94

jackson55 · M

People can charge what they want for a product. Up to you to buy it or not. There’s always been greed in retail.

robingoodfellow · M

@jackson55 with dynamic pricing the consumer is unaware that they're paying more for that item than someone else. The price is jacked up for you personally because the store knows your history, knows you're walking in there to buy that item.

robingoodfellow · M

@jackson55 not the same thing. You go into a car dealership expecting to haggle over the price. You don't do that at the supermarket with your Rice Chex. You expect to pay whatever everyone else is paying for it.