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Walmart says it's not using personal information to set prices as it expands digital shelf labels (apnews.com)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/news@lemmy.world
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Walmart is aiming to assuage customers’ fears about its new pricing technology as it rolls out digital price labels at its stores.

In a statement posted on the company’s website, Walmart Inc.'s CEO John Furner vowed that the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer isn’t using personal information like income, shopping history or a customer’s willingness to pay to set prices, and it won’t be doing so in the future either.

“We don’t set different prices based on who you are or the time of day, and we won’t,” Furner wrote Friday. “Whether you’re buying groceries or electronics on a hot afternoon or in a sudden rush for an item, it’s never a reason to charge you more.”

The pledge from Walmart comes as concerns are mounting from some shoppers, consumer advocates and lawmakers skeptical about the rollout of digital price labels by the discounter and other stores. Digital price labels are rapidly replacing paper shelf tags at U.S. supermarkets and let stores change prices instantly from a central computer instead of having workers swap out paper labels by hand.

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[–] 6 points 1 day ago (4 children)

How would that even work? You don't ring it up when you take it off the shelf. They'd have to detect you at the register too, and set the same price. Most states require by law that if it rings up differently, they have to give you the lower of the two prices.

(But in my experience the person at the register says "ok what did it say on the shelf" and then rings it in at whatever price you say, though they probably won't do that if you say some absurd price.)

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  • [–] 0 points 1 day ago* (2 children)

    self checkout at walmart has a real time camera feed of you at in the self checkout booth. they can just detect you there

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    How do they tie that to a detection at the shelf? Any shelf tag will have multiple people in range, as will the register, and there's no camera on the shelf tag. I suppose they could use the aisle security cameras, but I don't think they'd be able to use those to identify and track people for pricing.

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  • [–] 0 points 23 hours ago*

    it ain't hard to fingerprint with video. Wal mart could do it if they wanted to is all i'm saying. They have the infrastructure and the ability to pay the salaries for the engineers to make it happen. not saying they are, it just takes one ambitious VP and a senior manager to get the OKRs rolling though

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