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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 1 point 20 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 child)

It's way harder to prove that someone set prices above the inflation levels and their cost increase than to prove that prices change while people are shopping.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 18 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

    Proving anything means nothing when lawyers can be thrown at the problem by the richer party until the problem disappears. Its very hard to bring forth a suit when you have very little funds to get it off the ground. Lawyers are far from cheap in the US.

    And this is before bringing up that there is no federal price gouging law in the US. And that price gouging is only illegal in certain states with price gouging laws when there is a declared state of emergency or natural disaster. And typically price gouging fines are as low as $100 to $1000 and is a misdemeanor. This is per incident, with several states having a cap within a certain time frame [ie.Alabama with no more than a $25,000 fine per day of there are enough proven instances.]

    Price gouging in the US is literally legal short of those specific circumstances. And the penalty is absolutely nothing for these huge chain grocers. So why should we believe that these grocers will act in our best interest?

  • source
  • parent