With e-labels you can optimise your prices in real time, A/B testing the public across the country in minutes to optimise for the highest rate a population will tolerate indefinitely.
Then, you can offload the management of this service to a third party, which sounds daft at first, but this provides deniability when it comes to price fixing. When EvilCorp contracts with all grocers in a given province/state, they can slowly hike the price of bread by 1% every hour until they maximise profits, screwing you. They can even optimise for time of day/region/whatever, all with deniability.
Surge pricing is a distraction. The real profit is in squeezing the public slowly.
If there were real competition then electronic labels would be just fine. One company would try it, another would stick to fixed prices, maybe another one would encourage people to bargain on everything like ye olde days. Some people might like dynamic prices because they thought they could game the system. I certainly love picking up things in a store that are discounted.
For that kind of thing to work, you’d need at least 5 or 6 truly fully independent grocery stores that are convenient, viable options for people in a certain area, and probably 10+ in a wider geographic range for people willing to travel a bit. Instead we tend to have 2-3 companies dominating all grocery business because anti-monopoly laws are no longer enforced.
Then, you can offload the management of this service to a third party, which sounds daft at first, but this provides deniability when it comes to price fixing
That’s already happening. I’ve seen a few news stories investigating surge pricing through Instacart. Both Instacart and the stores, like Target, deny being responsible for the dynamic pricing
The prices are even based on the individual user. One person will be given a higher price for the exact same loaf of bread because the algorithm determines they’d be more likely to pay it. It’ll be interesting to see the effect that has on labor force morale. What’s the point of “working hard”* to earn more money if you’re just going to be charged more for things?
*Adding quotes and an asterisk to working hard because in many cases hard work isn’t what earns you more money. The hardest I’ve ever worked was in kitchens for near minimum wage
I agree. And it’s not just the public as a whole. My local news ran a story about how they’re going to be doing this on an individual level. The example they used was for fast food, but it would apply for what they’re doing in grocery stores as well. The example was a woman pulls up to a fast food chain with her children and their friends in the car. They order and the price is significantly increased because the AI has identified that she does this once a week on that particular day and realizes that she’s going to be willing to pay it. And then the car behind her pulls up, and they could order the same exact thing that she ordered, but they would get it for a lower price.
Individualized price surging is the fresh hell that’s even worse than applying it on the whole to a larger population.
How do they charge differently at the cashier? Like if the label changes for me after Jane picks her milk up then how does the system know that I picked up the milk at the higher price?
I’ve wondered this myself, but at a guess, I’d assume that they’d attach a 1hr window to the time change. So to use your example:
1400h egg price is set to £3.00
1445h you pick eggs off the shelf
1500h egg price set to £3.05
1515h Jane picks eggs off the shelf at £3.05
1530h you get to the till and pay £3.00
1535h Alice gets to the till and pays £3.05
Basically, so long as you’re in and out within an hour, any price rises (not drops, likely) within that hour don’t apply to you.
Alternatively, there’s a continued push to use the self scanning guns, those things you take with you in your cart as you shop. These could track the time of purchase and thus give you up-to-the-second pricing. Of course this only works if everyone has to use those things. I’m sure that’s next.
Traditionally, with paper coupons. Now, targeted digital offers (e-coupons).
They’d face lawsuits if they changed labels during the day and folks overpaid. Harder to think of a strategy with those labels that would be truly personalized. But like paper labels, would be location dependent (how wealthy and what tastes for the surrounding area).
I work at Walmart. I deal with these tags. As a worker it has made my life easier. They are eink, they do not change instantly and the system regularly delays changes for extended periods. Can they do regular changes yes, but they were making the workers do that anyway. Your concerns are still warranted. Take a picture of your tag.
It’s actually so much worse than that.
With e-labels you can optimise your prices in real time, A/B testing the public across the country in minutes to optimise for the highest rate a population will tolerate indefinitely.
Then, you can offload the management of this service to a third party, which sounds daft at first, but this provides deniability when it comes to price fixing. When EvilCorp contracts with all grocers in a given province/state, they can slowly hike the price of bread by 1% every hour until they maximise profits, screwing you. They can even optimise for time of day/region/whatever, all with deniability.
Surge pricing is a distraction. The real profit is in squeezing the public slowly.
Electronic labels aren’t the issue then, lack of oversight and consumer protection is.
And, of course, the obscene imperative to make ever more profit, human cost be damned.
If there were real competition then electronic labels would be just fine. One company would try it, another would stick to fixed prices, maybe another one would encourage people to bargain on everything like ye olde days. Some people might like dynamic prices because they thought they could game the system. I certainly love picking up things in a store that are discounted.
For that kind of thing to work, you’d need at least 5 or 6 truly fully independent grocery stores that are convenient, viable options for people in a certain area, and probably 10+ in a wider geographic range for people willing to travel a bit. Instead we tend to have 2-3 companies dominating all grocery business because anti-monopoly laws are no longer enforced.
And we circle back to regulation…
All in all good points.
That’s already happening. I’ve seen a few news stories investigating surge pricing through Instacart. Both Instacart and the stores, like Target, deny being responsible for the dynamic pricing
The prices are even based on the individual user. One person will be given a higher price for the exact same loaf of bread because the algorithm determines they’d be more likely to pay it. It’ll be interesting to see the effect that has on labor force morale. What’s the point of “working hard”* to earn more money if you’re just going to be charged more for things?
*Adding quotes and an asterisk to working hard because in many cases hard work isn’t what earns you more money. The hardest I’ve ever worked was in kitchens for near minimum wage
I agree. And it’s not just the public as a whole. My local news ran a story about how they’re going to be doing this on an individual level. The example they used was for fast food, but it would apply for what they’re doing in grocery stores as well. The example was a woman pulls up to a fast food chain with her children and their friends in the car. They order and the price is significantly increased because the AI has identified that she does this once a week on that particular day and realizes that she’s going to be willing to pay it. And then the car behind her pulls up, and they could order the same exact thing that she ordered, but they would get it for a lower price.
Individualized price surging is the fresh hell that’s even worse than applying it on the whole to a larger population.
How do they charge differently at the cashier? Like if the label changes for me after Jane picks her milk up then how does the system know that I picked up the milk at the higher price?
I’ve wondered this myself, but at a guess, I’d assume that they’d attach a 1hr window to the time change. So to use your example:
Basically, so long as you’re in and out within an hour, any price rises (not drops, likely) within that hour don’t apply to you.
Alternatively, there’s a continued push to use the self scanning guns, those things you take with you in your cart as you shop. These could track the time of purchase and thus give you up-to-the-second pricing. Of course this only works if everyone has to use those things. I’m sure that’s next.
Would say—
Traditionally, with paper coupons. Now, targeted digital offers (e-coupons).
They’d face lawsuits if they changed labels during the day and folks overpaid. Harder to think of a strategy with those labels that would be truly personalized. But like paper labels, would be location dependent (how wealthy and what tastes for the surrounding area).
I work at Walmart. I deal with these tags. As a worker it has made my life easier. They are eink, they do not change instantly and the system regularly delays changes for extended periods. Can they do regular changes yes, but they were making the workers do that anyway. Your concerns are still warranted. Take a picture of your tag.