Technology

remember if you see someone shoplifting food no the fuck you didnt

I've already sent feedback to Walmart about my refusal to buy anything with a digital price tag. The thing is, I believe them when they say that prices are only updated between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. The problem is that that policy could change literally any time.

Walmart has every inch of their store covered in cameras. They have facial recognition systems so they know who I am the moment I walk in the store. They know I buy graham crackers. They know I've put up with price increases in the past. What is preventing them from adding $0.10 to those graham crackers' price tag the moment I walk down the crackers aisle? Literally nothing. They could, and that's reason enough for me to boycott

~~Dynamic pricing~~ Price gouging. FTFY.

If they want to do dynamic pricing, maybe we'll just have to start dynamic shopping.

Abandoned grocery carts full of food might also be coming to my local supermarket.

It’s going to be hilarious when these get hacked

It is morally correct to shoplift from stores that do this.

these gonna get hacked...

I'm going to start dynamic payments. "Oh, between 6-9pm I pay 10% less."

I will institute my own "dynamic pricing" scheme if this ever happens

In other news, shoplifting is inexplicably on the rise in shops featuring dynamic pricing.....

Let’s call it what it is: price discrimination.

Do cost accounting and play fair. Will we be doing this short-change shit forever?

Then I won't be going to that supermarket.

Is anybody acting like this is new? Shops relabel stuff with price changes regularly, this just makes it quicker and easier - staff don't have to run around for a hour with a price gun and a bunch of shelf labels any more.

Improving how we display prices isn't the issue, that's a good move, it's how prices are decided that are the problem.

If my local store switches to digital price tags to do this I'm just going to gather as many as I can and flush them down the toilet.

If this happens, I will absolutely try to figure out how to game it

Portland banned it for housing. Time to ban it for everything else!

https://katu.com/news/local/portland-city-council-votes-to-ban-ai-assisted-rent-price-fixing-to-promote-fair-housing-oregon-artificial-intelligence-landlord-housing-crisis

I’m still not clear on exactly what triggers this. Is it phone location, because a phone number is linked to all your data (unless you’ve been gaming it for the last 5-10yrs)? Do I walk by with my phone and the price goes up?

Is it like goodwill? Does the price change as you’re checking out? Do I grab a 2lb bag of medium roast coffee beans for $13, and because buying it consistently for decades, it’s now $18 at checkout? But is still $13 for the guy behind me who decided to try whole bean over pre-ground?

If rich people turn off their phones before hitting the parking lot and poor people leave theirs on, does the entire store get cheaper?

If you take a pic with your phone of the “advertised” price does that mitigate sudden increases while checking out, if you’re even watching?

Does having your unemployed, deadbeat uncle or kid do the shopping from their phone make it cheaper for the household?

What are the triggers?

Should be against the law to change the price after the shop opens at something like a grocery store. Nobody should be able to shop anywhere where the price you pick it up at can change by the time you get to the checkout.

Edit: Maybe there could be some exception for mid day price changes if you emptied the entire store of customers first, but enforcing something like that seems difficult.

and then there will be a really popular AI driven phone app that you will use to scan items and find out if you're being ripped off or not

My local store can not even get a reliable source of staple foods (the distributor often shorts them milk, meat or whatever), there is no way this:

A) Works

B) Is adopted by any non large store

C) Is accepted as anything but a hated cash grab

Free epaper displays!

Start pushing your state gov to ban this.

Great, I have a very bad feeling about this, given the possible crisis of 2026.

Time to vote with our wallets. I absolutely will refuse to shop at any store in my area that starts implementing this.