Have you experienced their "Dynamic Pricing' yet? My wife is fuming and refuses to go there now. She's a coupon queen and we work hard to save our money. She will research and write pricing notes / deals next to the items on our grocery list.
A few weeks ago something scanned at the register much higher than on our list and from when we grabbed it off the shelf. Turns out, those little electronic LCD price labels can wirelessly update (probably via AI) when corporate sees too many people buying a popular item and they want more profit. Someone on Youtube said the Walmart app (we don't trust it) will also change prices based on your past shopping history. Therefore, you and I might pay different prices for the same item.
Also, many stores are putting their "thumb on the scale" when they print the labels for meat and fish. If you carry ground beef over to the produce scale, the actual weight will be 20 - 40% lighter than printed on the label.
How would Walmart know your past shopping history? I don't shop there, so I honestly don't know. Do they have the store discount cards like in regular grocery stores?
I see you mentioned the app. Is it when you buy things in the app, check out and then go pick up or have your items delivered?
Amazon stores (e.g. Central Market, Whole Foods) and undoubtedly Walmarts have cameras everywhere that feed the video to databanks.
Amazon tracks people by facial features, any identity data given, gait, FLOCK, etc, to the point that they could pull what items you looked at and what items you picked up on which day in which store, sell all that data to advertisers, and give you a targeted ad on a newspaper on your phone, whose IMEI they picked up, 4 days later to remind you that you like that product.
I don’t know if Walmart is at that same level yet, but it wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprising.
It got a little tin-foily in the comments to your question so here is some founded patterns:
Surge pricing - If a store uses the e-ink or other changeable price tags on their shelves, they can change the price of certain items based on just general anonymous shopping patterns:
A spike in the purchase of Frosted Flakes over the last x hours or days
or time based patterns, say people shop for breakfast foods more in the morning than at night,
Prices can increase or decrease based on those params. It's unlikely a store has cameras to track you to an aisle -> shelf -> product to quickly change the price, and then remember to charge you that price as you are tracked back to the register - there is really no need for all of that. Global heuristic based pricing described above is good enough.
Individual Dynamic pricing - If you use a store's app to purchase for in-store or curbside pickup, the prices in the app might not be the same prices in the store - they could under or overcharge you based on your previous purchase history in the app.
You won't have to dive deep on these practices, any MSM outlet has covered them. Whether Wal-Mart is using these practices, I could not say with authority.
I shop there only for things I can’t find locally and don’t order. They are cheaper on a lot of items compared to the local food lion. It’s not a place I like to visit but occasionally have to. Between the trashy customers and employees I can’t deal with that, I understand you might not have a lot of money but at least respect yourself. I’ll admit the bathrooms are usually clean. I don’t shop a lot on the app because if you have an issue you have to call India. At least Amazon AI chat is helpful and you can chat with a person. Although I don’t like shopping there either.
Wish we could go back to local stores having what you need.
If we ever sort out our corrupt markets and GME, DJT, etc take off to the moon, I'd LOVE to give back to my small New England community and revitalize the old dilapidated mills into small local businesses and restart the trades at the schools.
That would be cool. One of the local towns near me refurbished an old cotton mill. It’s mostly restaurants, coffee shop and a not your average book store (seems like it has something for kids). I haven’t been to it, can’t remember exactly what I read. We have eaten at a few of the restaurants. I believe Concord NC did that with the old mills. I’ve been once just to see Dale Earnhardt Sr statue. The shops were unique. I long for the days when Americans make what we need instead of child labor in china. Seems like we lost some of our pride when jobs left.
Got to watch Dollar General as well and Publix. They are hoping you won’t notice and if you do they will pay any fines. Still a drop in the bucket to what they take in their skimming illegality.
Exactly they are changing the prices at the time we the consumers are in the register. They think they are smarter than us but I will not buy it if prices have changed, btw Walmart is not the one it used to be, prices are high too so don’t bother buying g things there.
I don't know why people shop there to begin with. Everything is made/grown outside the US, from what I understand. Lots of crappy Chinese products and foods from Mexico and Central America.
Have you experienced their "Dynamic Pricing' yet? My wife is fuming and refuses to go there now. She's a coupon queen and we work hard to save our money. She will research and write pricing notes / deals next to the items on our grocery list.
A few weeks ago something scanned at the register much higher than on our list and from when we grabbed it off the shelf. Turns out, those little electronic LCD price labels can wirelessly update (probably via AI) when corporate sees too many people buying a popular item and they want more profit. Someone on Youtube said the Walmart app (we don't trust it) will also change prices based on your past shopping history. Therefore, you and I might pay different prices for the same item.
Also, many stores are putting their "thumb on the scale" when they print the labels for meat and fish. If you carry ground beef over to the produce scale, the actual weight will be 20 - 40% lighter than printed on the label.
How would Walmart know your past shopping history? I don't shop there, so I honestly don't know. Do they have the store discount cards like in regular grocery stores?
I see you mentioned the app. Is it when you buy things in the app, check out and then go pick up or have your items delivered?
Amazon stores (e.g. Central Market, Whole Foods) and undoubtedly Walmarts have cameras everywhere that feed the video to databanks.
Amazon tracks people by facial features, any identity data given, gait, FLOCK, etc, to the point that they could pull what items you looked at and what items you picked up on which day in which store, sell all that data to advertisers, and give you a targeted ad on a newspaper on your phone, whose IMEI they picked up, 4 days later to remind you that you like that product.
I don’t know if Walmart is at that same level yet, but it wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprising.
All the data centers popping up surely have nothing to do with this.
“They” can also see you in your home. You can be seen and tracked by how your WiFi signal bounces off your body with WiFi Imaging technology.
All our data being fed to a central system that any corporation and government entity can access.
Welcome to 1984.
It got a little tin-foily in the comments to your question so here is some founded patterns:
Surge pricing - If a store uses the e-ink or other changeable price tags on their shelves, they can change the price of certain items based on just general anonymous shopping patterns:
Prices can increase or decrease based on those params. It's unlikely a store has cameras to track you to an aisle -> shelf -> product to quickly change the price, and then remember to charge you that price as you are tracked back to the register - there is really no need for all of that. Global heuristic based pricing described above is good enough.
Individual Dynamic pricing - If you use a store's app to purchase for in-store or curbside pickup, the prices in the app might not be the same prices in the store - they could under or overcharge you based on your previous purchase history in the app.
You won't have to dive deep on these practices, any MSM outlet has covered them. Whether Wal-Mart is using these practices, I could not say with authority.
I shop there only for things I can’t find locally and don’t order. They are cheaper on a lot of items compared to the local food lion. It’s not a place I like to visit but occasionally have to. Between the trashy customers and employees I can’t deal with that, I understand you might not have a lot of money but at least respect yourself. I’ll admit the bathrooms are usually clean. I don’t shop a lot on the app because if you have an issue you have to call India. At least Amazon AI chat is helpful and you can chat with a person. Although I don’t like shopping there either.
Wish we could go back to local stores having what you need.
Agreed!
If we ever sort out our corrupt markets and GME, DJT, etc take off to the moon, I'd LOVE to give back to my small New England community and revitalize the old dilapidated mills into small local businesses and restart the trades at the schools.
That would be cool. One of the local towns near me refurbished an old cotton mill. It’s mostly restaurants, coffee shop and a not your average book store (seems like it has something for kids). I haven’t been to it, can’t remember exactly what I read. We have eaten at a few of the restaurants. I believe Concord NC did that with the old mills. I’ve been once just to see Dale Earnhardt Sr statue. The shops were unique. I long for the days when Americans make what we need instead of child labor in china. Seems like we lost some of our pride when jobs left.
MOASS is tomorrow
That's the right kind of attitude fren!
I'm pretty sure that the "thumb on the scale" is illegal.
Got to watch Dollar General as well and Publix. They are hoping you won’t notice and if you do they will pay any fines. Still a drop in the bucket to what they take in their skimming illegality.
Exactly they are changing the prices at the time we the consumers are in the register. They think they are smarter than us but I will not buy it if prices have changed, btw Walmart is not the one it used to be, prices are high too so don’t bother buying g things there.
I don't know why people shop there to begin with. Everything is made/grown outside the US, from what I understand. Lots of crappy Chinese products and foods from Mexico and Central America.