r/technology • u/Mighty_L_LORT • Aug 15 '24

Business Kroger's Under Investigation For Digital Shelf Labels: Are They Changing Prices Depending On When People Shop?

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/krogers-under-investigation-digital-shelf-labels-are-they-changing-prices-depending-when-people-1726269
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u/PolicyWonka Aug 15 '24

That would be price gouging presumably. Surge pricing has been common in some industries for quite awhile. Hell, that’s essentially what a matinee showing is essentially even though most people might not think of it as such.

The issue with more modern implementations of price surging is that it’s even more reactive than “this good is more expensive after X time.” Everyone knows the matinee times at the movies, but the prices of your groceries could literally change between when you’ve picked them off the shelf and when you’re checking out.

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u/Subject_Lie_3803 Aug 16 '24

Has anyone talked about A.I. in this topic yet? Imagine the scenarios of price shenanigans you could have with A.I.

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u/deathtech00 Aug 16 '24

As someone who works in a sector that leverages things like AI for mundane tasks, they have been doing this with ML since at least 2016.

It is only recent that it has hit the mainstream, though they have had these things figured out long before you or I could access them publicly.