Alaska Department of Law Investigates Grocery Pricing Practices Amid Concerns Over Dynamic Pricing
The Alaska Department of Law launched an investigation in January into grocery pricing practices, aiming to ensure fair and accurate pricing, encourage voluntary compliance, and identify systemic issues that may require enforcement actions. This investigation comes as major grocery companies, including Kroger (Fred Meyer), Albertsons (Carrs Safeway), and Walmart, have transitioned to electronic price tags, enabling them to change prices digitally. Watchdog groups express concerns that these companies, leveraging data collected through loyalty programs, could implement 'dynamic pricing' or 'surveillance pricing,' where individual shoppers might pay different prices for the same goods based on AI and algorithms. While these companies deny using consumer data unfairly, a Walmart patent for a system that could raise the price of mayo when tuna is added to a cart, and Kroger's lucrative side business of selling shopper data, raise questions about the ethical implications of these practices. Seattle recently ban...
