Walmart's Furner: digital price tags not used to price the person

The pushback comes as digital price tags, long used in Europe and Asia, spread to major U.S. retailers like Walmart and Whole Foods. Consumer advocates have argued the labels could eventually be used for surge or personalized pricing, and labor unions have opposed the technology. Retailers typically update electronic shelf prices on a regular schedule, often weekly, because shoppers value consistency, according to Asa Farquhar of Relex Solutions. Researchers who tracked prices at an unnamed grocery chain found "virtually no surge pricing" after the labels were introduced, Farquhar said, adding that changing prices throughout the day is exceedingly rare in grocery and general merchandise today. Still, the gap between company assurances and consumer perception has widened, with social media posts falsely implying that electronic shelf labels Walmart plans to put in all its U.S. stores scan shoppers' faces or cellphones to set individualized prices, according to Katie Thomas of Kearney. Lawmakers and regulators are responding: besides state-level bills, the FTC has proposed an enforcement policy on disclosing personal data use for individualized prices. Meanwhile, past cases like California's 2022 lawsuit against Target, which ended in a $5 million settlement and a ban on using geofencing to increase prices, show that concerns over location-based pricing have already drawn legal consequences.