Walmart’s use of digital price tags signal the future of retail shopping, but consumers are worried | The mega retailer plans to introduce ESLs in 2,300 stores
https://www.techspot.com/news/104326-walmart-experimenting-electronic-shelf-labels-sparking-concerns-about.html
24 Comments
From the article: Dynamic pricing is becoming an unavoidable reality, despite its unpopularity among many consumers. This shift is being driven by technologies like electronic shelf labels (ESLs). Retailers argue that these innovations increase efficiency and reduce costs in an industry known for its slim profit margins. However, consumers worry that this could pave the way for even more aggressive dynamic pricing practices. As Walmart begins deploying ESLs in its stores, industry observers will be closely watching how consumers react to this change.
Walmart is leading the charge to replace traditional paper price tags with [electronic shelf labels](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-08-16/digital-price-tags-in-grocery-stores-prompt-concerns-over-privacy-price-gouging) (ESLs) by 2026. The retailer aims to introduce the technology in 2,300 stores, signaling a significant shift that has already taken hold in Europe. With several locations in California already utilizing ESLs, Walmart may be paving the way for a nationwide transformation.
Electronic shelf labels use display technologies, such as e-paper or LCDs to present product information. These labels are connected to a central server wirelessly via radio frequency, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or Zigbee. This connectivity allows for real-time updates to product information, but most importantly, prices.
The adoption of electronic labels offers numerous advantages to stores, as the ability to quickly update prices saves time and labor compared to the manual process of changing paper labels. However, the ease of changing prices has raised concerns about potential price gouging and the facilitation of dynamic pricing strategies, where prices fluctuate based on demand factors such as time of day or weather conditions.
In fact, the technology is tailor-made for dynamic pricing. ESLs allow retailers to adjust prices in real-time based on specific conditions, such as raising prices during peak shopping hours or offering discounts during off-peak times to attract more customers.
I worked in retail a decade ago and changing those labels was a pain in the, you know. I think if it’s used to adjust sale prices, it can be great for everyone. Saves on thousands of those tabs that go over the price. If it is used for some dystopian dynamic price fixing tho, then we have a problem.
This is what happens when the business world becomes stoo incestuous and out of touch
but what happens if i take an item off the shelf, and by the time i get to the cash register, they increase the price?
printing stickers is stupid.
digital pricing will be abused extensively.
both true.
That’s the problem; they will ALL do it at once (all food chains), so you won’t have an option to just ‘shop elsewhere.”
I don’t want this dystopian hell of dynamic price changing.
Online can do this already, ESL tech extends the dynamic to physical shops. Savvy consumers will up their price tracking game to match. It’ll make everything happen more quickly as usual when anything is digitized.
Those are super common in France and other EU countries. It’s old tech at this point. The labels aren’t the problem, the problem is the lack of consumer protection in the USA.
When I worked at IBM in the mid-90s we looked at doing something similar as a concept. It was early days of hand-scanners and loyalty cards and we figured we’d know where you were in the store based on what you’d scanned, how that fitted your loyalty profile and whether you were displaying “disloyal behaviour”. If answer = yes, we could prod a digital display to offer a spot discount on the disloyalty trigger, hope you noticed and theoretically stop you defecting to another store.
(There was another version where the store manager intercepted you in store and did a bit of schmoozing.)
It was all pretty high-concept and not exactly real-time tracking, but we figured we could get it to work. Technically anyway. The human factor was it felt a bit creepy.
Hopefully the push back will remind a few of the retail geeks working on this sort of thing to revisit the old notes!
My only experience with digital price tags was at a clothing store. They had them on the shoes. I’m 100% sure the tag said $39. When we were checking out it rang up as like $69. So I was like “oh no the tag for those said $39 can you double check because I don’t want them if they’re that much” so the person called a manager over who went to check and it took them like 10 minutes and they came back and said no it is correct. So we said nevermind and walked back over there and the price tag was now $69.
Im convinced there was a sale or something they had forgotten to change the tag back (or someone just messed up) and when the manager went over they adjusted it back.
Also even if im 100% sure there is an off chance I am just a moron but it was one of those pick up the shoes, talk with husband about how the price of $39 is a good deal, decide to buy them. But that always left a bad taste in my mouth for that store and digital price tags 😭
If it’s my local walmart, half the digital price tags will just be outright broken and you’ll have no idea what shit costs.
On one hand, “dynamic pricing” is the same thing to sales and discounts. One the other hand, if this is used the way online websites and airlines use it, it’s an issue.
We need regulations against “targeted pricing” tactics. If something’s X for one person, it should cost X for another.
The one area that gets tricky, is time sensitive products. Supply & demand, is constantly changing over time and market conditions.
Stop shopping there, full stop.
Amazon has better prices or an actual grocery store. Chef Boythisshitsycksinacan, go without it. Sorry about the inconvenience, but if you want change, them be the change!
Digital retailers are allowed to change prices at any time? Why couldn’t grocery retailers do the same thing?
I can see alot of people abandoning their carts at checkout, when they see the total price.
What is problem here? These tags has been in use here (Scandinavia) many years already.
The prices are already changed via a phone or other handheld device. The main difference is the change will be reflected on the digital price tag immediately rather than wait for some to go through and replace tags individually.
Customers need to break the signs making them too expensive to maintain
I’ll give it 3 months before people start hacking them to have then display the digital price about 30% lower.
If a price increases between the time I pick an item from the shelf and the time I get to the checkout then I’ll be leaving the store without making a purchase.
It’s a good thing that all these retailers don’t have loads of data on all of our behaviors, including purchase behavior, which would allow them to dynamically adjust prices while we shop online.
Oh wait.
From a practical point of view Walmart will likely save millions by not having employees change the paper tags. You know, the ones that fall off a lot of the time.
Digital Price tags mean they can change prices on a whim. It’ll mean you’ll pay more for the products. If you don’t want them, the only way to stop it, is to protest it by walking out of any store that uses it. If everyone does this, they’ll abandon the idea. If some of you don’t, they won’t, and will assume those who won’t will come around and be suckers! So stand up for your rights and refuse to shop in any store with digital price tags! Your money is better off in your pocket than theirs; AND you can get the same products elsewhere without DPTs.
Luckily, I don’t think I’ve been in a Walmart in over 25 years or so…