Retailers cancelling orders and setting higher pricing

Alderbank

…What they are reportedly doing in the US is using data about you to charge you a different price for say groceries compared to the person standing right next you at the time…

Our local Iceland does that on Tuesdays

Ergates

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82187193#Comment_82187193

"Reportedly" being the operative word here - and it's doing a lot of heavy lifting.

i.e.: It's conspiracy theory nonsense. It simply isn't realistically practical to have prices for an item on the shelves adjust in real time depending on who is looking at the shelf.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Okell

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82187193#Comment_82187193

If that is happening I think it might make more sense to call it "profiled pricing".

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82187337#Comment_82187337

There is very little information available anywhere without bias so I don't really believe anything I read or watch but digital price tickets exist, AI is increasingly common and it's ability growing, Amazon has (or did, I don't know if it's still around) stores where you pick stuff up and they bill you as you walk out the door, the technology exists, are you suggesting companies like Walmart wouldn't charge affluent people more if they could?

Ectophile

Don't assume it's always rich people who get charged more. Rich people have cars and will drive somewhere else if they think they are being overcharged. Poor people have to take the bus.

Ergates

are you suggesting companies like Walmart wouldn't charge affluent people more if they could?

I'm saying the technology to do this in a physical shop doesn't exist and probably never will. The nature of a super market make it effectively impossible (multiple different people in the same aisle looking at the same products at the same time).

It's an internet conspiracy theory that has already lead to people vandalising digital price tickets, brought to you by the same people that believe vaccines contain microchips.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82187787#Comment_82187787

Very little is impossible, there are already digital tickets, I’m sure I saw they are already using cameras in the UK to monitor stock levels, using AI to change prices or order stock if it’s up to the job makes sense (to the company) as it cuts the human workload. Cameras are everywhere for security.

The components exist, except I don’t know what level of AI exists currently* so it’s very short sighted to say it’s impossible.

The video I saw was people ordering online, in a room at the same time, same items from the same store and some paid different amount.

When ordering online here Morrisons had some frozen chicken on offer, brought it 3 times, offer went away but offer was present when not signed in, these things are store specific but AI is smart enough to determine how likely I am to buy something based on my previous habits and what odds exist to get a sales based on showing or not showing the offer to me specifically.

Multiple customers simultaneously looking at a price ticket is hardly a large obstacle to over come, either display the standard price or tailor it to the group based on the odds of highest profit.

I’m not interested in conspiracy theories, we live in a world where survival of the fittest has manifested itself through a concept of profit, what stems from that is pretty logically really.

*They are going for super intelligence which is smarter than us, whether they will get there who knows.

Curiosity2017

The video I saw was people ordering online, in a room at the same time, same items from the same store and some paid different amount.

Whilst you may have seen an example of technology online that sort of technology would never be adapted by a mass market retailer. The backlash would be catastrophic, simply not with the investment. Price matching or monitoring yes, but profiling would be commercial suicide. Do bare in mind it's the result of videos online that some people think the earth is flat, just because you've seen it doesn't mean it's correct or going to happen.

What AI probably will do is make prices lower for people who buy an item frequently. Sainsburys already ready do such things eg tailored nectar prices, I think Tesco possibly do the same. They want you to keep buying from them, not the other way around. That's where the money is. The invest heavily in loyalty schemes to keep you, they aren't going to suddenly start doing the opposite just because someone has made the technology.

eskbanker

Yes, agree with the above, there's a world of difference between buying online versus in-store, so the (unquestioned) existence of price variances in the former environment doesn't imply that it's practical in the latter.