When you wonder why so many data centers are being built so fast, maybe you shouldn't be so quick to think it's all about those AI videos you see on your computer. Maybe instead, you should start thinking about how beneficial surveillance is to rich people with an insatiable appetite for more money. One use of the data they collect is dynamic pricing.
When dynamic pricing is used in stores, instead of paper tags with prices clearly marked, there are digital prices that can change in an instant, sometimes showing different prices from the time you put an item in your cart to when you get to the checkout register. These are called ESLs, which stands for “Electronic shelf labels”. Wal-Mart plans to have dynamic pricing in all their stores by the end of this year. They aren't the only store moving to dynamic pricing. This post focuses mostly on stores that sell groceries, but truly, dynamic pricing is all over and includes airline tickets, concert tickets, hotel stays, big box box stores and more.
Most all of the big online stores use dynamic pricing. Not only can prices change often based on time, they can also vary prices from customer to customer. They are using your personal data and tracking to figure out how much you will spend.
I know this to be true. A year or so ago, I looked up a product on Amazon for my parents in order to read reviews. When I went to their house to help them make the purchase hours later, the price was significantly less. Amazon thinks I am willing to blow money. They think my parents are tightwads. If they are still tracking me, they probably wonder why I have made so few purchases this year. Nah, they don't wonder. They know I'm a Lib. The data on me makes that very clear.
Those defending dynamic pricing say smart consumers can use it to save money, but anyone with a brain can see its clear goal is to maximize profits for shareholders. That's always the goal. Get more money from consumers. They aren't looking to help consumers!
Retailers using dynamic pricing saw a 5-10% increase in revenue per visitor (Boston Consulting Group). But deploying these systems requires more than a plug-in; it demands deep integration, robust data flows, and model oversight. - TBlocks
Don't they realize, consumers are hanging by a thread? Shareholders seem to only be happy when their profits are higher than the last time, but at some point, it has to top out. Beyond that, things get bad. We are beyond that point and too many still don't see it.
Dynamic Pricing is increasingly watching you, which is why it is also called SURVEILLANCE PRICING.
Are You Being Watched While You Shop? (AI Surveillance Concerns) - Leadership CenterThe concerns about ESLs (Electronic Shelf Labels) and dynamic pricing intensify when considered alongside the growth of AI-powered surveillance in retail stores. Beyond security cameras, some stores are experimenting with or implementing technology that can:
- Track Shopping Patterns: Analyze how you move through the store, what shelves you linger at, and what products you pick up and put back.
- Analyze Facial Expressions: Attempt to gauge emotional responses to products or displays.
- Facial Recognition: Identify repeat customers or link anonymous shoppers to online profiles (though some retailers claim to have stopped or limited pilot programs).
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Maybe we should all start making crazy expressions every time we stop to look at something on a store shelf.
The Grocery Stores That Use Dynamic Pricing — And What That Means For Your Wallet
This article from Tasting Table is one of the best at summarizing what dynamic pricing means for consumers. Here are a few quick blurbs but I highly recommend reading the whole thing!!!
- The strategy, which also goes by several other names including algorithmic pricing and surveillance pricing, essentially boils down to using personal data and tracking to change the price of products on the fly, depending on who is buying and when. (hello, Data Centers)
- While serious abuses have not become common yet, the practice is being employed by lots of prominent grocery companies, including Walmart, Kroger, Target, Safeway, Alberton's, and more.
- Given its reliance around algorithmic prices and personal data, dynamic pricing is still mostly limited to online retail. This makes it particularly hard to notice because you are being targeted directly through your browser, so you aren't seeing the prices other people are being offered.
- A Consumer Reports investigation even found that the cost of individual items could change by as much as 23% from customer to customer.
- Online, social media activity, searches, and website cookies are all tracked to help retailers predict what items you want, and how badly you want them. This can extend to using location tracking on your phone, and websites even have the ability to track your mouse movements, seeing which items you hover over and how close you come to buying them. Targeting can go even further by matching your digital data with known demographic information.
- The extra data being used for dynamic pricing has made the legality more suspect, as it opens up the possibility of discrimination if demographic data like age, religion, and ethnicity are used to alter the price. There are also serious concerns that such data harvesting bumps up against existing privacy laws.
- The concerns get even greater when AI-powered surveillance tools come into play. Facial recognition technology in grocery stores could mean individual items prices change based on which customers are standing in front of them, and even things as minor as expressions can be tracked to see how people react to products and prices. And lest you think that is still in the realm of science fiction Kroger was reported to be exploring facial recognition in stores, which attracted Congressional attention.
- ⭐ WE NEED LAWS TO PROTECT US - In early 2026, Maryland became the first state to move towards banning the practice when the Protection From Predatory Pricing Act was passed by the state legislature. That law would ban retailers from using customer data to adjust grocery prices in real time. However it would still allow price flexibility in other areas, such as loyalty programs and traditional sales. Other states including California, New York, and Illinois are exploring similar laws.
The Stop Price Gouging in Grocery Stores Act aims to:
(from Progressive Grocer - see link below)
- Prohibit price gouging by retail food stores.
- Prohibit surveillance pricing in retail food stores, with narrow exceptions for things like senior or student discounts.
- Require food stores to disclose the use of facial recognition technology.
- Ban ESLs in large stores.
- Establish enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission to hold corporations accountable.
READ MORE
Grocery Technology Blamed for Price Gouging - Progressive Grocer “Technologies like electronic shelf tags threaten to usher in a new era where the price of an item you pick up from the shelf can change within the amount of time it takes to walk to the register," added Milton Jones, president of the Washington, D.C.-based UFCW International Union. "Even more concerning, customers could be charged different prices based on personal data like income, race, gender and more. ‘Surveillance pricing’ is deeply unfair, potentially discriminatory and must be banned. This legislation will protect consumers as well as the hardworking UFCW members who help families put food on the table each time they visit their local grocery store.”
Dynamic pricing, also referred to as surge pricing, demand pricing, time-based pricing and variable pricing, is a revenue management pricing strategy in which businesses set flexible prices for products or services based on current market demands. It usually entails raising prices during periods of peak demand and lowering prices during periods of low demand. - Wikipedia
What is dynamic pricing, and why do consumers need better protections? - Brookings Another risk is “personalized pricing,” where monitoring individual online behavior results in targeted cost adjustments. According to consumer advocates, some sellers employ “surveillance pricing,” using detailed locational data or other personal indicators to set a price based on an individual’s estimated willingness to pay. If a consumer appears particularly eager to purchase, or is in a situation where income or geography leaves few alternatives, they may be subject to a higher price.
Surveillance Pricing: How AI “Dynamic Pricing” is Exploiting YOU! - Issues Lab The objective is not supply chain efficiency; it is the “holy grail” of charging every single person the maximum amount they are known to be able or willing to pay. This process is turning shopping back into a game, and the consumer is consistently losing... The Data Harvest: Loyalty programs, (LIKE AMAZON PRIME or your KROGER CARD) which offer small discounts, have evolved into “massive data harvesting operations”. Signing up grants companies permission to track your geolocation, internet history, and social media. Browser activity, and app behaviors are all tracked. Knowing what websites you visit and what you say to your friends gives these companies a glorious insight to your needs and abilities. Be sure to read the section - The Wrap: The Need for Legislative Action NOW.
Record profits, terrible service: something’s got to give for US consumers - The Guardian No wonder consumers feel so squeezed, disrespected and preyed upon. As a result, they are becoming “reactive”, said Alexander DePaoli, a Northeastern University marketing professor who studies consumer anger. They’re starting to see brands as “a rival or an adversary” and are trying to beat them at their own game. The power dynamics are so out of whack, though, that dangerous bus rides and product boycotts are no answer. A broader fix may be necessary if the United States is to return to its customer service glory years. “Asking why [companies] went ‘bad’ is like asking why a company that sells reasonably priced goods on the near side of the TSA checkpoint is charging $15 for water on the far side of the TSA checkpoint,” at an airport, said Cory Doctorow, author of Enshitification: Why everything suddenly got worse and what to do about it. “It’s not because they’re evil, it’s because you can’t go anywhere else to buy your water.”
WHO TO CONTACT
Maybe start by contacting different grocery stores to let them know how you feel about surveillance pricing -
Kroger Corporate Headquarters3155 Royal DrAtlanta, GA 30345770-496-7400
As of June 2026, nearly one in four Kroger locations nationwide use the dynamic pricing.
Walmart Corporate Headquarters702 S.W. 8th St. Bentonville, AK 72716 1-479-273-4000
Aldi Corporate Headquarters1200 N. Kirk Rd.Batavia, IL 60510(800) 925-6278
Publix Corporate Headquarters3300 Publix Corporate Parkway Lakeland, FL 338111-863-688-1188
Ingles Corporate Headquarters2913 U.S. Hwy. 70 W., Black Mountain S, North Carolina 28711828-669-2941
Piggly Wiggly Corporate Headquarters7 Corporate Drive, Keene, New Hampshire 03431(843) 554-9880
Target Corporate Headquarters521 W 25th StNew York, NY 10001
521 W 25th St
New York, NY 10001