Over the next year, Walmart is expected to roll out even more of their digital shelf labels [1] in thousands of stores across the United States. This leaves customers at risk for “surge pricing” and real-time price changes at the whim of the retailer.
Walmart says not to panic and that it is about efficiency and accuracy. But customers aren’t buying it. Unlike the regular printed shelf labels that we are all used to, digital labels can change prices in minutes instead of taking workers days to swap paper tags, which means the technology now exists to make prices move faster than a toddler running toward the candy aisle.
But that’s not all. Walmart has also locked in patents for AI tools [2] that could recommend – and even automate – price changes based on algorithms. This could mean that prices might change based on the day of the week, the time of day, or surges in demand.
Think price surges for burgers and paper plates before a big Fourth of July cookout, batteries ahead of a storm, or flu-season shoppers scrambling for cold and cough medicine only to find out that the prices have gone way up since they were in the store days earlier.
The digital AI setup has plenty of people wondering whether grocery shopping at Walmart will someday feel like filling up at the gas pump before a holiday weekend – where you don’t know how bad the price jump is until you are already standing there.