"On a Thursday in early September, more than 40 strangers logged in to Instacart, the grocery-shopping app, to buy eggs and test a hypothesis.
Connected by videoconference, they simultaneously selected the same store — a Safeway in Washington, D.C. — and the same brand of eggs. They all chose pickup rather than delivery.
The only difference was the price they were offered: $3.99 for a couple of lucky shoppers. $4.59 or $4.69 for others. And a few saw a price of $4.79 — 20 percent more than some others, for the exact same product.
The shoppers were volunteers, participating in a study published on Tuesday and organized by the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive policy group, and Consumer Reports, a nonprofit consumer publication. In tests in four cities across the country, nearly 200 volunteers checked prices on 20 grocery items on Instacart.
On item after item, they found significant differences. In a Target in North Canton, Ohio, some shoppers were charged $3.59 for a jar of Skippy peanut butter that others could get for $2.99. At a Safeway in Seattle, some people paid $3.99 for a box of Wheat Thins while others paid $4.89. And at a Target in St. Paul, Minn., some people were charged $4.59 for a box of Cheerios that others could get for $3.99.
“Two shoppers who are buying the exact same item from the exact same store at the exact same time are getting different prices,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative. “The data really backs up how extraordinarily pervasive this is.”
(...)
Groundwork’s findings are the latest example of how the notion of a single price, offered to all customers for a predictable period, is breaking down in the digital age. Companies are using sophisticated algorithms to adjust prices quickly in response to competitors’ offers and consumer behavior."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/business/instacart-algorithmic-pricing.html
#USA #AlgorithmicPricing #DynamicPricing #Insatacart #Inflation #Algorithms
@remixtures@tldr.nettime.org sorry for the off-topic, but $4.59 for how many eggs? 24? Because I'm European and those prices look insane to me
@sabrinaweb71@sociale.network @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org For that money, I can get the best 6 organic eggs in Germany, where the chickens are probably put to bed individually and have names. 😂
@sabrinaweb71@sociale.network A dozen, according to the study:
"Almost three quarters (74%) of grocery items in the experiment were offered to shoppers at multiple price points on Instacart. The platform offered as many as five different sales prices for the exact same grocery item, in the exact same store, at the exact same time. A dozen Lucerne eggs sold for $3.99, $4.28, $4.59, $4.69, and $4.79 on Instacart at a Safeway store in Washington, D.C. A box of Clif Chocolate Chip Energy bars (10 count) sold for $19.43, $19.99, and $21.99 on Instacart at a Safeway store in Seattle."
https://groundworkcollaborative.org/work/instacart/
@sabrinaweb71@sociale.network @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org I just paid 4.something for the cheapest dozen at the store yesterday. It was a bit more than half the price of the next lowest dozen, which was in the high $7.something The 18's were well above $10.
@sabrinaweb71@sociale.network @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org I paid $6.49 for a dozen eggs recently, but that is for the high-dollar, pasture-raised “humane” eggs. Regular eggs are less than $4.00. I rarely buy eggs, so the price doesn’t bother me.
@sabrinaweb71@sociale.network @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org
it's per egg (i'm joking, or am i)
@Galley@mastodon.online @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org still it's more than twice what I pay
@sabrinaweb71@sociale.network @Galley@mastodon.online @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org
As-Organic-As-They-Get in my zone (Emilia Romagna, Italy) cost 7 EUR a dozen, tops.
Dept-Store-Organic cost about 5 EUR a dozen, while regular cost 3 EUR a dozen, tops.
@Galley@mastodon.online @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org still it's more than twice what I pay
@sabrinaweb71@sociale.network @Galley@mastodon.online @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org
As-Organic-As-They-Get in my zone (Emilia Romagna, Italy) cost 7 EUR a dozen, tops.
Dept-Store-Organic cost about 5 EUR a dozen, while regular cost 3 EUR a dozen, tops.
@sabrinaweb71@sociale.network @Galley@mastodon.online @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org
As-Organic-As-They-Get in my zone (Emilia Romagna, Italy) cost 7 EUR a dozen, tops.
Dept-Store-Organic cost about 5 EUR a dozen, while regular cost 3 EUR a dozen, tops.
@sabrinaweb71@sociale.network @Galley@mastodon.online @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org
As-Organic-As-They-Get in my zone (Emilia Romagna, Italy) cost 7 EUR a dozen, tops.
Dept-Store-Organic cost about 5 EUR a dozen, while regular cost 3 EUR a dozen, tops.
Miguel Afonso Caetano
