Dynamic Pricing Comes For Groceries

Grocery stores throughout Europe have introduced digital labels that constantly change the prices of items throughout the day… and the tech is starting to migrate to the US.

Why It Hits: The economic conditions created by tariffs (or the threat of tariffs), inflation, and supply-chain crunches have led to a rollercoaster of price fluctuations on everyday goods — typically in a direction that consumers don’t like. Lawmakers and industry watchers fear that digital labels that change throughout the day could make it easier for price-gouging to occur.

Between the Shelves: Scoring a good deal at the grocery store is a decision that consumers may soon need to make in seconds rather than days.

• Norway’s REMA 1000 grocery stores, Germany’s Lidl stores, and Albert Heijn locations in the Netherlands and Belgium are all outfitted with labels that sometimes change up to 100 times a day.
• In the US, Lidl plans to outfit all of its 190 stores with the tech by the end of the summer.
• Major chains, including Kroger, Whole Foods, and Walmart, are also planning to roll out the labels at their stores. Walmart has already installed them at 400 stores.
• All the companies have assured lawmakers that they have no plans to raise prices on items using the labels — and preliminary studies of the stores where the tech is implemented have shown the same outcome.

Checkout: So far, the price changes on digital labels are intended only to lower prices — either to undercut competitors or to move seasonal or expiring products off the shelves more quickly. (And so far, the cost of items in your cart doesn’t change after you take them off the shelf.) They’re also touted as a major cost-saving measure, since employees no longer need to spend time manually updating prices.

Next Order: While stores may not use the tech to surge prices, it’s possible that they could send push alerts to customers indicating that prices are dropping — creating a surge of customers who immediately add items to their online carts. As a result, items could sell out faster than ever.