Walmart wants to make it clear that your grocery bill won’t change just because the company knows who you are. The retail giant is doubling down on its promise not to use AI, personal customer data or digital shelf labels to create personalized prices. In a public letter Monday, Walmart executive Dan Bartlett pushed back against claims that the retailer is building toward a world where your shopping history, income or willingness to pay could determine what you see at checkout.
“The facts are straightforward. We price products, not people,” Bartlett wrote.
And Walmart says that means no dynamic pricing based on what’s happening around you, either. A hot afternoon, an approaching snowstorm or a sudden spike in demand won’t make your groceries more expensive.
Walmart is clearing this up because of the scrutiny around its use of digital shelf labels. You know those little electronic price tags replacing the old paper ones? Walmart says they are basically a faster way to update prices across its stores, not tiny retail surveillance devices deciding what each shopper should pay.
According to Bartlett, the labels don’t identify customers and don’t set prices on their own. They only display price changes that have already been approved.
What about Walmart’s AI shopping assistant?
Sparky, Walmart’s AI-powered shopping assistant, is another development at the retailer that has tongues wagging. Critics have pointed to higher average order values among people who use Sparky as evidence that the AI could be nudging shoppers toward spending more.
However, Walmart says that is not proof of anything sinister. Bartlett argued that customers spending more after using Sparky does not mean the AI charged them more for individual products. The company says Sparky is designed to help shoppers find, compare and discover products, and that information that customers share with the assistant isn’t used to change the prices they pay.
The patents are where things get interesting
Lindsay Owens, CEO of Groundwork Collaborative and author of the recently released book Gouged, has argued that Walmart’s patents point toward technologies that could eventually profile consumers and enable more sophisticated pricing strategies. But Walmart says that’s an unfair conclusion.
Bartlett specifically pushed back on the idea that its patents prove the company intends to use personalized or dynamic pricing, saying Walmart has committed not to do so. Owens isn’t buying the explanation, however. She has argued that Walmart’s public statements do not fully square with what the company has told investors or described in patent filings. Her organization is now releasing its own analysis of Walmart’s patents, particularly the technologies that could potentially be used to track and profile consumers.
She also wants Walmart to explain exactly what information Sparky can access, how that information affects its recommendations and whether sensitive customer data could be exposed or misused.
Walmart is doubling down
This is not the first time Walmart has made that promise. CEO John Furner reiterated the company’s long-standing Every Day Low Prices strategy in a statement from September 25, again saying the retailer prices “the product, not the person.”
“We don’t set different prices based on who you are or the time of day, and we won’t,” Furner wrote Friday. “Whether you’re buying groceries or electronics on a hot afternoon or in a sudden rush for an item, it’s never a reason to charge you more.”
The CEO also made sure to let customers know that prices can change sometimes. According to him, Walmart lowers them when it can afford to pass savings along. And in the same vein, it sometimes raises them because an item costs more to buy or to transport.
Source: Fox Business, AP News