Automation in Retail Is Even Worse Than You Thought
www.thenation.com
New technology is not just making shopping more challenging for workers and consumers—it’s poised to rip off the most vulnerable.

New technology is not just making shopping more challenging for workers and consumers—it’s poised to rip off the most vulnerable.

  • @[email protected]English
    12•2 days ago

    Rotisserie chicken for only $16.99*

    *Surge pricing may apply. (At 6pm we add $4 to the price of our rotisserie chicken because…we can.)

    Yeah, the writing is on the wall when it comes to digital pricing of grocery store products. The only way to fight this will be to refuse to shop at places that do it. Or get legislation to regulate it, but good luck getting that to happen, or even enforcing it. Especially with the current administration being bought and paid for by corporations… Sadly it’s doubtful we’ll get enough people boycotting it, especially since at first they’ll just keep the prices the same, when we need to be boycotting the store the moment it happens.

    Then when they start switching to changing the pricing dynamically the digital price tags will already be installed across all their stores and there won’t be any way to protest against it besides going to a completely different retailer that doesn’t do it. If that’s even an option, which for the poorest or least capable people, it likely won’t be.

    Surge pricing, coming to your dozen eggs at a corporate grocery store near you.

    • @grueEnglish
      2•2 days ago

      IMO the only strategy with even a small chance of success would be direct action (e.g. organizing a mob to invade stores, rip the digital price tags of the shelves, and destroy them), but of course that would have incredibly high attrition so I doubt enough people would be willing to do it.

      • @[email protected]English
        2•2 days ago

        Yeah and with everything thats happening. It will be the usual slowly boiling the frog approach all the inflation / price gouging / shrinkflation has taken this far.

        Currently they’re already doing it, it’s just a little bit slower and less dynamic: Goal, increase price by 25%

        Step 1. Reduce package contents by 33% and provide a coupon for a reduced price by 25%

        Step 2. Slowly oscilate the coupon from not available to being a less reduction in price.

        Step 3: profit – Increasing the total profit to vary between 8% and 33% more depending on the day.

        This example was taken from the new 8 can la croixs, but plenty of other examples. It’s just items that have a fixed size / quantity are harder to shrinkflate. Other stuff just reduce the weight a little at a time.