How digital price tags are spreading at retailers like Walmart and sparking surveillance fears

The growing use of digital price tags at Walmart and other big US retailers is stirring fresh anxiety that prices on groceries and other basic goods could be subjected to high-tech manipulation — and labor unions are looking to capitalize on the fears.Walmart said it is rapidly installing the tags — which can raise or lower the prices displayed on their tiny LED screens en masse with the click of a button — in all of its 4,600 US stores by the end of the year.The idea, Walmart says, is to free staffers from the decades-old, time-consuming task of switching out paper tags slotted on shelves.Changing the paper tags “used to take two days,” a Walmart clerk at a Hurst, Texas store said in a video produced by the mega-retailer last year.

“Now, it only takes minutes.”But the tags are facing growing questions and outright opposition from Democratic politicians who have called for local and federal legislation to clamp down on the technology — as labor unions raise alarms that it could become a tool for price gouging, even as it threatens jobs.“We are trying to legislate this because the tags we are going after are new,” said Ademola Oyefeso, vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), noting that some tags are now equipped with Bluetooth receptors that can detect devices held by store clerks and customers alike.Shoppers are already suspicious about pricing technology as inflation continues to raise the cost of everything from gas to groceries.Last year, Instacart sparked an uproar when it was revealed the app was charging different markups to customers shopping at the same supermarket at the same time.

Earlier this month, Consumer Reports found that Uber and Lyft could be employing similar practices with ride-sharing customers.In 2024, the CEO of Wendy’s revealed plans to use digital menu boards to change burger prices throughout the day — but was quickly forced to backpedal following a customer backlash....