Walmart exec speaks out on dynamic pricing again after watchdog calls out controversial electronic shelf tag patent

The Walmart pricing saga continues.Walmart is in the midst of another pricing scandal after Groundwork Collaborative president and CEO Lindsay Owens dropped an explosive exposé outlining — in great detail — a deep dive into the wild world of Walmart patents, where the sociologist and consumer expert claims the retail behemoth collects “troves of data it can collect on users.”The report, named “The Walmart Watchtower: Patents Speak Louder Than Pledges,” revealed some of the most invasive facts Walmart could “file away in customer dossiers,” Owens wrote. Owens exclusively told The Post that Walmart has one of the largest collections of patents — and consumers should know the types of data that’s being taken from them.“Taken together, what these patents represent is one of the most expensive corporate surveillance regimes the world has ever known,” Owens told The Post.“The sum total of the information that these patents suggest Walmart is interested in collecting or is already collecting is astonishing.”For example, Walmart wants the following information on its customers — songs on your playlist, registered political affiliation, sensor data from wearables and smartphones and what you browse on the internet.But a data point that really takes the cake is what Walmart wants the minute a shopper steps foot in a store.“When you enter a store, [Walmart wants to know] how you move about it, and what you look at, using facial recognition, eye tracking, and GPS devices in phones and carts – and even whether your facial expression is ‘smiley’ or ‘sad or disgusted’ when you look at an item,” Owens states on her site.The expert had showcased a number of patents in her latest report, but one caught the eye of a Walmart executive.

Back in 2023, the company was awarded a patent called the “System and method for remote controlling of electronic shelf labels.” The patent states, “the labels and prices may be changed in a dynamic f...