Walmart CEO John Furner said the retailer will not set prices based on a customer's income, shopping history, urgency or an estimate of what that customer could afford to pay. In remarks addressing concerns about the company's use of digital shelf labels, Furner said factors such as buying groceries or electronics on a hot afternoon, or making a sudden rush for an item, would never be a reason to charge more. He also said Walmart will not use conversations with its Sparky AI assistant to change prices.
The assurances arrive months after Walmart announced plans to place digital shelf labels in all of its US stores by the end of the year. That rollout raised concerns that the technology could enable dynamic pricing, in which retailers adjust prices based on things like product demand, competitor pricing and customer preferences. Furner's comments were aimed at pushing back on those concerns.
Regulators and state governments are also moving on the issue of personalized pricing. The Federal Trade Commission is working on a policy intended to clamp down on the practice. Separately, states are imposing rules of their own, reflecting growing official attention to how retailers use customer information to set prices.
New York now requires retailers to disclose when they are using algorithmic pricing. New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland have moved to ban stores from using customers' personal data to change prices. Those state actions cover the same territory that Furner addressed in his remarks about Walmart's pricing practices.
Walmart's digital shelf label plan covers its US stores, putting the company at the center of a national conversation about how price information is displayed and changed at the shelf. The technology allows labels to be updated electronically, which is what prompted questions about whether prices could shift according to demand or individual shoppers. Furner's statement sought to draw a line between the labels themselves and the pricing methods that have drawn scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers.
The debate over dynamic and personalized pricing is unfolding across the US retail market as the FTC develops its policy and states enact disclosure and data restrictions. Walmart, as one of the country's largest retailers, would be affected by those rules. Furner's comments leave the company's shelf label plans in place while rejecting the pricing practices that critics associated with them.
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