Digital price tags are spreading at retailers like Walmart — and sparking surveillance fears | Latest Tech News
The growing use of digital price tags at Walmart and other big US retailers is stirring recent anxiety that costs on groceries and other basic items may very well be subjected to high-tech manipulation — and labor unions are wanting to capitalize on the fears.
Walmart said it’s quickly putting in the tags — which may raise or decrease the costs displayed on their tiny LED screens en masse with the clicking of a button — in all of its 4,600 US shops by the end of the yr. The thought, Walmart says, is to free staffers from the decades-old, time-consuming process of switching out paper tags slotted on cabinets.
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 yr. “Now, it only takes minutes.”
Walmart is putting in digital shelf labels in all of its 4,600 US shops by the end of the yr. Sundry Photography – stock.adobe.com
But the tags are going through growing questions and outright opposition from Democratic politicians who have called for local and federal laws to clamp down on the technology — as labor unions raise alarms that it may turn into a software 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 geared up with Bluetooth receptors that can detect devices held by store clerks and prospects alike.
Shoppers are already suspicious about pricing technology as inflation continues to raise the fee of every part from fuel to groceries. Last yr, Instacart sparked an uproar when it was revealed the app was charging different markups to prospects buying at the same grocery store at the same time. Earlier this month, Consumer Reports discovered that Uber and Lyft may very well be using related practices with ride-sharing prospects.
In 2024, the CEO of Wendy’s revealed plans to use digital menu boards to change burger costs throughout the day — but was shortly compelled to backpedal following a buyer backlash.
Prices displayed on a digital tag may be modified with the stroke of a key in contrast with hours of work to swap out paper tags. Jammer Gene – stock.adobe.com
At a New York City Council listening to this month on two payments aimed at regulating pricing practices, union officers said banning digital labels is their top legislative precedence. They declare the devices will eradicate retail jobs and may very well be used to charge different customers various costs without their data.
Now, opposition to digital tags on retail cabinets is coming to the fore, with payments sponsored in both the US House and Senate. Proposed bans on the tags — largely fueled by labor unions — have been proposed in seven states, including one in New York handed by the state senate that failed to go the Assembly before the session ended.
“Electronic shelf tags are a conduit for dynamic and surveillance pricing, which is why the bigger corporations are investing millions in hardware and software that allows them to instantaneously change pricing, multiple times a day,” Deborah Wright, political director of the Retail, Wholesale, & Department Store Union, said at the listening to.
Brooks Forrest, Walmart’s vice president of affiliate instruments, is among the retail executives who have been trying to dispel such claims. He told The Post in an interview that he has been accompanying politicians on store tours to clarify how the tags work.
A Walmart worker in Texas is featured in a video about digital shelf tags. Youtube/Vusion
An important distinction, according to Forrest, is that “Walmart changes prices overnight” — not a number of occasions a day while prospects are buying.
“There is misinformation in the proposed legislation, which is an over correction,” Forrest told The Post. “We want to make sure the right information is out there.”
Walmart, for its half, isn’t slowing down its adoption of the tags, Forrest added.
“We are rolling this out through the end of the year,” he said. “That remains our plan.”
Union officers have advised that the digital tags may finally be used to exploit so-called biometric data that identifies customers who enter shops — in explicit facial recognition data — to charge prospects different costs based on their buying histories and presumably other personal data they’ve gathered.
The digital tags are changing paper tags, which are manually modified out by store clerks. billtster – stock.adobe.com
“We have significant concerns around the ability to change prices rapidly and the ability for them to combine biometric data with the tags,” City Council member Carmen De La Rosa (D-Manhattan) said during the City Council listening to. “Are [tag makers] collecting data?”
Retail commerce teams model such issues “hypothetical fears.”
Walmart is working with a French company called Vusion, which has also offered its devices to chains including Kohl’s, Mattress Firm and Fresh Market. There are at least a half-dozen other corporations making the digital tags, but Vusion is the most important, according to specialists.
Vusion has been taking part in legislative hearings to defend itself and “correct the misinformation,” said Cristina Rodrigues, vice president of advertising and marketing. “We are actively defending ourselves. It’s a real threat.”
The P.C. Richard & Son store on W. twenty third St. in Manhattan has had digital tags for at least six years, a supervisor told The Post. Google Maps
Vusion, which didn’t testify at the New York City listening to, says its tags can talk with store staff by flashing a gentle to signal that an merchandise wants to be restocked. They also can flash to help store staff discover gadgets more shortly when placing together online orders.
“The blinking light will ultimately connect with a customer’s phone, I hope” — enabling customers to more simply discover merchandise on cabinets and study more about them, said Roy Horgan, Vusion’s senior government vice president of strategy.
“We don’t know how retail shelf tags have gotten drawn into this debate about dynamic pricing,” Horgan added. “The reality is that they have been around forever.”
The PC Richard & Son on West twenty third Street in Manhattan has used digital tags for at least six years, a supervisor at the store told The Post.
“It used to be that the staff would come in two hours before the store opened to print the paper tags and put them on the sales floor,” said the supervisor. “That pressure on the staff is off now.”
Stay informed with the latest in tech! Our web site is your trusted source for breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, gadget launches, software program updates, cybersecurity, and digital innovation.
For recent insights, skilled coverage, and trending tech updates, go to us frequently by clicking right here.
