Instacart recently faced scrutiny following research from groups like the Groundwork Collaborative, led by Lindsay Owens, which revealed that grocery stores were using AI-driven "price testing" to charge different customers varying amounts for identical items. An experiment involving 400 shoppers found that 75% of items were priced inconsistently, with some customers paying up to 23% more for the same products from the same physical store. While economist Brian Albrecht argues that such price fluctuations are a standard market mechanism similar to coupons or senior discounts, critics view it as a deceptive shift toward personalized, "person-level" pricing that mirrors digital haggling. Although Instacart has since terminated this specific price testing practice and denies plans for individual-based targeting, the controversy highlights a growing trend of algorithmic pricing in the retail sector that challenges traditional expectations of price transparency and fairness for American households.
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