By Angela Palumbo
Stock in Instacart's parent, Maplebear, was falling Monday after the online grocery-shopping platform said it is ending all price tests for items sold via the app following customer criticism.
Instacart said in a blog post that retailers will no longer be able to use Eversight technology to run the tests on Instacart. Instacart acquired Eversight, a pricing and promotions platform powered by artificial intelligence, in 2022.
Monday's announcement comes after tests Instacart ran with a small number of retail partners resulted in different prices for the same item at the same store, the company said.
"At a time when families are working exceptionally hard to stretch every grocery dollar, those tests raised concerns, leaving some people questioning the prices they see on Instacart. That's not okay," the company said in the blog post.
Maplebear stock was down 2.6% to $44.76 on Monday. The S&P 500 was up 0.5%.
The way Instacart prices items has come under fire in recent weeks. Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative said in an investigation published on Dec. 9 that Instacart recently charged up to 23% more to different consumers for the same grocery items at the same store.
Instacart said in a blog post on Dec. 9 that a very small group of retailers use Eversight, "to run limited online pricing tests." Prices never change in real time and the tests "never use personal, demographic, or user-level behavioral data," the post said.
Reuters then reported on Dec. 18 that the Federal Trade Commission had sent Instacart a civil investigative demand as it looked for information about the Eversight pricing tool.
Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 22, 2025 12:21 ET (17:21 GMT)
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