Walmart, weighing in on the controversial practice of dynamic pricing, says consumers have nothing to fear from its future tactics.
On Friday Walmart Chief Executive John Furner posted a statement online that said the retailer is not using personal information like income, shopping history or level of need to set prices and won't do so in the future.
"We don't set different prices based on who you are or the time of day, and we won't," said Furner. It would violate Walmart's promise to provide everyday low prices, he added.
Consumers are worried about how retailers could use new technologies to set or quickly change prices to extract the largest profit from each purchase.
Walmart drew some of the ire earlier this year, after introducing electronic shelf price tags in its stores. Fair-pricing advocates and people on social media expressed concern the retailer could use the tags to price items based on need or other factors.
Walmart executives have said repeatedly they only change electronic prices overnight when stores are closed and use the tools to reduce the labor costs associated with changing paper price tags.
Furner's post might not be enough to quiet the critics. Lindsay Owens, chief executive of economic-policy advocacy group Groundwork Collaborative, urged Walmart to pull the electronic shelf price tags as well as patents that describe technology that could enable dynamic pricing based on need or past behavior.
Walmart didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on its pricing patents.
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