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In
a statement posted on the company's website, Walmart Inc.'s CEO
John Furner vowed that the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer
isn't using personal information like income, shopping history
or a customer's willingness to pay to set prices, and it won't
be doing so in the future either.
“We don’t set different prices based on who you are or the time
of day, and we won’t,” Furner wrote Friday. “Whether you’re
buying groceries or electronics on a hot afternoon or in a
sudden rush for an item, it’s never a reason to charge you
more.”
The pledge from Walmart comes as concerns are mounting from some
shoppers, consumer advocates and lawmakers skeptical about the
rollout of digital price labels by the discounter and other
stores. Digital price labels are rapidly replacing paper shelf
tags at U.S. supermarkets and let stores change prices instantly
from a central computer instead of having workers swap out paper
labels by hand.
Furner noted that Walmart is also holding its artificial
intelligence shopping assistant Sparky to the same promise and
won't be using the bot to raise a customer's price or hide
lower-priced options that meet their needs.
Furner said such practices would violate the company's “every
day low prices” business model.
He also noted that prices can change: Walmart lowers them when
it can pass savings along, or sometimes raises them because an
item costs more to buy or to transport, he said.
Walmart said in March that 2,300 Walmart U.S. locations already
use digital shelves, and it expects this technology to be
chain-wide within the next year.
Walmart executives have repeatedly said it uses electronic shelf
price tags to help the retailer change prices consistently and
match what rings up at checkout. It also saves workers time and
reduces labor costs by replacing paper tags.
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission said that it's putting
companies on notice that the practice of personalizing pricing
could violate consumer protection laws. The agency said it does
not have the legal authority to ban personalized pricing in all
circumstances, but it issued a new bulletin that warned
companies that they must disclose to customers how the personal
information is being used to set a price.
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