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A supermarket trip may soon look different, thanks to electronic shelf labels (www.npr.org)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 174 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (20 children)

This month, Walmart became the latest retailer to announce it’s replacing the price stickers in its aisles with electronic shelf labels. The new labels allow employees to change prices as often as every ten seconds.

“If it’s hot outside, we can raise the price of water and ice cream. If there's something that’s close to the expiration date, we can lower the price — that’s the good news,” said Phil Lempert, a grocery industry analyst.

Jesus, I can’t imagine just coming out and saying this like it’s not fucking deranged to charge people more for WATER during a heat wave.

Also, the first time the price of something rises in the 5 minutes it takes for me to get my shopping done and get to the checkout, I’m taking a shit on the floor.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I won’t say never, but my company has these and the tags aren’t able to be centrally updated meaning it would require manual intervention to reprice those items at all locations (and incorrect pricing is grounds for shutdown in some states) furthermore our software only does a pricebook load once a day so I can’t see that in our near future. I’m inclined to believe Walmart execs may be regurgitating a sales pitch more than what they’re capable of doing. That being said never say never and out techno dystopian future will be upon us soon.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

In my country we've had these electronic labels for many years, using them was part of my first real job a decade ago. And here they definitely can be updated centrally, and in near real time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I am sure, I’m just speaking about the ones my company uses. I don’t know much about them other than they aren’t able to be updated centrally. I worded the update part poorly, since the tag can update instantly but our registers don’t update pricing save for once a day.

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