This is how Instacart got exposed accessing your personal data to algorithmically adjust grocery store prices based on each person (dynamic pricing) The investigators at More Perfect Union say this is starting to happen everywhere and needs to be regulated “Five months of digging, what we found is bigger... than Instacart. Yes, inflation is real, but something else has been pushing prices higher this whole time. There's a system, one that grocery stores and tech companies built together. It learns from every purchase. It's not just online, it's in the physical stores you walk into. With the primary goal, maximize profit. Here's how we uncovered it, how it's turning the grocery business into a gold mine, and why, without regulation, your grocery bill may keep climbing no matter what happens with inflation” The held an experiment with a bunch of people in a room, everyone ordered the same 20 items to the same address. Each one from their personal phone. The app Instacart gave everyone different prices After researching they found 3 different prices were available for everyday items like cereal, adjusted based on your data After being caught Instacart denied they were using dynamic pricing but announced they were no longer going to adjust prices based on data But that’s one company, this video goes into great detail showing it’s coming everywhereshow more

Instacart’s AI-driven price manipulation is a textbook case of Big Tech exploiting consumer data to rig markets—exactly the kind of corporate overreach that thrives when regulators are asleep at the wheel. The FTC’s investigation into their Eversight tool proves what we’ve known: algorithms aren’t “optimizing” prices—they’re weaponizing purchasing histories to squeeze every last dollar from shoppers. While Instacart claims they’ve halted these practices, the real issue is systemic. Retailers and tech firms collude to turn basic necessities into profit-maximization schemes, with grocery bills becoming a hidden tax on algorithmic greed. This isn’t about inflation—it’s about institutionalized exploitation. When a carton of eggs costs $8 for a single mom but $4 for a suburbanite based on browsing habits, it’s economic warfare against working-class Americans. The FTC’s action is a start, but without legislation banning real-time price discrimination and mandating transparency in AI pricing models, these abuses will metastasize. Every “personalized offer” is surveillance capitalism’s latest trick to hollow out wallets while D.C. twiddles its thumbs. Time to audit every line of code shaping these algorithms and jail the execs who greenlighted this theft.

This is why major corporations and government regulation are trying to put Mom and Pop stores out of business. Once brick and mortar stores are gone and everything has to be purchased electronically, they have complete control over what we buy and how much we pay for it.

This guy bought “meat” from Publix, but it turned out to be just a gluey slop of chemicals…

It's already happening everywhere. Sites like Amazon, Best Buy, etc., if you start looking at items, add them to the cart, but never pull the trigger, they'll send you an email, still looking? They will lower the price slightly to try to get you to make a decision.

And they're sort of doing it with delivery drivers

And all those years I thought my dad was paranoid for never signing up for grocery store loyalty cards. “They are just using those to track what we buy”. Boy was he right.

Instacart ripping consumers, Uber ripping drivers (upto 60% of the fair goes to uber) are something that our govt has no time to attend to. They are busy figuring out how to get Greenland😂

Crony corps turning groceries into a rigged casino, betting against the little guy every checkout.

Everyday, every hour they trying to skim our pockets smh.

@CBDCisSlavery That’s why cash needs a comeback! Cash is freedom!

Surveillance pricing: the regime's gift to billionaires, robbing families blind under the radar.

@JudgeJeanine can you look into what these stores are doing. See above video from Instacart.

if people want to stop this we need to return to a primarily cash based society sadly though, too many people survive on credit

This is crazy it is all about the money

This is absolutely insane, instacart charging people different prices for the same item based on your shopping history??

I went to my local grocery store this morning and noticed that they have digital pricing for almost all of their items. A week ago, they didn’t have any. I guess next time I go, I won’t take my phone with me. But, maybe they use facial recognition; too. 😳🤔

One of the purposes of DSLs, digital shelf labels, is to enable dynamic pricing. One price for milk in the morning when everyone is at work, another price in the evening when everyone stops at the grocery store on the way home to restock.

How to fix this: Get your lazy ass off the couch and go to the store and stop the delivery scam. Shop at different stores every week. Leave your cell phone in the car. Do NOT use "loyalty cards" and pay CASH. You're welcome.

The NY law requires retailers disclose it. I have seen the notice on several sites I had no idea it was in place, target is one of them, CVS is another

Omg, how dirty! This should be illegal!

Been saying for 25 years that every chance it can is always the same: Big tech = Do evil.

Big Tech's data vultures jacking prices on the poor while the elites feast—time to drain this swamp.

Shop local, IN-STORE! Support independents! Stop using "loyalty" schemes & kiosks! That is the data that PtB need to know your shopping habits. STOP FEEDING THE BEAST! CASH is KING!

And this is why I prefer paying with cash. They don't know who I am, what I buy, what my habits are, etc, except in very specific situations. And that's on purpose because of crap like this.

Corporations will stop at nothing to get a profit. I’ve always wanted to see a grocery store with a membership card that sells food at cost minus operating expenses. No share holders to appease and costumers to rob. Just honest prices so no one is profiting off starvation.

This is why I have never participated in story “loyalty” programs & pay cash for everything.

Human nature is what it is.

It’s why I keep my shit old school and go to the store like a decent human being

I believe everyone who used Instacart should sue this company relentlessly, setting a global precedent. By shielding these executives from accountability, they will likely repeat their actions, making it increasingly difficult to detect and prosecute fraud.

I think Amazon has started to do this. I went to buy something, and didn't put it in the cart. I came back 10 minutes later and couldn't find the price again after searching...it ended up being twice the amount I first saw!

If I said it once, I’ve said it 1000 times @Costco is the greatest company on earth. You will never see Costco ever doing something like this.

Time to go back to cash payments

And this is how instacart no longer has my business. Noticed the shift late last year. Not worth it anymore. They are testing the elasticity of consumers and they will break the golden goose. Doordash is same. 2 large pizzas on dd =$61 vs pick up $21.

So stealing from customers with price manipulation is wrong. Going through customers personal data is very wrong. Is the answer government regulation and oversight?NO NO NO.What needs to happen is for them to be EXPOSED for their fraud and then what we call “the bud lite effect”

It’s way beyond that. It happens in person too. Some grocery stores have cameras everywhere, and they track you through the store. Facial recognition (past purchases) what you look at and how long, how you’re dressed, your physique, state of health etc. AI instantly assesses it all. No price stickers, dynamic pricing. Kinda reminds me of the movie line where the city guy breaks down in the country, and asks the how mechanic how much it’s going to cost - and the mechanic tapping a large wrench in his hands says “well that depends there boy, how much you got?”