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Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

nytimes.com

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Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#141

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

chronc6393 wrote: post #140

> The practice — supported by artificial intelligence and known as dynamic pricing or surveillance pricing — can lead to two consumers paying different amounts for the same item from the same retailer, at roughly the same time. Is an if-statement considered AI? So membership discounts should be banned?

What is a "membership discount" (assuming you don't mean coupons) in the context of a grocery store? Can you give an example of a major grocery store that has one?

For what it's worth,

> The bill clarifies that certain practices, such as promotional pricing, loyalty programs, or price differences based on objective costs like shipping, are not considered prohibited dynamic pricing.

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#142

Post by lkey »

alex43578 wrote: post #133
0x3f wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rent control is the canonical populist price control. That one's evergreen. Egg-prices-by-fiat are just a fad!

With both parties scrambling to buy non-taxpayer votes with taxpayer money, the list is endless. Free healthcare, free tuition, pork barrel spending, wars on behalf of other nations, lavish benefits for your ethnic group’s immigrants, etc.

[flagged]

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#143

Post by conartist6 »

dlcarrier wrote: post #53

Grocery stores have smaller margins and more options compared to pretty much any industry, yet politicians seem to think they are the cause of all of our ills.

I'm always shocked at how much anti-capitalism and anti-competition there is in the US.

I was taught that the power of consumer choice could reign in markets, but when I look around I see more and more companies working harder and harder to make themselves completely insulated from consumer choice.

Now our darlings are companies that are like massive prisons that promise that everyone will be interned in in the future.

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#144

Post by atestu »

ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #141
chronc6393 wrote: post #140

> The practice — supported by artificial intelligence and known as dynamic pricing or surveillance pricing — can lead to two consumers paying different amounts for the same item from the same retailer, at roughly the same time. Is an if-statement considered AI? So membership discounts should be banned?

What is a "membership discount" (assuming you don't mean coupons) in the context of a grocery store? Can you give an example of a major grocery store that has one? For what it's worth, > The bill clarifies that certain practices, such as promotional pricing, loyalty programs, or price differences based on objective costs like shipping, are not considered prohibited dynamic pricing.

Harris Teeter is an example of a large chain that has promotions (not coupons) that are applied at checkout only if you have your VIC card (their free membership program). There’s a lot of BOGO, a few dollars off etc offers that are tagged to the price label throughout the store.

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#145

Post by bostik »

conartist6 wrote: post #143
dlcarrier wrote: post #53

Grocery stores have smaller margins and more options compared to pretty much any industry, yet politicians seem to think they are the cause of all of our ills.

I'm always shocked at how much anti-capitalism and anti-competition there is in the US. I was taught that the power of consumer choice could reign in markets, but when I look around I see more and more companies working harder and harder to make themselves completely insulated from consumer choice. Now our darlings are companies that are like massive prisons that promise that everyone will be interned in in the futur…

Keep in mind: the only thing a capitalist fears is a truly free market.

The highest ROI for any business is to buy their own politician. That allows you to block competition and other inconveniences at a legislative level.

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#147

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

atestu wrote: post #144
ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a "membership discount" (assuming you don't mean coupons) in the context of a grocery store? Can you give an example of a major grocery store that has one? For what it's worth, > The bill clarifies that certain practices, such as promotional pricing, loyalty programs, or price differences based on objective costs like shipping, are not considered prohibited dynamic pricing.

Harris Teeter is an example of a large chain that has promotions (not coupons) that are applied at checkout only if you have your VIC card (their free membership program). There’s a lot of BOGO, a few dollars off etc offers that are tagged to the price label throughout the store.

Got it, thank you for the example. That seems to be still allowed by the bill.

The behavior targeted here seems to be more like "Our data indicates this person is poor and desperate, let's charge them more for rice and beans than we charge other people, since that's most of what they'll buy. We've calculated that we can charge up to $X to exhaust their budget/foodstamps and they'll still buy."

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#148

Post by subjectsigma »

lkey wrote: post #142
alex43578 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With both parties scrambling to buy non-taxpayer votes with taxpayer money, the list is endless. Free healthcare, free tuition, pork barrel spending, wars on behalf of other nations, lavish benefits for your ethnic group’s immigrants, etc.

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#149

Post by estearum »

elil17 wrote: post #137
dlcarrier wrote: post #53

Grocery stores have smaller margins and more options compared to pretty much any industry, yet politicians seem to think they are the cause of all of our ills.

Grocery stores have tiny margins and that's great. Let's keep it that way, it benefits all consumers. One way to prevent them from expanding their margins is to ban so-called "dynamic pricing".

This is hilariously first-order-effects thinking...

If any store used dynamic pricing to expand their margins, the others would just do the same and compete away those margins once again, with the marginal gain being handed back to consumers.

Dynamic pricing on personal data is bad I think, but temporal dynamic pricing is actually very good for everyone and I hope it doesn't get thrown out by some reckless legislation-writing.

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#150

Post by estearum »

lkey wrote: post #142
alex43578 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With both parties scrambling to buy non-taxpayer votes with taxpayer money, the list is endless. Free healthcare, free tuition, pork barrel spending, wars on behalf of other nations, lavish benefits for your ethnic group’s immigrants, etc.

[flagged]

I mean it's very likely the MAGAcult literally just writes checks to people with Dear Leader's face/signature on them going into the midterms.

That seems bad.

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