Instacart Scraps Variable-Pricing Experiment After Consumer Groups Warned Of Inflated Grocery Bills | ZeroHedge

Authored byh Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), A photo illustration of the Instacart logo. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Instacart said it is ending a pricing experiment that allowed different customers to see different prices for identical grocery items after consumer advocates said the practice could inflate grocery bills at a time when households are already struggling with high food costs. A photo illustration of the Instacart logo. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images In a blog post published on Dec. 22, the company said it would immediately halt all “item price tests” conducted on its platform, acknowledging that the practice fell short of customer expectations at a time when inflation-weary households remain sensitive to grocery bills. “ Our customers have high expectations for Instacart. And for some, we fell short of those expectations ,” the company said. “At a time when families are working exceptionally hard to stretch every grocery dollar, those tests raised concerns, leaving some people questioning the prices they see on Instacart. That’s not okay-especially for a company built on trust, transparency, and affordability.” The decision means that if two customers shop for the same items, at the same time, from the same store location on Instacart, they will now see the same prices, the company said. Instacart said retailers will continue to control pricing on the platform, including whether online prices differ from in-store prices or vary by store location. But the company said it will no longer support item-level price testing tools that result in different prices for the same product at the same store. Consumer Groups Flagged Pricing Risks The pricing experiments drew public scrutiny earlier this month after a report by Consumer Reports, along with progressive advocacy groups Groundwork Collaborative and More Perfect Union , found that many Instacart shoppers were shown multiple prices for identical items. The groups conducted four identical Instacart shopping sessions with 437 volunteers across four states, comparing prices for the same 18 to 20 products purchased at the same time. A fifth group purchased the same items in physical stores for comparison. The analysis found that roughly three-quarters of items were offered at different prices across shoppers, with markups ranging from a few cents to as much as $2.56 per item. In one September test, total cart prices for the same groceries ranged from $114.34 to $123.93, with just 8 percent of shoppers receiving the lowest total. In one example cited by Groundwork Collaborative, shoppers ordering a dozen Lucerne eggs from a Safeway store in Washington were shown one of five prices-$3.99, $4.28, $4.59, $4.69, or $4.79-despite ordering at the same time from the same store. “At a time when food price inflation outpaces overall inflation, and Americans report that the price of groceries is their number one cost concern, pricing experiments used by companies like Instacart are making the situation worse ,” Groundwork Collaborative wrote. Consumer Reports cited customer feedback describing the practice as deceptive, saying shoppers were unknowingly subjected to pricing experiments that left them questioning whether...

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