Walmart Watchdog: New Groundwork Analysis Exposes the Doublespeak Behind Walmart’s Pricing Playbook - Groundwork Collaborative
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  • colforge@lemmy.world
    9·
    2 days ago

    This isn’t talking about price gouging. Or at least, not that second part of the title. The full quote is:

    “when customers engage with Sparky, their average order value jumps 40%.”

    This is talking about ignorant customers getting talked into adding more to their order than they originally planned, by an AI that is designed to encourage people to buy as much as possible. Walmart isn’t changing the price of products that are ordered through the AI tool.

    Still shitty behavior but it’s just another marketing tool and marketing has been finding ways to influence customers to buy more things since the dawn of time.

    A far more concerning quote from the article for me would be:

    Walmart has filed a patent for technology that can unmask anonymous cell phone data after a single store visit, then track where shoppers live, how they commute to work, and what restaurants they frequent

  • TrackenDaKracken@lemmy.world
    61·
    2 days ago

    Fucking apps.

    Y’all seriously need to stop using all apps. I know you won’t, I know you’ll defend them, I know “not all apps”, but, yeah, ALL apps. They have one purpose and that is to control you. Control what you think by keeping us divided, and prompt you to buy crap you don’t need.

    They keep us divided from each other, from nature, and from ourselves.

    Fuck AI and fuck apps.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
    3·
    2 days ago

    Four states this year have banned surveillance pricing.

    Expect 2/3 of them, most likely, to do the same… but the law moves slowly, so in the interim you’ll see major retailers speedrunning the effort to get these practices normalized. Obviously there won’t be any leadership or meaningful regulation of it whatsoever at the federal level, at least here in the US.