"The study from nonprofits Groundwork Collaborative and Consumer Reports followed more than 400 shoppers in four cities and found that Instacart sometimes offered as many as five different sales prices for the exact same item, at the same store and on the same day. The average difference between the highest price and lowest price on the same item was 13%, but some participants in the study saw prices that were 23% higher than those offered to other shoppers."
"The study found that an individual shopper on Instacart could theoretically spend as much as $1,200 more on groceries in one year if they had to deal with the kind of price differences observed in the pricing experiments. At a Safeway supermarket in Washington, D.C., a dozen Lucerne eggs sold for $3.99, $4.28, $4.59, $4.69, and $4.79 on Instacart, depending on the shopper, the study showed."
Instacart is running AI-driven price experiments that can present multiple different sales prices for the same grocery item at the same store and on the same day. Experiments observed up to five distinct prices for one item, with an average gap of 13% and some differences reaching 23%. Those pricing variations could increase an individual shopper's annual grocery costs by about $1,200. Examples include Lucerne eggs sold at five different prices and Clif bars sold at multiple prices. Instacart acquired Eversight in 2022 and markets pricing software to retailers that it says can modestly raise store revenue.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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