Grocery Stores Going Digital With Price Tags

Walmart updated their Privacy Policy and the data that they are collecting on us is extreme.

Here’s the breakdown and why this massive data collection goes hand-in-hand with the new digital price tags.

Personal information such as your social media accounts and search history, current location, education status, criminal history, family health, financial information, ad-watching tendencies, key board strokes, biometric data (including iris and pupil imagery, finger print, and voice), and so much more is being collected and analyzed by Walmart.

They use this data to make inferences about our spending habits and create a more “personal” experience.

They also share this data with their corporate family, advertisers, social media companies, publishers, data technology vendors, and others.

With the recent news that Walmart is adopting digital price tags in all of their stores, they now will be able to automatically raise or lower the price of each individual product in real time.

The digital price tag knows exactly the person that is nearest to it by using Bluetooth integrated technology to detect cell phones in the vicinity. By communicating with the automated license plate reader and internal security cameras, the digital price tags are able to see just who’s walking into the aisle.

It’s likely that the price will be adjusted based on what the data analysis predicts the customer is willing to spend.

Not only will the price be tailored to the profile formed by the data collection on who is buying, but it could also could be adjusted based on its needs at that exact moment. For example, if the temperature outside is very hot that day, they could raise the price on cooler items like popsicles, ice cream, ice, cold drinks, etc.  If an illness is going around, they could raise the price on over the counter medicine, tissues, masks, etc.

Walmart is not the only store that is doing this. Many other popular grocery stores are also implementing digital price tags. These stores include Kroger, Aldi’s, and Whole Foods.