In a letter Friday to Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said the plans — which involve using facial recognition tools in digital displays to target advertising to customers and collect information on them — potentially pave the way for biased pricing discrimination.
“Studies have shown that facial recognition technology is flawed and can lead to discrimination in predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods,” Tlaib wrote in the letter, which was posted on social media Tuesday. “The racial biases of facial recognition technology are well documented and should not be extended into our grocery stores.”
Kroger is the largest grocery store chain in the country with nearly 3,000 stores and $3.1 billion in profits in 2023. Kroger and other retailers already use electronic shelving labels instead of paper labels to rapidly adjust prices based on a variety of factors, including time of purchase, where a grocery store is located and other data.
The plan to use facial recognition technology could allow the retailer to build individual profiles on customers, based on data like their gender and shopping habits.
In an August letter sent to McMullen about the same plans, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bob Casey (D-PA) said they were concerned about the chain building “personalized profiles of each customer, and then use those profiles ‘to determine how much price hiking each of us can tolerate,’ quickly updating and displaying the customer’s maximum willingness to pay on the digital price tag.”
The use of facial recognition tools in Kroger stores also raises concerns about how Kroger intends to “adequately” safeguard customer data, the Warren and Casey letter said.
“To be clear, Kroger does not and has never engaged in ‘surge pricing,’” the statement said. “Any test of electronic shelf tags is designed to lower prices for more customers where it matters most.”
Isn’t that the same thing? It doesn’t matter if you raise prices on demand or lower them, the outcome is the same - different pricing at different times.
This is all a misunderstanding! The high price IS the regular price. We lower the prices at certain times to benefit our customers, who we love so very much. This is totally not surge pricing!
“We are just figuring out though”
“Well, you see, ‘surge pricing’ means raising prices during the most high-traffic times. Here at Kroger, we pride ourselves in raising prices slightly before and after the peak times, and that’s technically not surge pricing! It’s just dynamic pricing with surge characteristics.”
“Alright you chucklefuckers. Here’s the new law. You are required to have paper tags, the only discount you can offer is paper coupons sent through the mail to everyone in an area, and you’re never allowed to alter your prices more than once per week.”
Alternative prices
Yeah see it’s not surge pricing! We actually lower prices whentheresnobodyintheaisle so that the discounts are passed on to you! Also we list the lowered price in the ads and apps so when you come in you can be surprised by power of our tech! and the updated price
“No, no, it’s totally different to lower prices when fixed income people are shopping and at all other times leave them the same, our lawyers were very certain of that.”
We need a large, well-organized movement to demand that the government add a right to privacy to the US Constitution.
…attracting criticism from lawmakers, who warn it could…
Oh my, if only there were someone with the resources and authority to do something about it.
Mask mandates may not be in effect but I can wear one to the grocery store. This is stupid and I will not participate.
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The US government should already be breaking up Kroger for its monopolistic practices.
I expect most of the C Suite is simply waiting for whatever they see as the peak of their share price to sell off everything and move on to their next parasitic host.
US government enables oligopolies, why would they stop now?
Because the “US Government” is not a monolithic entity but rather, a large and complex democratic organisation that citizens can influence the composition of through political participation.
citizens can influence the composition of through political participation.
So much good housing, education and healthcare… much influence, big access to power 🤡
Yeah, so It turns out fewer people care about and really want those things than you think…
Thankfully that’s now allowed in my country. I’d be so pissed.
And it definitely won’t negatively affect people of color, at all, will it?
I think they are absolutely, positively, going to breach their face database and everyone’s purchase history all over the Internet.
I’ve been watching for an event like this with popcorn ready.
I’ve got a good/bad/terrible feeling that they’re playing for keeps in the race to be the biggest consumer privacy headline public relations disaster.
Purchase histories are already traded online i thought
I’ve been pretty lazy about changing stores since they had the easiest pick up i had found in my area, but i guess this is the ass kick i need to make sure i never go back.
Sucks they own almost all the groceries in my area. But i can trust that it’s not a monopoly, right?
Groceries prices deeeeefinately aren’t inflated. Nope. All good here.
We all need to wear little bowties that spritz semi clear paint into the cameras as we browse price tags.
Or can someone start a tick tok trend where the kids go to stores and eat these little devices off the shelves as a real “just prank bro”?
Also, remember that corporate rats do these things to give each other cover. Kroger has to be the face of bad guy this time, but don’t you think for a second that Safeway and even the new “leadership” at Costco aren’t prepping the same right now.
Just don’t shop at kroger. Problem solved. In some cases this may be the only available store but in those cases the prices are usually higher anyway. No matter the company operating the store
This is how you end up with laws mandating paper cards with pricing information.
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The key phrase to remember here is: Price Discrimination.
Stores already possess the technology to track anyone through their shopping experience through loyalty cards. The “discounts” you get are really just a tax on everyone that doesn’t participate, and the benefits to the company for having your data are worth potentially losing business from un-tracked customers. That’s how valuable your data is.
So why aren’t we seeing per-customer targeting? This is not to suggest that businesses are benign here, but rather, just cautious about outright per-customer discounts and other price manipulation. Custom coupons are kinda/sorta a part of this. IMO, the door is still wide-open to find ways palatable to the customer (and courts) while dialing everyone in.
In that context, all cameras do is make the system practically impossible to dodge. Considering how much stores value that kind of information, it makes sense they’d invest to capture 100% of their retail activity.
Ah, yes, the knob twiddlers. In a more just society we would amputate their fingers
If they carry through with this, everyone that plans on shopping at Kroger should be wearing Juggalo makeup
https://www.allure.com/story/juggalo-makeup-facial-recognition
