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Walmart CEO John Furner is attempting to dispel concerns that technologies such as digital shelf labels are being used to personalize pricing and charge shoppers more. “We don't set different prices based on who you are or the time of day, and we won't,” the chief executive said in a Friday letter. “Your income, shopping history, urgency or what we think you could pay won't change the price. And whether you’re buying groceries or electronics on a hot afternoon or in a sudden rush for an item, it's never a reason to charge you more.” The executive also addressed its AI shopping agent Sparky, noting Walmart won’t use information shared with Sparky to increase prices or hide lower-priced items. Furner touted the sales Sparky is driving on an August earnings call, noting the number of customers using Sparky is up 70% from last year, and those who use Sparky spend 40% more per order than shoppers who don’t use the AI assistant. One of the company’s technology patents leaves a door open to personalize pricing, according to consumer advocacy group Groundwork Collaborative. Walmart was granted a patent in 2023 for the remote controlling of electronic shelf labels, Groundwork Collaborative points out. The patent says the labels and prices may be changed in a dynamic manner, such as to adjust the price of items based on what products a customer already has in their cart. “If a customer has tuna fish, they may be offered a different price for mayonnaise,” the patent says as an example of this store capability. Additionally, the patent allows for pricing to be dynamically changed based on the supply and demand of a product. “Walmart wouldn’t spend the time, effort, and money to develop and deploy these technologies unless it padded their profits,” Lindsay Owens, Groundwork Collaborative president and CEO, said in a statement Friday. “If Walmart is serious about its commitments to shoppers, it should pull the patent filings, clawback the electronic shelf labels, and make Sparky work for customers, not for Walmart.” Walmart did not respond to Retail Dive’s inquiry about why the company would patent the ability to dynamically change pricing based on the content of a shopper’s cart, but not actually use the capability. Groundwork Collaborative also called out Walmart’s acquisition of TV-maker Vizio in 2024 as an example of the retailer’s consumer data collection capabilities. The Vizio business could work with Sparky in the future, Walmart U.S. CEO and President David Guggina said at the Goldman Sachs Global Consumer and Retail Conference earlier this month. “[T]he average customer in the U.S. keeps their TV for about 7 years,” Guggina said. “So this allows us to put more devices into customers' homes and engage with them in new and differentiated ways, through advertising, you can imagine maybe Sparky coming to life on your TV in a home in the future and helping you shop and navigate different applications on the TV.”
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