9 ms·

it's pricing based on your past (and current!) behavior How will that work in a brick-and-mortar store where there is a price label on everything?

zapdrive 6y ago
A digital label that shows price after looking at your face?
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  Seems simpler to send coupons for specific products to specific people.
aroch 6y ago
The easiest is to send e-coupons to frequent shoppers?
Mediterraneo10 6y ago
Aren't there already some experimental stores where you have to scan an item with your phone in order to find out the price? If the app is linked to your identity, then you could see a different price than others based on your demographics and past purchasing behavior.
glidej 6y ago
The same way coupons work in drug stores already; there's a stated price and then there's the price with SuperSaver™ membership, which you have to pull out of their app and could be subject to any number of personalizations, real-time or not.
- dexterdog 6y ago
  But both of those prices are always shown and you don't usually have to be a member of anything to get them as the clerk will just use the generic code. At most self checkouts there is an option for forgotten card which lets you bypass the need for an account.
  - JumpCrisscross 6y ago
    > both of those prices are always shown This isn't necessary. There could be a public price and a private price. > there is an option for forgotten card which lets you bypass the need for an account Neither is this.
    - ballenf 6y ago
      There already are private prices -- the result of targeted coupons that certain customers get. Those coupons are tied to the SuperSaver(tm) account and aren't transferable.
  - glidej 6y ago
    Right, those won't go away. These offers will likely be in addition to those and because they're more targeted they will be higher value. CVS already has specific offers that you can only get in their app with your specific membership, Target uses their Circle membership to accomplish it. The medium to deliver this customer experience are out there right now, but they're all working on adding signals to inform which offers you get.
- the_pwner224 6y ago
  Every time I check out at a Kroger store I tell the cashier that I would like to get a membership card. They don't require you to give a phone number until you register the card after the checkout - which I don't do because I already got the benefit of the card at checkout. This won't work at stores that require phone number first, and still leaves open credit card-based tracking - for that you actually lose the few % cash back if you want to use cash instead.
  - LeifCarrotson 6y ago
    Every time I check out at Kroger (or similar membership-based store) I tell the cashier that I don't want a membership but I do want the listed sale price. They always just scan their own card.
    - jasonjayr 6y ago
      CVS started to refuse to scan the 'house' card as of about a year ago. and they try to collect your phone number when they hand you a card for the first time.
    - mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
      I've had this work occasionally but often the opposite experience unfortunately.
    - rietta 6y ago
      Most of the time Jenny's phone number works xxx-867-5309. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/867-5309/Jenny https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/867-5309/Jenny. Someone already registered it.
      - ohazi 6y ago
        Digits of pi usually work too
    - sysadmindotfail 6y ago
      Every time the item has a digital coupon advertised price I simply inform the cashier I don't a phone with me. They discount it immediately.
brassattax 6y ago
Ever seen the digital price tags at Kohl's? I can imagine a scenario where you walk in and the prices change! More likely, though, it would be pricing things differently at stores based on demographics. Regional grocery store chains do this - We have Stop & Shop here in New England, and if I go to a store closer to an urban area, the prices are lower on some items and higher on other items.
- goatinaboat 6y ago
  Ever seen the digital price tags at Kohl's? I am in Wales, we don't have such things here. I think I'd be reluctant to shop anywhere that did this. What would be the point of working hard to earn more money if all the prices went up around you so you were no better off than before?
  - cpitman 6y ago
    Which is why they would never do that. They would instead start with high prices then bring them down, ie you "saved" money.
curiousllama 6y ago
Coupons, upselling, personalized-proactive-ads. JC Penny showed people would rather pay MORE with a 70% discount than less with no discount. Jack up the price, get everyone to download your sh*tty little spyware app, and give everyone the thrill of "I got a free doodad!"
- potta_coffee 6y ago
  One business that's already great at this is Target. I've observed through personal experience, they will send a coupon for a really great price on items you normally buy like diapers or formula, if you have kids, to try to get you back in the store. They're not sending that diaper coupon to every customer.
  - mrguyorama 6y ago
    Nevermind the fact that Target is basically more expensive, red Walmart. If you do most of your shopping at Target you've already self selected as someone more vulnerable to advertising and feel good stuff.
    - ultrarunner 6y ago
      Maybe basically, but at least in my area there are far fewer instances of people wearing pajamas in Target and it's much closer to where I live. I don't think you can draw 100% equivalence between the two stores enough to support an assertion of an advertising-vulnerable demographic.
    - WWLink 6y ago
      lol, out here in los angeles, they've been remodeling targets to look like walmarts - like using polished concrete floors and skinnier, cheaper looking checkout stands with flimsy conveyer belts. The most irritating thing was when they replaced the target cafe with.. nothing. Some stores have a starbucks, others have.. nothing. Oh yeah, and Target pharmacy was sweet. CVS pharmacy inside target isn't as good. That said, they are still somewhat faster and have way better hours. The walmart where I live is only open until 10pm and it has 10+ minute checkout lines. The target is open until midnight. OTOH, online ordering: Walmart is often better than amazon. Target's online ordering sucks.
jedberg 6y ago
At Safeway (supermarket chain across the Western US) they have a thing called "Just4U". It's a set of deals in your app that are only for you. I imagine it would be similar to that.
ldec 6y ago
Companies use this data to raise the price of items that are mostly bought by people with a lower sensitivity to price. A famous example is Tesco in the UK that worked out they could double the prices of certain cheeses with no impact on sales volume, because the people that bought those cheeses mostly bought the most expensive brands in other categories (they were probably higher income people).
take_a_breath 6y ago
What about AR glasses with prices dropping for each individual the longer they stay in the store?
LeifCarrotson 6y ago
I get a piece of mail from my local Meijer (midwest grocery/department store, think Walmart) every week on Thursday, a couple days before my grocery run on Saturday. It contains about a dozen coupons for the exact items I typically buy: - Store-brand milk, 2% - Honey bunches of oats with almonds cereal - Bone-in chicken breasts, family pack - Noosa strawberry-rhubarb yogurt - Old spice aluminum-free deodorant, if it's been a few weeks since my last purchase etc. etc. etc. It's not the generic "all Pepsi/Nestle products on sale" mailers. It's the exact stuff I've bought in the past. And yes, I admit I'm a creature of habit. There's little $4/hour coupon clipping or recipe selection required (I hate that), I can pretty much shop my normal list and then swipe the coupons across the scanner. And tell you what, if I skip a week at Meijer and go to Trader Joe's instead, there's likely a few more coupons for a little deeper discount the next week. It's more than a little creepy. I have no idea how they got my home address, maybe scanned from my driver's license when I bought alcohol? And I don't use a store membership, they must be just tying my debit card number to my shopping habits.
- dbbljack 6y ago
  When I first got the personalized coupons I called Meijer and asked them who they bought my address from, they refused to answer.
- astura 6y ago
  If you use a credit card to pay and they datashare with another company where you used the same credit card to pay and the other company has your address, Meijer could have gotten it from them. I have a walmart.com account - they add my in-store purchases to my Walmart.com history when I pay with a credit card I used at walmart.com.

zapdrive 6y ago

A digital label that shows price after looking at your face?

lotsofpulp 6y ago
Seems simpler to send coupons for specific products to specific people.

aroch 6y ago

The easiest is to send e-coupons to frequent shoppers?

Mediterraneo10 6y ago

Aren't there already some experimental stores where you have to scan an item with your phone in order to find out the price? If the app is linked to your identity, then you could see a different price than others based on your demographics and past purchasing behavior.

glidej 6y ago

The same way coupons work in drug stores already; there's a stated price and then there's the price with SuperSaver™ membership, which you have to pull out of their app and could be subject to any number of personalizations, real-time or not.

dexterdog 6y ago
But both of those prices are always shown and you don't usually have to be a member of anything to get them as the clerk will just use the generic code. At most self checkouts there is an option for forgotten card which lets you bypass the need for an account.
- JumpCrisscross 6y ago
  > both of those prices are always shown This isn't necessary. There could be a public price and a private price. > there is an option for forgotten card which lets you bypass the need for an account Neither is this.
  - ballenf 6y ago
    There already are private prices -- the result of targeted coupons that certain customers get. Those coupons are tied to the SuperSaver(tm) account and aren't transferable.
- glidej 6y ago
  Right, those won't go away. These offers will likely be in addition to those and because they're more targeted they will be higher value. CVS already has specific offers that you can only get in their app with your specific membership, Target uses their Circle membership to accomplish it. The medium to deliver this customer experience are out there right now, but they're all working on adding signals to inform which offers you get.
the_pwner224 6y ago
Every time I check out at a Kroger store I tell the cashier that I would like to get a membership card. They don't require you to give a phone number until you register the card after the checkout - which I don't do because I already got the benefit of the card at checkout. This won't work at stores that require phone number first, and still leaves open credit card-based tracking - for that you actually lose the few % cash back if you want to use cash instead.
- LeifCarrotson 6y ago
  Every time I check out at Kroger (or similar membership-based store) I tell the cashier that I don't want a membership but I do want the listed sale price. They always just scan their own card.
  - jasonjayr 6y ago
    CVS started to refuse to scan the 'house' card as of about a year ago. and they try to collect your phone number when they hand you a card for the first time.
  - mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
    I've had this work occasionally but often the opposite experience unfortunately.
  - rietta 6y ago
    Most of the time Jenny's phone number works xxx-867-5309. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/867-5309/Jenny https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/867-5309/Jenny. Someone already registered it.
    - ohazi 6y ago
      Digits of pi usually work too
  - sysadmindotfail 6y ago
    Every time the item has a digital coupon advertised price I simply inform the cashier I don't a phone with me. They discount it immediately.

brassattax 6y ago

Ever seen the digital price tags at Kohl's? I can imagine a scenario where you walk in and the prices change! More likely, though, it would be pricing things differently at stores based on demographics. Regional grocery store chains do this - We have Stop & Shop here in New England, and if I go to a store closer to an urban area, the prices are lower on some items and higher on other items.

goatinaboat 6y ago
Ever seen the digital price tags at Kohl's? I am in Wales, we don't have such things here. I think I'd be reluctant to shop anywhere that did this. What would be the point of working hard to earn more money if all the prices went up around you so you were no better off than before?
- cpitman 6y ago
  Which is why they would never do that. They would instead start with high prices then bring them down, ie you "saved" money.

curiousllama 6y ago

Coupons, upselling, personalized-proactive-ads. JC Penny showed people would rather pay MORE with a 70% discount than less with no discount. Jack up the price, get everyone to download your sh*tty little spyware app, and give everyone the thrill of "I got a free doodad!"

potta_coffee 6y ago
One business that's already great at this is Target. I've observed through personal experience, they will send a coupon for a really great price on items you normally buy like diapers or formula, if you have kids, to try to get you back in the store. They're not sending that diaper coupon to every customer.
- mrguyorama 6y ago
  Nevermind the fact that Target is basically more expensive, red Walmart. If you do most of your shopping at Target you've already self selected as someone more vulnerable to advertising and feel good stuff.
  - ultrarunner 6y ago
    Maybe basically, but at least in my area there are far fewer instances of people wearing pajamas in Target and it's much closer to where I live. I don't think you can draw 100% equivalence between the two stores enough to support an assertion of an advertising-vulnerable demographic.
  - WWLink 6y ago
    lol, out here in los angeles, they've been remodeling targets to look like walmarts - like using polished concrete floors and skinnier, cheaper looking checkout stands with flimsy conveyer belts. The most irritating thing was when they replaced the target cafe with.. nothing. Some stores have a starbucks, others have.. nothing. Oh yeah, and Target pharmacy was sweet. CVS pharmacy inside target isn't as good. That said, they are still somewhat faster and have way better hours. The walmart where I live is only open until 10pm and it has 10+ minute checkout lines. The target is open until midnight. OTOH, online ordering: Walmart is often better than amazon. Target's online ordering sucks.

jedberg 6y ago

At Safeway (supermarket chain across the Western US) they have a thing called "Just4U". It's a set of deals in your app that are only for you. I imagine it would be similar to that.

ldec 6y ago

Companies use this data to raise the price of items that are mostly bought by people with a lower sensitivity to price. A famous example is Tesco in the UK that worked out they could double the prices of certain cheeses with no impact on sales volume, because the people that bought those cheeses mostly bought the most expensive brands in other categories (they were probably higher income people).

take_a_breath 6y ago

What about AR glasses with prices dropping for each individual the longer they stay in the store?

LeifCarrotson 6y ago

I get a piece of mail from my local Meijer (midwest grocery/department store, think Walmart) every week on Thursday, a couple days before my grocery run on Saturday. It contains about a dozen coupons for the exact items I typically buy: - Store-brand milk, 2% - Honey bunches of oats with almonds cereal - Bone-in chicken breasts, family pack - Noosa strawberry-rhubarb yogurt - Old spice aluminum-free deodorant, if it's been a few weeks since my last purchase etc. etc. etc. It's not the generic "all Pepsi/Nestle products on sale" mailers. It's the exact stuff I've bought in the past. And yes, I admit I'm a creature of habit. There's little $4/hour coupon clipping or recipe selection required (I hate that), I can pretty much shop my normal list and then swipe the coupons across the scanner. And tell you what, if I skip a week at Meijer and go to Trader Joe's instead, there's likely a few more coupons for a little deeper discount the next week. It's more than a little creepy. I have no idea how they got my home address, maybe scanned from my driver's license when I bought alcohol? And I don't use a store membership, they must be just tying my debit card number to my shopping habits.

dbbljack 6y ago
When I first got the personalized coupons I called Meijer and asked them who they bought my address from, they refused to answer.
astura 6y ago
If you use a credit card to pay and they datashare with another company where you used the same credit card to pay and the other company has your address, Meijer could have gotten it from them. I have a walmart.com account - they add my in-store purchases to my Walmart.com history when I pay with a credit card I used at walmart.com.