A new study from Consumer Reports found that Instacart, a popular grocery delivery app, utilized AI technology to raise prices up to 23% on the same item depending on the shopper.
The algorithmic pricing was found across some of the nation’s most popular grocery chains such as Costco, Kroger, Safeway, Target, and Albertsons. 437 volunteers were involved in the study to shop for identical carts of goods as part of an initial test.
Consumer Reports said that about three-quarters of the products they investigated were offered at different prices to different customers.
“Algorithmic pricing is usually invisible to consumers, who typically see only the prices and fees they’re offered,” Consumer Reports said. “Instacart has disclosed its pricing experiments in corporate marketing and investor materials, noting that ‘shoppers are not aware that they’re in an experiment.'”
Despite some prices differing over 20% on the same item, Instacart called the difference “negligible,” according to Consumer Reports.
Consumer Reports said that Instacart confirmed the strategy to them and said they had ongoing partnerships to test it with 10 different retailers.
Read the full findings from Consumers Reports here.
