LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – If you haven’t already seen digital shelf labels (DSLs) show up at your local Walmart, you will by the end of the year, the retailer announced earlier this month. This is an effort to help workers change prices, restock and fulfill online orders much faster according to the retailer.
Walmart is reportedly pushing deeper into digital shelf tags all across the country and is also adding AI-driven pricing, which has plenty of shoppers wondering whether the price on the shelf could jump between the moment they grab an item and the moment it gets scanned in the checkout line.
Walmart’s efficiency pitch meets algorithm anxiety.
MORE NEWS: MI Chamber Aims to ‘Process’ Data Center Concerns in Local Communities
In a June 2024 press release about the digital labels, Walmart says the change is a win for both customers and associates, making their stores faster, more accurate and easier to run. Walmart says the labels let associates update shelf prices from a mobile app instead of replacing paper tags by hand, and claims a process that used to take “two days” can now take “minutes.”
Walmart also says that should mean clearer shelf pricing, more employee time helping customers, faster stocking, and quicker online order picking. It also pitches the system as reducing paper waste.
When smart shelves start looking a little too smart.
However, Walmart’s digital shelf labels are getting extra scrutiny because the retailer will soon be pairing their fast-changing electronic price tags with newly reported patents tied to algorithm-driven pricing through AI. Recent reporting says Walmart received patents covering machine-learning tools that can forecast demand and recommend prices, as well as systems that can automatically update some online prices, raising fears that AI could eventually help push prices around faster and more often.
Walmart has publicly insisted the patents are not for “surge pricing” in stores and says its shelf-label updates are “typically” done outside of shopping hours, not on the fly while shoppers are standing in the aisle. They also say in their press release, “It’s important to remember that prices are the same for all customers in any given store and are consistent regardless of demand, time of day, or who is shopping. DSLs simply modernize how prices are displayed at the shelf.”
Still, the combo of digital tags, predictive algorithms, and patents for more automated pricing has critics wondering whether “everyday low prices” could someday come with an algorithm and a stopwatch – and whether food will start being priced dynamically and in real-time like at the gas pump.
The law in Michigan.
In Michigan, though, there is a speed bump for any retail funny business. It’s the state’s Scanner Law, formally part of the Shopping Reform and Modernization Act. The law says a retailer must clearly display the current price where the item is located, and that can include signs, price stickers, or electronic readers.
MORE NEWS: EDITORIAL: Michigan Justice? Forging Election Papers Can Bring Same Prison Time as Assaulting Kids
If a scanner during the checkout process charges more than the displayed price once the transaction is complete, the customer is entitled to the difference back and can also receive a bonus of 10 times the difference, with a minimum of $1 and a maximum of $5. Consumers have 30 days to report the overcharge and the retailer has 2 days to pay the customer. So at least in the Great Lakes State, shoppers have some protection against prices changing between the moment they grab an item and the moment they reach the checkout line.
Watch out for some items.
Consumers should keep in mind, however, that not every item in a Michigan store is required to have a price posted right where it sits on the shelf or display. Michigan law makes exceptions for a long list of products, including loose items sold by weight or volume, prepared food meant for immediate consumption, unpackaged food, vending machine items, very small or very low-cost products, live plants and animals, motor vehicles and parts, some cigarette packages, certain greeting cards, and gifts shipped directly to a recipient.
Bottom line.
With the state’s scanner law, it means that while technology may be moving fast, Michigan retailers still have to play by rules that give shoppers a way to push back if the price at checkout doesn’t match what they saw on the shelf. And unless Michigan Walmarts are eager to hand out a steady stream of $1-to-$5 bonuses, the safer bet would be to make sure that all changes happen when aisles are empty and the stores are closed, not while customers are halfway to the checkout.
