Grocery and Retail Platforms

Instacart said it is immediately ending its item-level AI price-testing program and will no longer support item price tests on its platform, a move it framed as a response to consumer concerns after a Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative investigation found customers were shown different prices for the same item at the same store. Instacart says the experiments — which it marketed to retailers — randomly assigned slightly higher or lower prices, denies using income- or shopping history–based “dynamic” or “surveillance” pricing, and reiterated that retailers set their own prices. The probe cited concrete examples, including five different prices shown for the same dozen Lucerne eggs at a Safeway.