In this conversation, I speak with Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, about the emerging world of surveillance pricing and the growing use of AI and consumer data to shape what people pay. We start with Groundwork’s investigation into Instacart, where a collaboration with Consumer Reports and More Perfect Union found that shoppers were being shown different prices for the same grocery items, sometimes by as much as 23% more for identical products. Owens explains how that research helped expose a larger pricing model built on experimentation, and how Instacart ultimately walked back its algorithmic pricing practices after the findings drew major public and regulatory backlash.
The conversation widens to the broader landscape of dynamic pricing and personalized pricing, including Walmart’s newly granted patents for AI-powered pricing tools and The Washington Post’s use of algorithmic pricing for subscriptions. Owens draws a sharp distinction between traditional posted pricing and these newer systems, which rely on extensive consumer tracking, inferred willingness to pay, and large-scale experimentation. We also talk about why this matters politically, how consumer backlash can force companies to reverse course, and whether state and federal lawmakers are finally beginning to respond.
