U.S. consumers aren’t just frustrated with high prices. They’re angry and confused about the increasingly high-tech ways that restaurant chains and major retailers are setting those prices.

Digital price tags are rapidly replacing paper ones in grocery aisles. Artificial intelligence tools help businesses decide what to charge by predicting how customers might respond. Terms like “dynamic pricing” and “surveillance pricing” are stirring anxiety on social media, where users wonder if different people are getting different prices for the same product.

Americans have grown accustomed to changing prices when booking flights, hotel rooms and rides, but the prospect of everyday spending shaped by algorithms they don’t understand and personal data they may not realize they’re sharing has touched a nerve.

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[–] 19 points 3 weeks ago* (2 children)

Americans are apprehensive, yet these shit-filled businesses are doing it anyway. This tracks.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 weeks ago

    Of course they do it, because everyone does it and the customers have no choice but to shop somewhere.

    Americans always rile on about how the "free market" will nix bad ideas as people take their business elsewhere... But how tf do you vote with your wallet when every single option does the same?

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