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Comment by chronc6393 | Hacker News Reader

> The practice — supported by artificial intelligence and known as dynamic pricing or surveillance pricing — can lead to two consumers paying different amounts for the same item from the same retailer, at roughly the same time.

Is an if-statement considered AI?

So membership discounts should be banned?

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What is a "membership discount" (assuming you don't mean coupons) in the context of a grocery store? Can you give an example of a major grocery store that has one?

For what it's worth,

> The bill clarifies that certain practices, such as promotional pricing, loyalty programs, or price differences based on objective costs like shipping, are not considered prohibited dynamic pricing.

Harris Teeter is an example of a large chain that has promotions (not coupons) that are applied at checkout only if you have your VIC card (their free membership program). There’s a lot of BOGO, a few dollars off etc offers that are tagged to the price label throughout the store.

Got it, thank you for the example. That seems to be still allowed by the bill.

The behavior targeted here seems to be more like "Our data indicates this person is poor and desperate, let's charge them more for rice and beans than we charge other people, since that's most of what they'll buy. We've calculated that we can charge up to $X to exhaust their budget/foodstamps and they'll still buy."

I used to shop at HT at the last place I lived. It was always crazy seeing all of those discounts pop up. I don't know if I was actually saving money over the other stores nearby but it certainly felt like it. Honestly, I like shopping at Lidl now. My grocery bill always feels much cheaper. I don't get much savings using my phone number, I think they want you to clip coupons on the app but I still walk out paying less than I would elsewhere. A large portion of the stuff at Lidl are not major brands, I suspect they are the companies that produce white label products for store brands.

Safeway/king soopers/albertsons all have members only lower prices or membership-only benefits

> So membership discounts should be banned?

No, not at all, not even close to what is being discussed here. You should probably do a LOT more research to understand what kind of pricing they are talking about here, and what AI is. None of these things are apparently things you are remotely aware of at all in any way for you to suggest it's merely "if-statement."

You can do it! I believe in you!

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