Walmart’s New “Dynamic” Pricing Used To Be Called “Shafting”

This will be the third column that I have written already this year concerning Walmart. The first one in February was titled “Scales Of Truth Expose Walmart.”

Was about the fact that people discovered that items had been mislabeled with the listed weights higher than the actual weights.

One shopper in Georgia described that during his visit, he grabbed a “Kentucky Legend Ham” labeled 4.93 pounds, but when he took it to the checkout scale, it only weighed 1.83 pounds. In that case, if you had purchased that ham, you would have paid around $15 more than necessary, paying for weight that didn’t exist.

It should be noted that in that case, the scale was tested and was found to be correct. To verify that it wasn’t just a fluke, the shopper weighed several more hams, and all of them were at least half the weight less than the label claimed. In one case, a package was labeled 5.28 pounds but weighed only 2.89 pounds, meaning customers were paying $4.98/pound for nothing.

The deception extended beyond ham. A chicken package labeled as 4.66 pounds actually weighed 2.37 pounds on the scale. Another package marked at 6.39 pounds weighed just over four pounds.

Less than a month later, in March, I wrote a second column about the company, titled “Another Walmart Scam Emerges, This One Is Against Delivery Drivers.” I won’t get into a lot of detail; let’s just say that their drivers were not receiving the tips they expected and deserved.

Well, now it’s still only May, and once again, Walmart is in the news for the wrong reasons. This one involves something that Walmart is calling “Dynamic Pricing,” which sounds like code for what you and I call “Shafting.”

In January 2026, Walmart obtained a U.S. patent for a system that automatically and dynamically updates item prices based on predicted demand and individual price sensitivity.

The second patent takes it a step further by introducing a machine learning system that suggests personalized prices based on each customer’s purchase history, payment methods, and customer ID. This means that prices are not fixed for everyone in the store; instead, they are tailored to what the algorithm determines a specific shopper is likely to accept.

Walmart is implementing digital shelf labels (DSLs) in thousands of its stores across the U.S. This technology enables store associates to update prices in minutes rather than hours. While the retailer primarily presents this as a significant enhancement to operational efficiency, it has also sparked considerable debate over the issue of dynamic pricing.

Walmart claims that its digital tags are used for consistent pricing, rapid markdowns of perishables nearing expiration, and saving employees’ labor time.

Really, well, if your justification for shafting people is this weak excuse, keep trying. You built an entire business on low prices and customer service, and now you are in a downward spiral.

One mom named Kat documented what “Dynamic Pricing” looks like in practice.

She scanned a pair of kids’ shoes at the back of a Walmart last week, confirmed the $3 sale price, loaded them into her cart, and walked to the register.

Twenty minutes later, the same shoes rang up at $18.98.

When she scanned the shoe again at the register, the price had changed while she was shopping.

“This scares me because that means that it’s choosing the price based on where I’m standing in the store,” she told the employee standing next to her, “and that’s unacceptable.”

Walmart isn’t the only company to try this ploy. An investigation into Instacart revealed that its AI pricing system resulted in price differences of up to 23 percent on identical products, which costs individual families over $1,200 annually at checkout.

Instacart called this practice “smart rounding” in letters to retail partners and described it as a tool to improve customers’ “price perception.”

Following the public disclosure of the investigation, Instacart decided to discontinue the program.

On March 5, James Comer initiated a formal investigation by the House Oversight Committee into surveillance pricing, warning that companies are using consumer data to “weaponize personal information” against the shoppers they serve.

Comer’s committee has sent letters to major retailers requesting documentation on their pricing systems and whether customers are being charged different prices for the same products.

Maryland has passed the Protection from Predatory Pricing Act, the first state law that prohibits companies from using personal data to increase prices.

Eight additional states are proposing similar bans during this legislative session.

A recent national survey found that 68 percent of Americans believe surveillance pricing will increase grocery costs, while 67 percent support banning both digital tags and the AI pricing systems that create them.

Let’s cut to the chase. Trying to charge different people different prices for the same item based on gathered personal information is flat-out discrimination. Walmart or any store can try to paint this in a positive light, but it is NOT!

This needs to stop immediately, otherwise let’s watch the lawsuits accumulate while your business plummets.

No one needs to frequent a store that is openly trying to take advantage of them if they aren’t constantly on their toes, watching every item’s price at checkout, and judiciously combing through every receipt.

Walmart is not too big to fail, and they certainly aren’t as beloved as they once were. They are on a very bad path, but they just don’t seem to care.

So why should we?