• SoyViking [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    What would you have to pay if they changed the price tag in the time span between you pick something fun the shelf and you get to the register?

    The ex-almost-a-lawyer in me thinks that posting a price tag next to an item in a store counts as giving a binding offer that stores will have to make good on. The cynical marxist in me thinks that big businesses will be allowed to fuck over normal people once more.

    Imagine of normal people did this thing: “Here’s this month’s rent mr. Landlord! What do you say? It is only half of what we agreed to when I signed the lease? Oh, haven’t you heard, I have implemented algorithmically live-updated surge payments!”

      • UrsineApathy [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        5 months ago

        That’s what I think as well. Most likely just daily pricing updates for the exact legal reason SoyViking says.

        I worked IT in grocery for a long time. The company I worked for was starting to sell these as I was leaving so I don’t know a lot of the behind the scenes talk anymore, but the general thought was just for it to be a replacement of the paper labels that they usually replace weekly anyway. Maintaining shelf labels is actually a huge pain in the ass.

    • Tom742 [they/them, any]@hexbear.net
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      5 months ago

      The new norm will be pricing is final once it’s rung up, until then, it’s variable. The only other way I see it going is that these electronic labels fall into disrepair or they generally don’t function as intended, and then the store shifts back to paper labels to save money, but keep the surge pricing model.

      Stores are going to have to replace these digital labels as they age I can’t imagine them lasting any longer than like four years.