A supermarket trip may soon look different, thanks to electronic shelf labels - eviltoast
  • Altima NEO@lemmy.zip
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    5 months ago

    It helps that it’s an “industry analyst” and not someone from Walmart.

    I can tell you, working in retail, there’s no way they’d jack up prices during a heatwave for water. They still gotta compete with other stores, and charging more would cause shoppers to go to where it’s cheaper.

    Now if there’s shortages all over town and even the followers can’t keep up, I can see them fucking with prices. But they could do that right now if they wanted to. It’s not hard to adjust prices.

    The real advantage of electronic labels is not having a crew to replace stacks and stacks of labels all over the store. The cost of labor and cost of the actual label sheets and printer maintenance to keep all that up to date, I’m guessing, is getting to the point where it’s cheaper to use electronics.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      You say that like people would stop at multiple locations just to compare prices before buying water. Most people will just go wherever is most convenient, such as their usual supermarket. They’re not going to spend the time and money driving around to each supermarket in town.

      Also, I’m pretty sure that jacking up prices for water string a heat wave is basically the definition of price gouging.