Comment by Manuel_D
9 hours ago
How would that work? The barcode on the item doesn't get rewritten, the checkout counter can't distinguish who picked up which exact item. Even if they did assign unique barcodes to each item, what happens if you take the item off the shelf, and put it in someone else's cart? They'd be charged the wrong price for the item.
The way McDonald's does this that they essentially offer discounts that you can only get by using the mobile app, and the mobile app can dynamically price your cart however they wish. All they (or any other business) has to do is to increase their non-mobile prices to squeeze out non-identifiable shopping.
> the checkout counter can't distinguish who picked up which exact item.
Sure it can, cameras and facial recognition.
Identify a person when they enter the store. Track them with overhead cameras as they move throughout the store. Set the price for the individual when they get to checkout. It barely requires any extra infrastructure in most stores.
You don't need a unique barcode per item, you simply need to be able to identify the person purchasing the item at checkout.
Barcodes today don't contain price information (except for meat AFAIK. But then you'd mostly just need to change it to be weight instead of price).
The store could make it mandatory to swipe your fidelity care before calculating your prices. They already do something similar with specialized promotions.
If we're including promotions or membership discounts, then coupons fit this definition of price discrimination. And those have existed since the 90s at least.
The problems show up when different people don't have access to the same coupons published by the store. Most coupons are fine.
They haven't had the ability to do the significantly bad kinds of targeting until recently. This is a new problem even if it's similar to old practices at the surface level.
In the UK, it's common for supermarkets to have loyalty cards (e.g. Tesco Clubcard) and then they display prices along with the price for using a loyalty card. Then, they just apply the discount (which varies according to the product) when you swipe your card before paying.