{"id":337403,"date":"2025-12-10T19:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T19:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/337403\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T19:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T19:11:08","slug":"instacarts-ai-technology-is-hiking-prices-as-much-as-20-for-the-same-item-new-study-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/337403\/","title":{"rendered":"Instacart\u2019s AI technology is hiking prices as much as 20% for the same item, new study reveals"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Online grocery delivery service Instacart used AI to charge different prices for the same item, up to 20% more for different shoppers, a new report says.\n <\/p>\n

\n An investigation<\/a> from Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative revealed Tuesday that Instacart displayed different prices on the same household staples sold at well-known stores, including Albertsons, Costco, Kroger, Safeway and Target. The report said customers are \u201cunknowingly part of widespread AI-enabled experiments.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cCorporate practices like these increase prices for American families. When prices are no longer transparent, shoppers can\u2019t comparison-shop. When prices are no longer predictable, shoppers can\u2019t properly budget,\u201d the organizations said in the report.\n <\/p>\n

\n The report found that Instacart uses AI to gauge how \u201cprice sensitive\u201d customers are, meaning how much grocery stores can charge for an item before the shopper decides to not purchase it. That\u2019s different from dynamic pricing<\/a>, where prices instantly change depending on supply and demand.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat motive was confirmed by an email exchange between Instacart and Costco that was accidentally sent to (Consumer Reports) by Costco after we contacted the company for comment on our findings,\u201d the report said. (Costco didn\u2019t immediately respond to CNN\u2019s request comment.)\n <\/p>\n

\n This report comes as Americans are feeling the pinch<\/a> of higher grocery costs, which are are climbing in part because of tariffs, the immigration crackdown and extreme weather affecting food supply.\n <\/p>\n

\n Instacart was chosen because it\u2019s \u201cby far the dominant e-commerce\u201d grocery service, with more than 250 million orders in the first three quarters of 2025, the organizations said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The study asked 437 participants to buy the exact same item on the service and also compare to in-store prices. The investigation found that \u201cevery one of the volunteer shoppers who participated in our tests was subject to algorithmic price experiments.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n For example, a dozen eggs sold on Instacart at a single Safeway location in Washington, DC, retailed any where from $3.99 to $4.28, $4.59 and $4.79. In another test, pricing for a box of Safeway\u2019s private label Corn Flakes ranged 23% between the lowest and highest prices \u2014 from $2.99 to $3.69.\n <\/p>\n

\n In total, shoppers dependent on Instacart could see \u201ca cost swing of about $1,200 per year\u201d because of the AI-powered technology the service uses, the report found.\n <\/p>\n

\n Instacart said in a comment to CNN that each retailer\u2019s pricing policy is displayed on their storefront on the company\u2019s app or website so customers can see the difference between online and in-store prices. (Prices of products sold on these apps are often higher because of labor costs and other fees.)\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cJust as retailers have long tested prices in their physical stores to better understand consumer preferences, a subset of only 10 retail partners \u2014 ones that already apply markups \u2014 do the same online via Instacart,\u201d a spokesperson said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Instacart added that the \u201climited, short-term, and randomized tests\u201d helps retailers decide which essential items to keep affordable for customers.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Online grocery delivery service Instacart used AI to charge different prices for the same item,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-337403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}