This is poor behavior by the stores. The solution will be conversion to eink shelf labels that sync like registers do. Realistically, the fines will not be increased to the point where increasing store staffing and training is cheaper. I don’t know where Dollar General is in this process, but many other c-stores and grocery stores have implemented digital labels. Digital labels come with the temptation to experiment with more dynamic pricing which would also make it harder to shop on a budget. However, high staffing or fines also increases prices. I wish we had better retail in more of the United States, especially needier areas.

▲

morkalork a day ago | parent [-]

I am convinced the wallmarts in Canada are doing dynamic with the eink price tags. I was in the same location twice in a week to pick up snacks for a gathering and the price of chips were 50% more on the Friday vs earlier in the week.

▲

1123581321 a day ago | parent | next [-]

I believe they may in the US, too. Anecdotally, I bought all of the Dr Thunder Zero Sugar at one store twice, and they bumped it about 20% for a few weeks after that. They didn’t change the other generic sodas’ prices.

▲

potato3732842 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Seems shortsighted for a retail business since people will only need to get burned once or twice to stop showing up.

	▲	bombcar a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		They already (at least Target and Walmart) do the “cheaper online than in store”) - if you catch it they’ll price match themselves but who is checking all prices every time?
	▲	mschuster91 a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		For people to vote with their wallet, there has to be an alternative. In "dead" markets where there is only one realistic alternative, whoever holds the monopoly can do whatever the fuck he wants, captive audience. And no, it's not possible to compete as a startup against Walmart or any other of the corporate giants (and not just in retail, it's valid across industries) - alone because the sheer scale of Walmart allows them to extort insanely cheap pricing out of vendors. Walmart can sell for far cheaper than any mom and pop store can acquire.

▲

netsharc a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Huh, with eInk prices, how do customers prove "Wait, the price on the shelf was different!", the store can just change the price as they go to double-check. As a customer you can take a picture of the price, but then it'll be an argument of "This picture is old/doctored/AI".

Of course the chances of this sort of scam happening are probably not that high, but hey, considering the country is rotting more and more, from the top...

▲

gruez a day ago | parent | next [-]

>Huh, with eInk prices, how do customers prove "Wait, the price on the shelf was different!", the store can just change the price as they go to double-check.

Even with paper tags, the store can't get someone to change the price while you're waiting at the cashier for a "manager" to show up?

▲

otterley a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is what discovery is for. Changing e-ink tags has an audit trail associated with it.

▲

pixl97 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Snap a pic I guess, there are many ways to game this either way, but if people start catching stores do this then it could lead to issues for the store.

▲

morkalork a day ago | parent [-]

Could it? A gas station doesn't get in trouble if I show up with a photo of yesterday's posted price

	▲	pixl97 12 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I mean if you have a means of validating that a picture was taking at a particular time, then moments later your receipt shows a much larger price then we typically call that evidence.