So they were lying when they claim they were not going use the digital tags to price gouge. I'm not surprised the Waltons are bunch of evil bastards of course they are doing this.

This isn’t talking about price gouging. Or at least, not that second part of the title. The full quote is:

“when customers engage with Sparky, their average order value jumps 40%.”

This is talking about ignorant customers getting talked into adding more to their order than they originally planned, by an AI that is designed to encourage people to buy as much as possible. Walmart isn’t changing the price of products that are ordered through the AI tool.

Still shitty behavior but it’s just another marketing tool and marketing has been finding ways to influence customers to buy more things since the dawn of time.

A far more concerning quote from the article for me would be:

Walmart has filed a patent for technology that can unmask anonymous cell phone data after a single store visit, then track where shoppers live, how they commute to work, and what restaurants they frequent

The article is not about the AI piece, though it does mention it. It is about Walmart's groundwork efforts to pave the way for price gouging.

So the second part of the title is completely irrelevant and misleading because it implies that they are literally inflating prices by 40% using AI right now.

It is clunky but the double slash indicates they are two very separate sentences.

https://www.bravenewfilms.org/walmartmovie

Fucking apps.

Y'all seriously need to stop using all apps. I know you won't, I know you'll defend them, I know "not all apps", but, yeah, ALL apps. They have one purpose and that is to control you. Control what you think by keeping us divided, and prompt you to buy crap you don't need.

They keep us divided from each other, from nature, and from ourselves.

Fuck AI and fuck apps.

Me playing fruit ninja and hearing this: 😢

That just so happened to be placed right next to each other.

Damn this lemmy app!

Double slash has no special meaning in English. That's a programming thing.

I read the article but not the headline. Lol.

The actual headline is

Walmart Watchdog: New Groundwork Analysis Exposes the Doublespeak Behind Walmart’s Pricing Playbook

Yeah just OP sloppily trying to square leg / round hole this in this community.

Four states this year have banned surveillance pricing.

Expect 2/3 of them, most likely, to do the same... but the law moves slowly, so in the interim you'll see major retailers speedrunning the effort to get these practices normalized. Obviously there won't be any leadership or meaningful regulation of it whatsoever at the federal level, at least here in the US.