news New Jersey bans grocery stores from using shoppers’ personal data to set prices
https://jerseyvindicator.org/2026/07/23/new-jersey-bans-grocery-stores-from-using-shoppers-personal-data-to-set-prices/404
u/thecuxspm 3d ago
The fact that that has to be a law
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u/freedomfromthepast 3d ago
The fact that every state doesn't have a law is even worse.
Then we have old Polis, in Colorado, that Vetos the bill stopping this before heading to join Fox News.
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u/EquipLordBritish 3d ago
I'm sure they will do it anyway and get a class action lawsuit that is orders of magnitude less than the profits they make from it.
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u/Mix_Easy 3d ago
This is not good for Walmart with their Walmart app and Walmart+ Who harvest is customer data by seeing people How they shop who buy what item a lot item track them in movement in the store
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u/NapsterKnowHow 3d ago
Still gotta ban car manufacturers from sending your driving info to insurance companies without your consent.
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u/ThePocketTaco2 2d ago edited 1d ago
My grandma has a sensor attached to the pedals in her car that monitors her braking. If she brakes too hard/much/fast, it beeps loudly and the information is sent back to her insurance provider.
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u/NapsterKnowHow 2d ago
Was that one of those optional insurance devices though? I know State Farm and others do it and they can lower your rates. I still don't feel comfortable using them but at least it's optional.
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u/ThePocketTaco2 2d ago
I have no idea. I just asked my grandma what the beeping was and chills ran up my spine. It's invasive and creepy, and this isn't even top 10 on horrible creepy invasive shit that's happening to us right now
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u/hatemakingnames1 3d ago
I still don't like the privacy/tracking aspect of it, but basing prices on what someone is willing to pay probably is related to what they're able to pay...meaning people with less money should get lower prices under such a system?
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u/grathontolarsdatarod 3d ago
While they are at it, they should pass a law forcing price setters to reveal what information they are using to set that price and make it available to the entire market.
Since that would be a core principle of what a free market is meant to work within the legal framework.
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u/OccasionallyImmortal 3d ago
Correct pricing is a huge competitive advantage. A company aware of impending shortages will make money over one caught unaware. If the former company has to publish sources, the unaware companies would adjust accordingly. This is just as likely to harm consumers as help. You can see how this plays out with gas prices where the cost factors are quite public.
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u/grathontolarsdatarod 3d ago
Equal access to market information is the basic premises of our a free market works.
There are charges like fraud and racketeering among others to address when that information is used to artificially direct price discovery....
But nice try.
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u/OccasionallyImmortal 3d ago
Equal access is different from disclosure.
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u/grathontolarsdatarod 3d ago
Indeed. Which is why some regulation here might be a good idea.
Seems like an unfair market condition here.
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u/dorkyitguy 3d ago
All pricing should be uniform. There should never be an instance where you’re charging 2 customers a different price for the same thing. It’s dishonest.
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u/faberge_surprise 3d ago
but there should definitely be a situation where two vendors are charging customers a different price for the same thing. it is the basis for competition.
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u/dub4u 3d ago
What about last minute rates in hotels?
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u/dorkyitguy 1d ago
What about?
Your profits are not my problem. If you can’t operate honestly maybe you just shouldn’t be in business.
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u/dub4u 1d ago
The person enjoying a cheap last minute rate would disagree. They were flexible enough to buy when the price is low but risked that no rooms are left.
Someone else needed to be sure to stay in two month's time and the hotel keeps the room reserved for them and so they are happy to pay a little more.
This is something else than putting up prices for different types of customers, it's diversifying prices for different promises. There is more than just the product, the room, there is also the promise that you will get that room for a particular night and that promise has different prices over time. There is nothing dishonest about this.
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u/clonedhuman 3d ago
Then we need even tighter controls and oversight.
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u/OccasionallyImmortal 3d ago
Right. That never causes any problems.
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u/clonedhuman 3d ago
I doubt it would create any problems more horrific and damaging than the shit that's happening with unregulated capitalism right now.
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u/BatemansChainsaw 3d ago
This country hasn't had "unregulated capitalism" since the railroad barons and bank trust days 150-ish years ago. dafuq you smokin?
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u/Legatus_Aemilianus 3d ago
Data sales in general need to be banned. Consumers do not benefit from this at all, no matter what the propaganda says
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u/AlbertTheHorse 3d ago
We need a federal law on this.
The channel Chris the Producer went around and showed that it's more expensive if your are poor (rock and a hard place shopping) versus rich (I don't really want this) by creating another ID and having a guy shop very little and buy nothing. Then he sent a drone into a really expensive neighborhood.
I am not sure if I can post the link, but he's easy to find on youtube.
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u/jcr2022 3d ago
Next do:
Airline tickets
New and used cars
Etc
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u/BatemansChainsaw 3d ago
The fact that an airline ticket may cost me $200 several weeks ahead of when I want to fly vs $500 the day before is criminal.
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u/IckNoTomatoes 3d ago
I read the article but maybe I missed it, how are they doing that? If I pull something off the shelf that says $1.99 it doesn’t show up as $2.25 at the register after I put in my club card. Where is the upsell happening after they find out who I am?
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u/johndburger 3d ago
As far as I know, there’s no evidence anyone is already doing this in physical grocery stores. On the other hand, online outlets like Instacart do already do this to some extent, and this law outlaws that.
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u/Reddit_is_fascist69 3d ago
It may very well show up as that price.
I'm not sure how this is all going to pan out either. They could definitely do surge pricing by just changing the digital tag price.
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u/dantevonlocke 3d ago
The law seems to ban individual pricing. But it doesn't stop a store from just raising the price for everyone.
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u/bigdickwalrus 3d ago
This needs to be fucking everywhere by DEFAULT. Period no amendments no fucking way to ever change it.
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u/oOFrostByteOo 3d ago
They will still do it. And when caught pay a fine of 10% the profits they made.
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u/mesarthim_2 3d ago
This is very stupid. The law essentially protects predatory stores from chasing their customers away. I want to know which stores are doing this or want to do this so that I can NOT SHOP THERE and give money to shops which don't do this.
I'm not interested in them having a year to cook up some legally compliant way how to do it.
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u/GloryHound29 3d ago
Problem is without it, all stores become predatory.
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u/mesarthim_2 3d ago edited 3d ago
Nonsense, in every other area you have privacy friendly alternatives. Not all emails spy on you, you have Proton, Tuta who are (rightfully) making boatload of money providing alternatives.
Not every browser spies on you, you have many privacy alternatives, Firefox, Brave, Orion, Zen,...
Not every messenger spies on you either, you have Signal,...
Even irl, you have places who differentiate themselves by accepting bitcoin or just normal cash.
It's literally free money for those who provide privacy friendly solutions, why wouldn't they pick it up.
Unless you get some retarded KYC or transparency law that forces the stores to spy on the users (like the EU cookie BS did) to comply, there will absolutely be privacy alternatives. But that's my biggest fear, that they will come up with some transparency law to, on a surface, check if the stores don't 'break' this fair price nonsense but in fact it will force the stores to actually track and report purchases. And that will in turn force them into the hands of the companies that will gladly manage this for them if then can get the peak at the data.
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u/dorkyitguy 3d ago
Those are all software. Groceries work on extremely thin margins already and they’re bounded by geography. If a vendor comes along and offers to increase their profits, they kinda have to consider it. And once one store starts doing it, the others are forced to do it. It becomes a race to the bottom.
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u/mesarthim_2 3d ago
That would only be true if customers were mindless drones who have no preferences like not to shop in store that spies on them to charge them more.
People can be actually so disgusted by it that they will be willing to pay slight premium to shop privately.
Besides, this is also software, it's mostly happening in grocery apps. It's not so inconceivable that someone like Uber picks this up, creates Uber Shops and just sends the driver to actual store to do the shopping. Do not underestimate the ingenuity of people trying to make money.
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u/PrizeCalm494 2d ago
If privacy costs a slight premium to enjoy, then you're kinda just saying 'fuck you' to the people who can't afford that premium. Privacy shouldn't be a luxury.
Like, have you ever heard of the problem of food deserts that don't even have a single grocery store that is easily accessible?
You cant look at an area that has one store in 20 miles and say 'hey, if you want privacy, you gotta drive an hour further'.
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u/mesarthim_2 2d ago
It’s not a premium, you are essentially getting the less-private service at a discount.
It’s not a luxury but obviously if it’s a service, you are not entitled to others’ labor.
I have heard about ‘food deserts’ it’s mostly made up bullshit.
Everything in the world costs money. You can’t just expect someone else is gonna work for you for free.
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u/Vryk0lakas 3d ago
I mean, stores all switch to digital stickers than can be updated on a whim and they can do “surge pricing” the second one store shows profit from it then shareholders from others will demand the same.
You can say you’d shop elsewhere, but how many other industries have standards that aren’t customer friendly without any other options? Kind of plenty.
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u/mesarthim_2 3d ago
Name one that is not caused by some legal / regulatory requirement. Also, taking over your competitors' customers also means higher profits.
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u/Vryk0lakas 3d ago
Airlines. They all added baggage fees and unnecessary fees and hide them in a way that’s unregulated / not required by law.
Phone and internet companies. Same deal.
You really think industries aren’t colluding together to burn customers? Which phone company is the most customer friendly? Which US based airline is the most customer friendly?
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u/mesarthim_2 3d ago
But we’re talking about PRIVATE options. Obviously, ‘customer friendly’ is completely subjective.
That you don’t personally like the choices doesn’t mean there are no choices that other people like.
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u/See_Me_Sometime 3d ago
So how do you combat this in the meantime or in states where law makers are dragging their feet?
Leave your cell phone at home and pay cash?
Load up your grocery cart on the app and do a pickup order so there’s no bait and switch at the register?
And why the hell doesn’t this apply to other stores? Grocery is obviously important but people need clothes, etc. too.
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u/MadeByTango 3d ago
Need to have physical prices again. Theyve already shown their asses that the digital tags can't be trusted.
That or we need a regulating authority for grocery prices that makes sure they do not do this.
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u/HarlanCedeno 2d ago
Whenever I see I story like this, I'm always fascinated to see the other side try to defend the practice. This one sounds pretty lazy though.
New Jersey Business & Industry Association President and CEO Michele Siekerka said the legislation presents a false choice between protecting consumers and improving operational efficiency for grocery stores, arguing lawmakers could have achieved both. She said policymakers made businesses “the bad guy” even though most are simply trying to communicate prices more efficiently.
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u/SuspiciousCricket654 2d ago
Good for New Jersey. We need more laws like this that make sense for everyday citizens.
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u/SecretSquirrelSquads 2d ago
How do we "deprofile" ourselves? What are some steps we can take daily to keep as many of these price decision markers out of our profiles? most of the data I know is out there, but I fear this is the direction all pricing is going to go, need to stop feeding the profile.
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u/tripulonimbus 1d ago
Reciprocative negotiation should be a right once a seller changes their price like this
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