The Walmart pricing saga continues.
Walmart is in the midst of another pricing scandal after Groundwork Collaborative president and CEO Lindsay Owens dropped an explosive exposé outlining — in great detail — a deep dive into the wild world of Walmart patents, where the sociologist and consumer expert claims the retail behemoth collects “troves of data it can collect on users.”
The report, named “The Walmart Watchtower: Patents Speak Louder Than Pledges,” revealed some of the most invasive facts Walmart could “file away in customer dossiers,” Owens wrote.
Owens exclusively told The Post that Walmart has one of the largest collections of patents — and consumers should know the types of data that’s being taken from them.
“Taken together, what these patents represent is one of the most expensive corporate surveillance regimes the world has ever known,” Owens told The Post. “The sum total of the information that these patents suggest Walmart is interested in collecting or is already collecting is astonishing.”
For example, Walmart wants the following information on its customers — songs on your playlist, registered political affiliation, sensor data from wearables and smartphones and what you browse on the internet.
But a data point that really takes the cake is what Walmart wants the minute a shopper steps foot in a store.
“When you enter a store, [Walmart wants to know] how you move about it, and what you look at, using facial recognition, eye tracking, and GPS devices in phones and carts – and even whether your facial expression is ‘smiley’ or ‘sad or disgusted’ when you look at an item,” Owens states on her site.
The expert had showcased a number of patents in her latest report, but one caught the eye of a Walmart executive. Back in 2023, the company was awarded a patent called the “System and method for remote controlling of electronic shelf labels.”
The patent states, “the labels and prices may be changed in a dynamic fashion,” which is based on information about a shopper’s cart from its scan-and-go technology.
Executive vice president of corporate affairs at Walmart, Dan Bartlett, took the matter to X with a letter. The note was to Owens and was titled, “Correcting the Record: We Price Products, Not People,” where Bartlett said her statements “repeatedly mischaracterize Walmart’s pricing practices and use of technology.”
Bartlett tried to clear the air by saying, “The facts are straightforward. We price products, not people. Walmart does not and will not use an individual customer’s personal information, income, shopping history, urgency or willingness to pay to set an individualized price. We do not engage in dynamic pricing, raising prices in response to a hot afternoon or an approaching snowstorm.”
Walmart took it one step further and told Retail Dive that it does not use and will not renew that patent.
“A patent isn’t a plan. A digital shelf label isn’t a pricing strategy. This patent describes a possible use of technology; Walmart does not use, and will not use, digital shelf labels to change prices based on what’s in a shopper’s cart, who they are or the time of day. The patent has issued, but we will not use it or renew it,” the brand told Retail Dive.
The Post reached out to Walmart directly but has not heard back.
The move comes less than two weeks after CEO John Furner made a similar formal statement, rejecting any form of dynamic pricing, surveillance pricing or personalized pricing.
Furner explicitly promised not to set different prices based on “your income, shopping history, urgency or what we think you could pay won’t change the price.”
Owens isn’t buying it.
According to the electronic shelf patent, it does not expire until 2039. But why was it even created in the first place? Why is Walmart going to pay patent fees to keep it open if it does not plan on implementing the technology?
These are all questions Owens has for the retail giant.
“What Walmart is saying to the American consumer now that their patents are being released is, ‘don’t worry. Sure, we built all of this stuff. Sure, we took the trouble to get exclusive rights to it at the patent office, but don’t worry, we don’t use it, and we’re not planning to,’” Owen told The Post.
“And you know, I think my view is first that is a little difficult to believe on its face, because why would you build all of this stuff for it to sit and collect dust?”
