If you’ve been to your local Walmart lately, you’ve likely noticed some changes. Walmarts around the U.S. are now using ‘dynamic pricing.’ Americans aren’t happy about this change, with one Nebraska woman drawing attention to it online and how it impacts her shopping experience.
One Nebraska customer, Rissa (TikTok/rissabobissa), writes in the caption of her TikTok video: “Walmarts new pricing system sucks.” She then explains to her audience, “Ever since they switched to this new pricing system, I buy far less clothes.” She states it’s because she can’t find the actual prices of products.
Rissa pans to the digital price displays, which are not clearly connected to nearby items, making it difficult to determine the exact cost of each product. To figure out how much clothing costs, Rissa says she has to physically pull out her phone and check the Walmart app. It takes a lot of extra time to stand there and look up the exact item and what they’re asking for it online. She says, “That’s enough for me to not buy it.”
So, not only would Walmart have to deal with customers being reluctant to shop because of the digital labels, but risk customers avoiding them altogether if they have to use apps to find the actual price. Who is going to waste their time doing that? Certainly not Rissa. What was so wrong about using the paper barcodes?
Rissa’s Walmart trip draws ire over dynamic pricing
Rissa’s TikTok video drew thousands of comments, many of which condemned Walmart’s new pricing system and expressed great distrust in it. Others spoke on the matter of ‘dynamic pricing’ and argued Walmart’s clothing are overpriced.
One commenter took it further by writing, “And ‘dynamic pricing’ should be illegal honestly.” In the thread, a commenter joked by asking, “Yea but how will the billionaires afford their 7th yacht?”
On the top of pricing, commenters were happy to share their distaste. “Clothes are Walmart shouldn’t be over 30 bucks…” while another argued it shouldn’t “be more than $20.”
One TikTok user drew a lot of attention to their comment claiming to be a Walmart employee. They claimed Walmart changed to digital labels so they could “change the price of an item… when you are at checkout.”
This tracks with an article from WGAL, stating people are distrustful of the pricing changes. The concern being that Walmart, if the company wanted to, could be changing prices digitally throughout the day. Though Walmart has denied this, it doesn’t change the fact people believe it isn’t a good look.
