Far from the worst shit to happen under capitalism, especially since it seems randomized in this case and not dependent on user's characteristics or history. Using discounts as a way to study consumer behavior has been happening since forever, and I'd argue it would be useful even under socialism. The only issue here is lack of transparency into the whole thing, but it could be trivially fixed by some legislation that requires a price history to be shown for every item, and personalized discounts be declared separately and in an easy-to-understand way. E.g. if this was clearly marked as "eggs are $4.50, but we are offering you a personal discount of $1" this story would seem like a nothing-burger.
yogthos in usa
Same Product, Same Store, but on Instacart, Prices Might Differ
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/business/instacart-algorithmic-pricing.htmlhttps://archive.ph/sgOx3
Far from the worst shit to happen under capitalism, especially since it seems randomized in this case and not dependent on user's characteristics or history. Using discounts as a way to study consumer behavior has been happening since forever, and I'd argue it would be useful even under socialism. The only issue here is lack of transparency into the whole thing, but it could be trivially fixed by some legislation that requires a price history to be shown for every item, and personalized discounts be declared separately and in an easy-to-understand way. E.g. if this was clearly marked as "eggs are $4.50, but we are offering you a personal discount of $1" this story would seem like a nothing-burger.