#inflation

"On a Thursday in early September, more than 40 strangers logged in to Instacart, the grocery-shopping app, to buy eggs and test a hypothesis.

Connected by videoconference, they simultaneously selected the same store — a Safeway in Washington, D.C. — and the same brand of eggs. They all chose pickup rather than delivery.

The only difference was the price they were offered: $3.99 for a couple of lucky shoppers. $4.59 or $4.69 for others. And a few saw a price of $4.79 — 20 percent more than some others, for the exact same product.

The shoppers were volunteers, participating in a study published on Tuesday and organized by the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive policy group, and Consumer Reports, a nonprofit consumer publication. In tests in four cities across the country, nearly 200 volunteers checked prices on 20 grocery items on Instacart.

On item after item, they found significant differences. In a Target in North Canton, Ohio, some shoppers were charged $3.59 for a jar of Skippy peanut butter that others could get for $2.99. At a Safeway in Seattle, some people paid $3.99 for a box of Wheat Thins while others paid $4.89. And at a Target in St. Paul, Minn., some people were charged $4.59 for a box of Cheerios that others could get for $3.99.

“Two shoppers who are buying the exact same item from the exact same store at the exact same time are getting different prices,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative. “The data really backs up how extraordinarily pervasive this is.”
(...)
Groundwork’s findings are the latest example of how the notion of a single price, offered to all customers for a predictable period, is breaking down in the digital age. Companies are using sophisticated algorithms to adjust prices quickly in response to competitors’ offers and consumer behavior."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/business/instacart-algorithmic-pricing.html

#USA #AlgorithmicPricing #DynamicPricing #Insatacart #Inflation #Algorithms

Ouch. #Trump #tariffs take a $1 billion bite out of #GM earnings

#GeneralMotors' second-quarter core profit fell 32% to $3 billion on Tuesday, as the automaker continued to confront challenging #tariff policies, which it said sapped $1.1 billion from the results.

#economy #inflation #recession
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/trump-tariffs-take-1-billion-bite-out-gm-earnings-2025-07-22/

I've been thinking about this one quite a bit lately. I'm wondering:

To what extent is it a question of economic or social #privilege to be able to make this choice at all? An example from my own life: as the pressures of #inflation continue, it feels like less of a choice to have this-or-that store app with #coupons and #discounts and whatnot on my phone. Even if I minimize the disturbance as much as possible by turning off #notifications, I'm still giving up a little sliver of my available attention in exchange for a (questionable?) economic benefit.

Also, for someone who is saddled with a lot of responsibilities or #mentalload or both, especially when time is low and a lot of planning and coordination is required, how realistic is it that one could make the shift away from depending so much on the phone?

Or looking at it another way, how much is this a realistic solution and how much is it a #romantic wouldn't-that-be-nice kind of idea? And even if it is realistic, my personal experience has shown that trying to make any change on my own is difficult at best; I wonder if it's helpful to put so much responsibility on each individual person. Pandora's box is open. What are we going to do about it now?

#economicPrivilege #socialPrivilege #digitalMinimalism

Exclusive: US #pharma #tariffs would raise US drug costs by $51B annually

A 25% #Trump #tariff on #pharmaceutical imports would increase US #drug #costs by nearly $51 billion annually, boosting US #prices by as much as 12.9% if passed on, a report commissioned by the industry's US #trade group & reviewed by Reuters shows.

#economy #PersonalFinance #medicine #drugs #pharmaceuticals #inflation #recession
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-pharma-tariffs-would-raise-us-drug-costs-by-51-bln-annually-report-finds-2025-04-25/