What This Story Is About
- Grocery store companies are reportedly using technology some lawmakers are saying could increase the price of products based on the time of day, a person’s data and shopping habits.
Why It Matters
- Lawmakers say the companies can use the profiles to determine how much price hiking each person can tolerate.
What Happens Next
- In New Jersey, Gov. Mike Sherrill signed a bill into law on July 23, 2026 that would protect shoppers from surveillance pricing, according to our NBC affiliate, WCAU.
For Context
- Mayor Freddie O’Connell has been pushing for cutting Nashville’s grocery tax to help make the city more affordable.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – When you go to a store, you expect to see prices on the items your about to purchase. However, with the increase of Electronic Shelving Labels in grocery stores, some people are concerned that digital price tags may enable stores like Kroger, Walmart and more to change the prices on people depending on the time of day, and based on a person’s data and shopping habits.
What are electronic shelving labels?
Electronic Shelving Labels, or digital shelf labels, are digital screens that display the price of an item.
The technology can be found at Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, Kroger, even Walmart recently rolled out the technology in March 2026.
According to Walmart, the ESLs help by giving employees less time fixing tags and focus on other tasks.
However, some lawmakers are concerned about where the use of ESLs could lead.
Lawmakers speak out against “dynamic pricing” and “surveillance pricing”
In the fight for food affordability, lawmakers are working to protect consumers and shoppers from the reported harmful pricing practices.
In New Jersey, Gov. Mike Sherrill signed a bill into law on July 23, 2026 that would protect shoppers from surveillance pricing, according to our NBC affiliate, WCAU.
Lawmakers in Tennessee have also tried to ban companies from using similar tactics.
Tennessee House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. John Ray Clemmons introduced a bill in 2026 that prohibits the use of “personalized algorithmic pricing.”
The bill was last assigned to the General Subcommittee of Senate Commerce and Labor Committee on April 7.
In August 2024, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Robert P. Casey, Jr. sent a letter to the former chairman and CEO of Kroger, Rodney McMullen.
In the letter they said “digital price tags” may enable Kroger and other grocery chains to transition into ”dynamic pricing.”
Dynamic pricing, according to Warren and Casey, is where the price of basic household goods could surge based on the time of day, the weather or other transitory events.
Warren and Casey even touched on “EDGE Shelf” which they said is a partnership with Kroger and Microsoft to place cameras at digital displaces that would use facial recognition tools to determine the gender and age of a customer captured on camera.
Warren and Casey said that technology would allow Kroger to use customer data to build personalized profiles on each customer and then use the profiles to determine how much price hiking each person can tolerate based on a written testimony by Bilal Baydoun to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
FTC launches investigation into “surveillance pricing”; says people are paying for different prices
In January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission did a study on surveillance pricing.
The FTC said surveillance pricing targets individual consumers with different prices for the same goods and services based on a person’s location or browser history.
“Initial staff findings show that retailers frequently use people’s personal information to set targeted, tailored prices for goods and services—from a person’s location and demographics, down to their mouse movements on a webpage,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The FTC should continue to investigate surveillance pricing practices because Americans deserve to know how their private data is being used to set the prices they pay and whether firms are charging different people different prices for the same good or service.”
What stores in Tennessee use surveillance pricing:
WSMV has reached out to stores like Kroger, Walmart and Target to see if they are using surveillance pricing technology in their stores.
So far, we have not received word back.
Copyright 2026 WSMV. All rights reserved.
