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3d ago

Instacart’s AI Price Tests Exposed; Trials Paused for Target and Costco

A multi-city study documented price differences on 74% of items with gaps reaching about 23%.

A new investigation by a group of consumer groups finds that Instacart is experimenting with prices, with some prices coming in 23% higher at the same store, same time and item.
An Instacart shopper in a grocery store in a file photo from Dec. 11, 2020.
A new report finds Instacart’s AI pricing experiments can show different prices for identical groceries, raising costs for many shoppers.
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Overview

  • Consumer Reports, Groundwork Collaborative and More Perfect Union coordinated simultaneous shopping with 437 volunteers who all encountered randomized pricing on identical items from the same stores.
  • Investigators recorded an average item spread near 13% and basket differences around 7%, which they estimate could add roughly $1,200 per year for a typical family.
  • Price variation was linked to Eversight, the AI tool Instacart acquired in 2022, with evidence found across Safeway/Albertsons, Target, Costco, Kroger and Sprouts.
  • Instacart says retailers control prices and only about 10 partners run limited, short‑term tests that are randomized, not real‑time dynamic pricing, and do not use personal or demographic data.
  • Following the reports, Instacart said it stopped running pricing experiments for Target and Costco as lawmakers push new rules, including New York’s disclosure requirement and proposals to restrict individualized pricing at the state and federal levels.