Walmart CEO John Furner rejects personalized pricing, cites EDLP pledge
On Friday, Sept. 25, Walmart CEO John Furner issued a letter to customers stating the company will not adopt personalized pricing. His comments come as Maryland prepares to become the first state to ban certain personalized grocery prices.
Furner said digital shelf labels help keep shelf prices in line with checkout prices and spare associates the manual task of swapping paper tags.
“We’ve never used the relationships our associates have with customers to charge more, and we won’t do that with AI,” John Furner, President and CEO of Walmart said.
“We price the product, not the person,” John Furner, President and CEO of Walmart said.
Earlier this year, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed the Protection From Predatory Pricing Act into law, and Connecticut and New Jersey have since adopted similar restrictions. In August, the Federal Trade Commission warned that using personal data to set prices could violate the law, and Seattle became the first US city to prohibit individualized grocery pricing based on personal data.
What we know
John Furner issued a letter to customers on Friday, Sept. 25.
Maryland will become the first state to impose an outright ban on certain personalized grocery prices.
The FTC warned in August that companies using customers’ personal data to set prices could be breaking the law.
Digital shelf labels ensure shelf prices match checkout and save associate time on swapping paper tags.
Walmart has followed the Every Day Low Prices principle for over 50 years.