A recent investigation by Consumer Reports, Groundwork Collaborative, and More Perfect Union has revealed significant pricing discrepancies for identical items on the Instacart app. This study involved 437 shoppers from four urban areas, all of whom added the same grocery items from the same store to their carts. Findings indicated that nearly 75% of the products were presented at various price points, with some items displaying as many as five different prices. The average price variation among these identical items was 13%, with the highest recorded difference reaching an astonishing 23%.
In a response to Engadget regarding these findings, Instacart explained that similar to traditional retailers who test prices in-store, a select group of ten retail partners engages in randomized, short-term online pricing experiments to better understand consumer behavior. The company emphasized that these tests do not involve dynamic pricing based on supply and demand and do not use individual demographic data.
Most of the pricing tests were conducted across Safeway and Target stores, both of which yielded comparable results. In a statement to The New York Times, a Target representative clarified that the company is not affiliated with Instacart and holds no responsibility for the pricing on the platform. At the time of the study, Instacart was exploring various strategies to manage operational costs but has since ceased its pricing experiments involving Target orders.
To clarify its objectives, Instacart released a blog post asserting that these pricing tests aim to assist retailers in investing in lower prices, reaffirming its commitment to providing affordable groceries to consumers.
