E-Ink price tags at Walmart

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

I think it would put people's minds at ease if the company simply published some kind of policy that said "We will never use electronic price displays to dynamically increase the price of items above our normal MSRP or implement 'surge pricing'."

I don't expect Aldi or Lidl would do it, but other companies...ya never know.

The tags in all the shops here have to be individually programmed by the staff with a hand-held unit.

Dynamic pricing would need powered tags and WiFi, or similar.

[The Old Man]

Rf frequencies from a central location and individual batteries in each unit that last about 5 years.

[rkomar]

Do these tags even have the electronic backplanes for driving the display? I always imagined that they would be a bare e-ink layer and the "gun" would provide the electromagnetic fields to set what they display.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by rkomar

Do these tags even have the electronic backplanes for driving the display? I always imagined that they would be a bare e-ink layer and the "gun" would provide the electromagnetic fields to set what they display.

You may want to check various items on the Internet on hacking eInk price tags. Two I found useful were Hacking eInk Price Tags and a set of articles on Hackaday at e-ink price tag from years back.

The one I played with used a NFC connection so you had to walk around the store to update each tag.

[The Old Man]

https://fwdigital.net/2022/07/08/how...ice-tags-work/
Looks like various implementations. Here’s one.

[rkomar]

Ah, the price tags are more complicated than I thought. I guess they are working towards taking the updates completely out of the hands of the aisle clerks. Thanks for the links.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Renate

Well, look at some concert venues that use "demand pricing".

Like at McDonald's, or Wendy's, or Burger King - whichever one it was doing this BS.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Aria Huang

Totally agree, good news for the staff. But I get why some customers are still uneasy

I agree about the concerns about the potential issues concerning e-ink tags. They need to have some kind of security to ensure that the tags can't be changed without authorization (such as the tags being keyed to a specific device). If an unapproved attempt is made to change the tags they will become blank until they are updated via the approved device. The tag information is sent to the device electronically, and the tags are updated via a direct physical connection.

It might take a while to do the initial set up of the tags. However, after that all that is needed is to update the changed tags.

[DNSB]

Going by the couple of tags I've played with, the security on them is not what I would call bulletproof. OTOH, considering most of them used NFC so you need to be within 4cm to re-write the tag and you might look a bit suspicious while doing so, making it not something that I would really worry about. The majority of the tags I looked at also keep track of when changes were made so questions as to why you were purchasing an item at a price that was dropped on the tag in the last few minutes but which the store's system showed at a higher price might be asked.

[rkomar]

I don't see what the big deal is about tags on the shelves being changed by hackers. You don't pay what the tag says at the registers, you pay what the database says the price is for the scanned item.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by rkomar

I don't see what the big deal is about tags on the shelves being changed by hackers. You don't pay what the tag says at the registers, you pay what the database says the price is for the scanned item.

In Canada, there is the Scanning Code of Practices. If the prices in the computer and on the shelf differ, you receive a $10 discount or the price of the item whichever is lower. Admittedly, many stores will not do this automatically (I'm looking at you, Walmart where their compliance seem more theoretical than practical) and you may need to get insistent.

See Scanner Price Accuracy Code for more information.

And yes, I am one of those nasty people who holds the lineup up or drags the staff for the self serve lineup into my issues by remembering the price on the shelf. Names & faces? The joke from some of my friends was that they were going to pin my photo on the bathroom mirror with a note reading: 'Good Morning! Your name is David". A phone number that has been out of service for 10 years? No problem.

As for the USA? There is no federal code but some states have an equivalent. You have to gaze in wonder at the Balkanization of rules in the USA. Want to sleep with your 18 year or older sibling? No problem in Ohio, New Jersey & Rhode Island. Don't plan on marrying them. In Ohio, the legality is only for siblings. A grandparent/parent/child/grandchild/dependent relationship is not permitted.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by rkomar

I don't see what the big deal is about tags on the shelves being changed by hackers. You don't pay what the tag says at the registers, you pay what the database says the price is for the scanned item.

In Ireland you pay the shelf price, if lower.