Asda rolls out electronic price tags…:

thebandit said:
You can guarantee if the super markets are adopting this is for their benefit not ours.
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Yes it's for their benefit. It cuts down on actual labour (which given the constant minimum wage rises is their biggest cost) to have to go around and update pricing when things do change, but also cuts down on pricing errors, and cuts down on waste paper/cardboard and so likely helps with their environmental responsibilities.

thebandit said:
Its definitely a way to more dynamically price items.
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No it isn't. The conspiracy theories are strong in here.

If supermarkets wanted to dynamically price items then they already would have, getting someone to go and change a paper ticket is hardly a big deal if they are making huge profits on the dynamic pricing that you seem to believe will happen.
 
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the time saving on staff is probably one of the key reasons behind the change as well, how long would it take to update a whole store of reasonable size, and or how much planning goes in to changing prices.
Making sure prices are accurate also.
Armageus got there before i did but i echo what was typed.
 
Armageus said:
If supermarkets wanted to dynamically price items then they already would have, getting someone to go and change a paper ticket is hardly a big deal if they are making huge profits on the dynamic pricing that you seem to believe will happen.
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You really think they have the manpower to go around and increase every price by e.g. 10% for the hour at lunch time, and the 2 hour rush between ~15:30-17:30, and then put them back again afterwards? :cry:
 
I've worked on the roll out of these to one of the discounters, put your tinfoil hats down. As already said the wages/paper wasted having to manually update these every day and then go and check they've all been updated was pretty huge and that's why it was implemented.

Dynamic pricing is a long way from feasible, it's difficult enough keeping static pricing updated and correct.
 
Hardly a conspiracy theory, nothing controversial in what I said ? Its being adopted for the benefit of the business you agreed, and dynamic pricing is a big part of the USP for digital PoS systems, its usually the first thing on the marketing. You have taken that I said dynamic pricing as being a bad thing, I made no such assertion, it's just how the technology is meant to be used.
 
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Even if they wanted to, the backlash that would happen if anyone tried dynamic pricing in an environment with delayed payment like a supermarket would be astronomical - it'd be an extremely brave supermarket to be the first to try it.

People just wouldn't tolerate walking into a store at 11:58, picking up a £2.50 sandwich and then getting to the till at 12:02 to find 'dynamic pricing' because it's lunchtime meant it was now £3.50, it won't happen.

It's only really workable/tolerable with systems like Uber where you can display and agree a price at a specific point in time, as soon as you introduce the delay between item selection and payment like a supermarket, it doesn't work.
 
LostCorpse said:
the time saving on staff is probably one of the key reasons behind the change as well, how long would it take to update a whole store of reasonable size, and or how much planning goes in to changing prices.
Making sure prices are accurate also.
Armageus got there before i did but i echo what was typed.
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I used to do tickets. It's time consuming printing off, trimming down, ensuring you have correct ticket size, mistakes, printer problems, mind numbingly boring, and wastes resources. The time involved doing this resulted in me not doing more important tasks.

Then time consuming of the planners, ensuring it's rolled out to specific stores etc.
 
Haggisman said:
You really think they have the manpower to go around and increase every price by e.g. 10% for the hour at lunch time, and the 2 hour rush between ~15:30-17:30, and then put them back again afterwards? :cry:
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No but I suspect if it was worthwhile on certain lines that sell specifically during those hours, then they would already have been doing it
 
Haggisman said:
You really think they have the manpower to go around and increase every price by e.g. 10% for the hour at lunch time, and the 2 hour rush between ~15:30-17:30, and then put them back again afterwards? :cry:
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I find it hard to believe they’d do this. It would get spotted in about 5 minutes flat and people would go bananas.
 
Feek said:
Wow, just because Asda have done this, it means dynamic pricing, right?

Forget that Aldi and Lidl have had them for years, with no dynamic pricing.

The tinfoilhattery in this thread is outstanding.
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dunno about dynamic pricing like I said but aldi for sure has bumped up prices.. presume that's part of normal process then rather than "more demand higher price" kinda deal and more along the lines of "x" price has gone up, so we update the tag.
 
grudas said:
dunno about dynamic pricing like I said but aldi for sure has bumped up prices.. presume that's part of normal process then rather than "more demand higher price" kinda deal and more along the lines of "x" price has gone up, so we update the tag.
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That's just called trying to keep their already slim profit margin.
 
This will be automated and done outside of trading hours.
 
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Are they wireless and battery powered? lol

ETA on it all being an expensive nightmare... 3 months?
 
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Nasher said:
Are they wireless and battery powered? lol

ETA on it all being an expensive nightmare... 3 months?
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Plenty of major shops have been using these things for months if not years already without issue… Why would it be an expensive nightmare?
 
Not sure how they can work Dynamic Pricing on there that some people here are concerned about... You go shopping, see a loaf of bread at £1.20 and put it in your trolley. In the subsequent 30 mins (or longer) it takes to do the rest of your shopping, get to the till and scan it, the price has went up and you are charged more?.... I think they will run into legal problems doing that.
 
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