The price tags on shelves at your local Walmart may look a little different during your next visit.
Earlier this month, the grocery giant announced it had been testing an “innovative technology” known as digital shelf labels (DSLs) and would be implementing the new pricing technique in 2,300 of its stores by 2026.
Instead of traditional individual price tags that are updated by employees every week, the DSLs allow prices to be changed by a mobile app.
An example of what Walmart’s new DSLs will look like (Walmart)
This reduces “the need to walk around the store to change paper tags by hand and gives us more time to support customers in the store,” said Walmart in a statement.
According to the corporation, DSLs are a “game-changer,” especially for employees and in-store processes.
“DSLs allow us to update prices with a few clicks,” said the retailer, noting that price changes that used to take employees two days to update can now be done in a matter of minutes with the new system.
The pricing system also comes equipped with a “stock to light” feature, allowing associates to flash an LED light on the shelf tag using their mobile device, alerting the store that a particular area requires attention.
Will DSLs be coming to Walmart Canada locations?
So when will customers start seeing DSLs in Canadian stores?
In a statement to Daily Hive, Sarah Kennedy, a senior director of communications for Walmart Canada, said the new pricing technique is already in “approximately 11 departments in more than 340 Canadian stores.”
Walmart
“We expect that to grow to even more stores in the future,” Kennedy added. “Electronic shelf labels allow for more accurate pricing and improved inventory tracking.”
Reports indicate the new labels will allow employees to change prices up to every 10 seconds per minute, leading to concerns about dynamic or “surge” pricing.
Most recently, fast-food chain Wendy’s said it would be investing $20 million in high-tech menu boards that will be able to update prices in real-time without incurring additional overhead costs. The company later backtracked on this plan after facing widespread criticism.
However, according to the Wall Street Journal, dozens of restaurants in the US, like Cali BBQ and Bartaco, already use dynamic pricing to change the price of menu items on a weekly or monthly basis based on demand trends.
Walmart didn’t specifically address the matter of price surging in its statement, but Daily Hive has reached out for a follow-up comment.
With files from Marco Ovies and The Peak’s Lucas Arender