Instacart Caught Charging Different Customers Different Prices for the Same Groceries
A joint investigation by Consumer Reports, Groundwork Collaborative, and More Perfect Union found that Instacart was using AI-powered pricing tools to show different prices to different customers for identical items at the same store, at the same time.
Not different delivery fees. Not different service charges. The actual price of the food itself, fluctuating depending on who was looking.
The Numbers
Three-quarters of products checked were offered at different prices to different shoppers. Price variations ranged from 7 cents to $2.56 per item. The total cost of the same basket of goods at a single store varied by roughly 7% between customers — which translates to over $1,000 in extra annual costs for the unlucky shoppers.
Some customers were charged up to 23% more than others buying the exact same items.
How They Did It
In 2022, Instacart acquired Eversight, an AI pricing platform. By 2023, they were offering the technology to retailers on the platform. Evidence of price experimentation was found at Albertsons, Costco, Kroger, and Sprouts Farmers Market.
The system works by running A/B tests on live customers — treating your grocery run as a pricing experiment without your knowledge or consent. You are the lab rat, and you are paying for the privilege.
The Aftermath
After the investigation dropped, Instacart announced it would stop allowing retailers to run AI pricing tests on its platform, "effective immediately."
The New York Attorney General's office sent a formal letter demanding answers about the company's compliance with the state's Algorithmic Pricing Disclosure Act.
Instacart's defense: the retailers set the prices, not us. Which is technically true — Instacart just built the tool that lets retailers price-gouge you personally, based on whatever the algorithm decided you would tolerate. That is not a defense. That is a confession.