Same Cart, Different Price: When the Invisible Hand Becomes an Algorithm (with Lindsay Owens)

March 10, 202639m 11s

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Show Notes

The price you see online might not be the real price.

A new investigation found that Instacart was quietly running pricing experiments—charging different customers different prices for the same groceries at the same time.

This week, Paul and Goldy talk with Groundwork Collaborative Executive Director Lindsay Owens about how companies are using AI and massive data sets to run experiments on consumers—testing exactly how much each of us is willing to pay.

And if every shopper sees a different price, one big question follows:

Do markets still work the way economists say they do?

Lindsay Owens is the Executive Director of the economic think tank Groundwork Collaborative and author of the forthcoming book, GOUGED: The End of a Fair Price in America.