Don't trust those grocery prices — but don't be a fraudster in response

Dollar stores are often price ripoffs, but for both major chains, it's generally cheaper to pay the fines than fix the presumably deliberate mispricing. And, the corporations lie about how store staffers have all the time in the world to reset prices on shelves.

This says nothing, of course, about how apparently cheaper prices are actually more expensive when priced by weight or volume, compared to larger sizes of products elsewhere. 

Related? Instacart uses "algorithmic pricing" dependent on your shopping habits, pricing designed, like airline tickets, to push the max that customers will pay. Instacart says the differences of up to 23 percent aren't based on personal demographics. That may be true for now, but for tomorrow? After all, Kroger has already admitted using demographic data for its shopper card discounts. (I occasionally click on discount offerings I'll never use to try to shake up its algorithm.)

It had hand-waving comments; the major groceries chains using this, including Kroger under its panoply of names, Albertson's under its panoply, and Sprouts, all refused to comment. 

There is no federal legislation for this (Consumer Reports gets comment from Dementia Joe's actually sort of progressive FTC Commissioner Lina Khan), and little by most states, including none here in Tex-ass. 

That said, there's a flip side with a chicken and egg background — consumer cheating. Beyond chicken and egg, there's a Brer Rabbit and Tar Baby here and both sides will escalate. Dollar General, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree may not rise to Jeff Bezos' Whole Foods

Also on that flip side? Many of the cheaters are better off than I am, so I find their self-justification to ring hollow on the financial side. Per a piece linked off the above that focuses on Bezos-land:

Beyond the fact that theft and fraud are, you know, against the law, anti-Amazon avengers may not recognize the collateral damage they could be inadvertently causing. If you steal from Whole Foods, Bezos won't know, but the store manager who's fired over it will. (I did survey some Whole Foods workers about this, and several of them confirmed that (a) they see a lot of middle-class and even seemingly wealthy shoplifters, and (b) they may be a little bothered by some of it but are not in a tizzy.) Before you lie to Amazon that your package never arrived or return the wrong item, you might want to check who the actual seller is.

There you are. 

Also per that piece? Limiting, if not eliminating, actual shopping there. I haven't been able to eliminate Amazon itself, but I have plenty of — and generally better — options to Whole Foods. 

Also, there's knock-on effects to the most-growing portion of cheating — refund fraud, also via the same author. The biggest issues is that people don't understand that this hurts the actual manufacturer or distribution company as much as Amazon, and that, with non-Amazon smaller retailers selling online, they don't have Amazon's elasticity. 

On the flip side to that, many of these smaller retailers are fighting back. If the package was via US Postal Service that officially makes it federal postal fraud.

And, some of the bigger guys are using algorithms to fight back.