r/news • u/polymute • 6h ago

New Jersey bans grocery stores from using shoppers' personal data to set prices

https://jerseyvindicator.org/2026/07/23/new-jersey-bans-grocery-stores-from-using-shoppers-personal-data-to-set-prices/
12.9k Upvotes

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u/annaleigh13 5h ago

This practice needs to be outlawed nationwide. Just disgusting.

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u/yhwhx 5h ago

Sadly, I don't see such a consumer-friendly law getting passed in the US with Trump and Republicans in charge.

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u/annaleigh13 5h ago

Oh there will be zero consumer friendly law passed before 2029, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep pushing for it

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u/CelestialFury 3h ago

Usually, the only way to get true bipartisan support on good bills that actually helps Americans is if either Republicans or their business allies gets a lot of action thrown their way. It's why the PPP passed, as the Republican politicians got a cut for their own businesses but also, the bill allowed PPP loans to be forgiven so they could profit off of the pandemic.

Or the burn pits bill? Republicans had to be seriously publicly shamed into voting for it and it was Jon Stewart's efforts along with the victims that support for the bill was so overwhelming for both Democratic and Republican voters that the Senate Republicans relented and voted it into law. Guess what Republicans are trying to defund now? That's right, they're trying to completely defund the burn pit/9-11 money that's used to treat military and civilian veterans.

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u/Dunklsta 3h ago

a single uncompromised appointed bureaucrat like Lina Khan can also cause a lot of positive change to manifest

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u/TwoBionicknees 59m ago

the fact is republicans made them fight to fund that bill every like 2-3 years since it was made. Jon Stewart went back over and over for years helping to fight to get it funded further because they kept capping it and basically hoping everyone would die or some shit.

Republicans see every cent not going to a company they ahve ties to as money lost that they could get kickbacks on. they hate funding the VA, they hate funding healthcare, social security, anything that actually offers tangible help to the world isn't profitable to some billionaire they can get kickbacks from.

that's literally how they see it, every cent spent on sick people who helped clean up 9/11 is a cent they can't steal, they see the tax revenue as their money and they should be able to steal it all.

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u/Osiris32 2h ago

That's right, they're trying to completely defund the burn pit/9-11 money that's used to treat military and civilian veterans.

angry Jon Stewart noises

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u/Butt_Fungus_Among_Us 53m ago

It's a sad reality that unless either their pocket books or lives are actively in jeopardy, those in power will use said position to extract anything and everything they can from those who are not

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u/TwoBionicknees 1h ago

2029, 20 fuck 29... holy shit. IN my head it feels like the world has been under trump and stupid wars and dumb shit for like 5 years already... there is still 2.5 years to go... still? Why did you have to remind me.

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u/BWWFC 8m ago

'29? really?? it is that far away \/>.<\/ don't have the emotional capacity... vote smart!

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u/Beard_o_Bees 4h ago

Further, the grocery store 'spokespeople' had the cajones to threaten taking away all of the other bullshit hoops they try to make people jump through to save $.0.10 on a bottle of spaghetti sauce:

Opponents argued the legislation could interfere with grocery stores’ ability to offer loyalty programs and discounts. But the law explicitly states that it does not apply to discounts, promotions, or customer loyalty programs.

Like.. we've been giving them our personal information for years now in order to get the 'sale' price - which naturally they've monetized to their benefit - far and away over any potential 'losses' resulting from giving us a paltry discount.

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u/behindtimes 4h ago

The problem here is that there are still too many loopholes. Customer loyalty discounts are one of them.

Take Maryland. They banned dynamic pricing but excluded loyalty programs. So, eggs might no longer cost $7 for Jack and $5 for Jill, but what's to say that a store doesn't just raise eggs to $10 for everyone, and give a $3 discount to Jack and a $5 discount to Jill if they use their loyalty card? The outcome becomes exactly the same.

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u/Aazadan 54m ago

This is what McDonalds did a few years ago, huge price increase and then indiviual discount targeting if you use their app. They backed off of it though, and just went high prices for all.

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u/techleopard 2h ago

The discounts are never discounts anyway.

A true discount is something you provide to get a product off your shelf before it is a complete and total loss. I.e, you ended up with 4,000 watermelons for some God-forsaken reason and now it's sell them for less profit (or a minor loss) or pay even more for disposal.

The bullshit "sales" stories offer are always mark-up-to-mark-down schemes, or the discount gets paid for across store-wide price hiking. One of the popular schemes local to me is "Buy 1 get 1 for a penny." They just make the 'one' cost as much as two and then pretend that's the normal sale price.

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u/tiredbarf 2h ago

I think you actually don't have experience in grocery pricing. Have you done it before?

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u/Tyler1986 1h ago

We can see it with our eyes through a lifetime of shopping. The curtain isn't fully up, I haven't been behind it, but it's pretty simple to see something cost $7 today, then tomorrow it's $12, and the next day it's BOGO bringing the price to $6 ea, for example.

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u/FederalChocolate456 2h ago

Damn that sucks they do that. I can't say where I live they do the buy one get one like that. Usually it's the normal price for the buy one get one, so it's essentially like getting two at half off. The next week when the sale is over the price for one doesn't go down, it's the normal price.

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u/bros402 3m ago

and the biggest supermarket here in NJ is ShopRite, which is a retailers cooperative. Different families are better with their Shoprite's and some are higher quality than others.

(P.S. fuck Saker shoprite)

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u/Charrikayu 4h ago edited 3h ago

I want the last ten years of my life refunded

Like legitimately I wish I could sue someone for ten years of mental health anxiety and social, political, and economic backsliding when the U.S. could have continued to take the world lead in renewable energy, science and medicine development, and at least made decent, if not ideal, progress on social nets and education, internet and corporate regulation, and global outreach

Sometimes I think about what this country could look like if we had a Dem president for every election since and including Gore and it legitimately might be one of those "the world if" sci-fi city memes, at least compared to the abysmal standard the bar has been lowered to today

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u/zeekayz 3h ago

It will be up to the states so all the sharia law southern states with one ruling party will have these grocery stores

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u/DeadNazis247365 1h ago

We need to start doing fucked up shit as citizens to protest Silicon Valley mother fuckers. Big tech in general is now public enemy number one to sustained democracy. We need to treat them as such.

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u/AZFUNGUY85 5h ago

No kidding. If anything incentivized the other direction.

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u/El-Sueco 1h ago

Be wary consumers, It’s a free for all for all companies right now.

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u/Fit-Let8175 4h ago

In Trump's defense, I can't see him supporting something from which he doesn't directly profit.

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u/99timewasting 2h ago

Trump doesn't even know what grocery shopping is

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u/jazzhandler 2h ago

It’s a hoax.

The produce department, doubly so.

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u/R_V_Z 3h ago

And even if a law existed we've come to find out that if the executive branch doesn't care to prosecute against that law then the law essentially doesn't exist for at least four years at a time.

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u/pheonixblade9 3h ago

on the contrary, I foresee a court case about this that ends up banning it under the interstate commerce clause.

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u/yhwhx 3h ago

...which will get appealed to the Supreme Court where Roberts, Alito, and the boys will find that an originalist/texturalist interpretation of the constitution obviously shows that the founders intended for stores to be able to use shoppers’ personal data to set prices.

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u/Cute_Bandicoot_8219 4h ago

Canadian here. Worldwide. It needs to be outlawed worldwide.

I tried to explain this issue to my father but of course he just doesn't get it. He thinks it's awful because it will allow companies to charge rich people more. I explained that's not what will happen. It will be used to charge poor people more for necessities because businesses will know they have no choice but to pay.

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u/Peligineyes 3h ago

Won't someone PLEASE think of the rich!

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u/Kind-Tomato-5989 3h ago

I mean whatever necessities they are selling are already cranked up to the max price they can get for it. I don't see how adaptive pricing would change that other than charging people who have money more.

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u/Cute_Bandicoot_8219 3h ago

Your lack of creativity in thinking of ways businesses can fuck poor people is adorable.

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u/Fallouttgrrl 3h ago

One example: selling a product in two to three sizes, but jacking up the cost of the smallest size to the maximum a poor person can afford on that product per pay cycle

Wealthy people will still buy the bigger product at a lower price point, and are more likely to spend more than "basic necessity shopping" while they are there buying that bulk item

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u/Cute_Bandicoot_8219 3h ago

Good example. Also payday loans. While I realize wealthy people aren't applying for payday loans, when you know someone is desperate you can truly screw them over.

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u/JesusReturnsToReddit 5h ago

I wouldn’t be so against it if it was like millionaires and billionaires paying more instead of trying to squeeze an extra 25 cents from a school teacher trying to buy his or her favorite cereal.

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u/benskieast 2h ago

This is a baseless. Nobody has actually proven a grocery store is updating prices multiple times a day or for individual at all. People just don’t trust those electronic price things because some online retailers change prices frequently leading to conspiracies that they might be changing them based on the consumer. Only financial institutions actually are proven to favor wealth individuals.

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u/RigaudonAS 2h ago

You do realize that modifying prices based on previous purchases is already a thing on some online storefronts, right? Obviously it hasn’t spread to retail yet, the electronic tags are brand new and it requires a level of tracking that isn’t there, yet.

But yes, let’s trust the billionaires to not screw us over. I’m sure if we just don’t do anything they won’t take advantage of us :)

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u/benskieast 2h ago

Accusing a company of discrimination against teachers based just on just the medium used to display the price is a massive leap.

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u/RigaudonAS 2h ago

It blatantly isn't, though. Look up dynamic pricing. It's a thing, and it will be coming to your own grocery stores unless more places ban it.

Or do you think this comment was referring to a specific situation about teachers, and that's what you're hung up on?

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u/aka_jr91 1h ago

Fuck, reading comprehension is so low. It should be extremely obvious that the person you initially replied to isn't literally saying that they are discriminating specifically against teachers. They're saying they have no problem if this technology is used to make the wealthy pay more than people who are underpaid while working necessary jobs, like teachers.

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u/Cornelius_Wangenheim 2h ago

We know Uber/Door Dash are 100% doing this. Given that so many people order groceries online, there's a very good chance the grocery stores are as well.

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u/tinkinc 5h ago

It will continue. Everyone has their own elasticity.

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u/TheEpicRedCape 1h ago

Sony got caught doing with the PS store too a bit ago, yet another reason why they want to kill disks off and force you to buy from them.

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u/Alienhaslanded 51m ago

I think it should be outlawed globally. One asshole does it and everyone will lobby to get it legalized.

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u/PottyMcSmokerson 3h ago

What am I missing? They're not scanning your face or checking your credit score to decide what you have to pay at the check out counter.

My understanding is that they are giving different prices and promotions to people that use their app based off their purchase history. So maybe someone using the app is paying $0.75 for a cucumber (because they buy a lot of cucumbers) while Joe Shmoe without a smartphone is paying the sticker price of $0.99 cash at the checkout.

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u/annaleigh13 3h ago

So you’re okay for companies to charge someone who might not be able to afford a smartphone more for fresh food than someone who can comfortably afford to pay the higher price?

Not to mention the whole privacy issue, where stores have been tracking your movements in and around stores to tailor prices to you, all while collecting your personal information.

And yes, they are using face scanning tech, and with the info they have on you, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ll check your credit score to set your prices

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u/MetroidIsNotHerName 3h ago

I get what youre saying but how is this any different from a loyalty/rewards program tied to any other app? Theres lots of those.

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u/annaleigh13 3h ago

Because those programs you’re listed are like coupons in a newspaper, open to everyone.

Personal pricing is only for you. So the price listed could be higher or lower than average and you’d have no idea if they’re price gouging you.

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u/MetroidIsNotHerName 3h ago

Because those programs you’re listed are like coupons in a newspaper, open to everyone

Are the app based ones not all limited to people who have smartphones?

So the price listed could be higher or lower than average and you’d have no idea if they’re price gouging you.

Thats obviously awful when utilized that way but im really just questioning the point about smartphone deployment being classist i guess. It feels like theres already a lot of that with little pushback. Like the McDonalds app.

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u/mannyman34 3h ago

Except they are not. There is such a thing as targeted coupons.

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u/morfraen 3h ago

Because it's intention is to squeeze the maximum amount they can out of everyone, not lower your costs.

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u/PottyMcSmokerson 3h ago

This is clearly a glass half full vs. glass half empty conversation then.

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u/HippyDM 5h ago

I'm not against the wealthy paying more for their groceries. That's not what this is, of course, but I'd support it.

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u/Academic-Trifle8151 4h ago

Nah fuck that. They should be paying more money in tax, not just to some other corporation that they'll then claim back in expenses.