Derek Kravitz

And generally speaking, when we look at the marketing materials and things that are out there by Instacart for their grocery clients, it's all in an attempt to maximize profits and to, again, get a little bit more sales revenue or a little bit more profit margin.

And really that means you're either buying more or you're paying more per item, right?

And usually a combination of both.

Other retailers are doing it, yeah.

And the more technologically savvy they are, the more likely they are to be using this at a scale that really affects more Americans.

When we looked at a grocery retailer called Kroger, which is actually the second or third largest retailer by most metrics, they own a bunch of different banners, King Soopers and Fred Meyer and QFC and all these grocery chains around the country.

We found that they actually use a lot of personal and demographic data on their customers, and they drive a lot of people through their free loyalty program.

And then with that data, they tailor promotions and discounts to particular people.

And they use that personal data, those demographics, to dictate who gets what promotion or discount.

So we find that, again, a lot of retailers are using this debt and using it effectively.

And really, it bears out in their earnings and in their quarterly reports if they're publicly traded or even if they're privately held.

We see a lot of increase in meaningful profits and revenue for some of these companies.

It's a very good question.

It's really a gray area.

I think everyone we spoke to about this acknowledged that, look, there's no specific federal surveillance pricing bill.

And when I say surveillance pricing, I'm talking about the idea of using your shopping history or your buyer behavior or demographics even.

to inform the prices you see, whether that's a set final price or a discount or a promotion.

There's no federal surveillance pricing bill.

Some states now have laws in the books.

New York is one of them.