Marketplace All-in-One
How "surveillance pricing" charges one online customer more than another for the same item
20 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is surveillance pricing and how does it differ from dynamic pricing?
Online retailers are changing their prices based on who's shopping. From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Megan McCarty Carino. Maybe you've heard of dynamic pricing, where companies change prices in real time based on fluctuations in demand. Well, some retailers are now using the vast troves of personal data they collect on customers to go a step further.
It's called surveillance pricing, different prices for different customers.
Chapter 2: How have retailers historically collected consumer data?
Marketplace's Kristen Schwab has more.
Technology means companies know more about shoppers than ever. But in reality, retailers have always been quietly collecting data on us. It's a practice as old as commerce itself. Joseph Turow is author of The Voice Catchers, how marketers listen in to exploit your emotions, your privacy, and your wallet.
People think that personalization is a 21st century phenomenon due to the internet.
Chapter 3: What are the implications of personalized pricing for consumers?
It goes back to peddlers and before.
Business owners would keep notebooks on what kind of clothes you wore or who your friends and family were. The difference is, back then, a shopkeeper had to guess if a woman's baby bump was indeed a baby bump. Now a retailer knows the instant she adds prenatal vitamins to her cart.
It's legal to do it. And some economists would say that price differentiation is just part of the way that economics works. But to me, that's problematic.
He says a lot of consumers have no idea surveillance pricing is happening.
Chapter 4: How can consumers navigate surveillance pricing to find better deals?
How common this kind of practice is, no one really knows. But retailers are watching us closely, often for surveillance discounting. Here's a coupon for being a member or 10% off that immersion blender sitting in your cart. It's why, as a consumer, it's more difficult than ever to figure out if you're getting the best price. Garrett Johnson is a marketing professor at Boston University.
Price discrimination sounds really scary, but effectively it means that it's good for some consumers and not so good for others.
He says if you want to compare prices, you kind of need to hide.
So you can open the website in incognito mode, using your mobile phone, maybe even turn off your Wi-Fi.
But are we really going to do this dance every time we buy something as mundane as toothpaste? We'll be right back.
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Chapter 5: What real-life example illustrates the impact of surveillance pricing?
You're listening to Marketplace Tech. I'm Megan McCarty Carino. We're back with Marketplace's Kristen Schwab.
I decide to shop for toothpaste on Walmart.com on two different browsers. On one, I'm signed into my account, which has my information. On the other, I'm anonymous, but add my shipping address for exact location comparison. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Most of it looks the same. Oh, here's one. Same Colgate toothpaste, same cool mint flavor, same 6.3 ounce size, different prices.
On the page where I am not signed into my account, it is $3.74. And on the page where I am signed into my account, it is $3.96. Walmart told me because prices can vary by market, customers may occasionally see slight differences as price matches and changes are executed in real time. All this to say, personalized pricing or not, there's some kind of algorithmic something happening here.
Turns out companies know a lot about us, but we don't know so much about them or how they decide what we pay.
Chapter 6: What do experts say about the future of pricing strategies in retail?
That was Marketplace's Kristen Schwab. I'm Megan McCarty Carino, and that's Marketplace Tech.
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