Walmart CEO John Furner says the retailer is not using customer information such as income or shopping history to determine prices as it rolls out digital price tags across its U.S. stores.
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Walmart says it is not using personal information to determine store prices as it expands its use of digital shelf labels in the United States. In a statement posted on the company’s website, CEO John Furner pledged that Walmart does not set different prices based on who a customer is or factors such as the time of day, writing that the retailer “don’t set different prices based on who you are or the time of day, and we won’t.”
Furner’s assurance directly addresses growing concerns among some shoppers, consumer advocates and lawmakers about how retailers might use the new technology to personalize pricing. Digital shelf labels replace paper price tags with electronic displays that allow stores to change prices instantly from a central computer system, rather than relying on workers to swap out labels by hand.
Walmart said the company is also applying the same pricing promise to its artificial intelligence shopping assistant, Sparky. Furner said Walmart will not use the bot to raise a customer’s price or to obscure lower-priced options that could match a shopper’s needs, characterizing those practices as inconsistent with the retailer’s “every day low prices” model.
At the same time, Furner emphasized that prices can still move for ordinary business reasons. He said Walmart lowers prices when it can pass savings along, but may also raise prices when items cost more to buy or to transport, underscoring that dynamic pricing does not necessarily mean personalized charges.
The company’s statement comes as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has warned that personalized pricing could run into consumer-protection rules. The FTC said it is putting companies on notice that practices involving personalizing pricing may violate consumer protection laws, adding that it does not have the authority to ban personalized pricing in all cases but issued guidance warning businesses about disclosures tied to how personal information is used to set prices.
According to Walmart, its digital shelf-label rollout is already underway. The retailer said in March that 2,300 Walmart U.S. locations use digital shelves, and it expects the technology to become chain-wide within the next year.
Walmart has previously said electronic shelf price tags help it change prices consistently and align with what customers see and what rings up at the cash register. The company also argues that the switch from paper tags can save labour time by reducing the need for manual label replacement.
For consumers, the issue at the centre of Walmart’s response is the distinction between centrally updating prices for operational reasons and tailoring prices to an individual’s data. Walmart’s pledge attempts to draw a line between automated price changes enabled by digital labels and any pricing approach that would rely on personal details such as income, shopping history or a shopper’s willingness to pay.
For regulators and retailers alike, the FTC warning highlights that how price-setting systems operate—and whether they use personal data—can have legal and compliance implications. The agency’s bulletin also underscored that customers may need clear disclosure about how personal information is being used when companies set a price.
As digital price labels become more common across U.S. supermarkets and big-box stores, Walmart’s statement signals an effort to pre-empt reputational and regulatory risks tied to personalized pricing. Even with Walmart insisting it will not personalize, the technology’s ability to change prices quickly keeps the debate focused on what information systems may be collecting and how that data could be used in pricing decisions.
Ultimately, the next stage of Walmart’s rollout—moving from thousands of stores to a chain-wide deployment within about a year—will put its assurances to a practical test. For customers, the key question will be whether pricing changes remain explainable through standard operational factors, rather than through data-driven personalization that the company says it is not employing.
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