Dear John,

With your help, we reached more than a half a million people with our explainer video and generated more than 70,000 letters to the Federal Trade Commission urging them to sue to stop the Kroger-Albertsons supermarket mega-merger.

That pressure worked. This week, the FTC’s trial started and it’s already making news:

Now, just as the merger trial is starting, Kroger is involved in a new controversy: The FTC is seeking information on Kroger’s use of facial recognition technology and AI algorithms to profile its customers in real time, in its practice of “surveillance pricing.”

Surveillance pricing refers to charging different people different prices based on personal characteristics, such as the shopper’s age, gender, home address, and buying habits. Stores can even use data on socioeconomic status, credit history, and personal income to set a unique price for each individual.

Until lately, this information has been collected mainly from online browsing and phone apps, to determine how likely a shopper is to buy a certain product.

Now, however, Kroger has allied with Microsoft to develop facial recognition technology enabling identification of individuals and the quick modification of prices in the store through its electronic shelf labels or ESLs. While ESLs were initially promoted as a consumer-friendly technology offering video ads and personalized shopping assistance, now they will also be used to price gouge unsuspecting customers through this new program of surveillance pricing.

We must send letters to Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen to stop this terrible new practice in its tracks! Demand that Kroger stop using facial recognition and surveillance pricing now.

Now, when we see surveillance cameras as we walk into a grocery store, they will be there not only to catch shoplifters. They may also be automatically identifying who we are, and figuring out the maximum prices they can charge us for the items we need!

It is already unacceptable that Kroger continues to price gouge while families struggle to afford basic necessities such as food, but this approach takes that corporate greed even further. This plan to implement surge pricing is designed specifically to determine the extent of price increases that each individual consumer is willing to tolerate.

Kroger’s CEO needs to hear from us. Tell Kroger to stop this insidious practice of identifying their own customers with facial recognition technology to engage in surveillance pricing now!

Thank you for letting Kroger know, we are watching them as they are watching us!

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action