The next time you add something to your online cart, open a grocery store app or scan a loyalty card at the checkout, you may be doing more than buying pasta — you may be handing over precisely the kind of personal information retailers are using to charge you more than the person standing in the next aisle. A sweeping new law in Maryland is drawing a line in the sand, but the practice has already spread further than most shoppers realize, and understanding what is happening to your data at the grocery store has never been more important.
What surveillance pricing actually is
Most shoppers are familiar with dynamic pricing — the idea that prices shift based on supply and demand, much like airline tickets or hotel rooms. Surveillance pricing takes that concept further in ways that are considerably more unsettling. Rather than adjusting prices based on market conditions alone, retailers use individual consumer data — including browsing history, past purchases, location, income indicators, dietary habits and how long a shopper lingers over certain items — to offer personalized pricing that extracts the maximum amount a specific person is likely to pay. The result is that 2 people standing in the same aisle at the same moment can effectively be charged different amounts for an identical item, with neither aware of it.
Maryland leads the fight back
In response to the growing use of this technology, Maryland is poised to become the first state in the country to ban surveillance pricing in the grocery sector. The Protection From Predatory Pricing Act, which passed the state legislature in April 2026, prohibits supermarkets from using consumer surveillance data — shopping habits, location, demographic details, religion and ethnicity among them — to set individual prices or target shoppers with personalized offers designed to exploit their specific vulnerabilities. Violations would be treated as unfair or deceptive trade practices under Maryland’s Consumer Protection Act, with civil fines starting at $10,000. The Federal Trade Commission launched its own investigation into the practice in 2024 and has consistently characterized it as invasive, exploitative and anti-competitive.
Walmart and the digital shelf label rollout
The infrastructure enabling this shift is already being built at a remarkable scale. Walmart revealed in 2024 that it would be installing electronic shelf labels — digital price displays that can be updated instantly at the press of a button — across 2,300 of its stores by 2026. This past March, that plan was expanded into a full nationwide rollout across all 4,611 of its U.S. locations, with completion targeted by the end of the year. The company has promoted the move as a customer service improvement and a labor-saving measure, freeing employees from manually updating physical price tags. Critics argue the technology simply makes real-time price manipulation far easier to execute at scale.
Amazon and the collusion question
The issue of retail pricing has also come to a head in a major antitrust action in California, where Attorney General Rob Bonta has accused Amazon of working with retailers and brands — including Levi Strauss — to influence pricing at Walmart, Home Depot and other major sellers in ways that allegedly prevented price competition and kept costs artificially elevated for consumers. Amazon has disputed the claims and maintains its agreements are legal. A trial is scheduled for January 2027.
Self-checkout and the consumer response
The pricing environment has had measurable consequences on how some shoppers behave. New research from LendingTree found that 27% of self-checkout users admit to deliberately taking an item without scanning it — a figure that has risen 12 percentage points since 2023. Among those who have stolen intentionally, 47% cited the unaffordability of essentials, and 46% specifically pointed to price increases tied to tariffs. While theft is never the answer, the data suggests a direct link between consumer frustration over pricing and behavior at the register.
How to protect yourself right now
Short of waiting for legislation to catch up with the technology, there are practical steps shoppers can take. Being deliberate about which apps you download and what data you consent to share is a starting point. Experts recommend clearing browser cookies frequently when shopping online, using incognito or private browsing mode to obscure your digital footprint, and considering a virtual private network to hide your location and search history. Comparing prices across multiple devices and platforms can also reveal discrepancies caused by personalized pricing algorithms. Loyalty programs, while genuinely useful in some cases, often come with hidden costs in the form of spending thresholds designed to push purchases beyond what shoppers actually need.
Source: Moneywise, Grocery Dive, TheStreet, GOBankingRates, Consumer Reports, Federal Trade Commission