To determine if Instacart is experimenting with pricing, and if so, just how costly it is for shoppers, Groundwork Collaborative, Consumer Reports, and More Perfect Union conducted an independent experiment involving 437 shoppers in live tests across four cities.

Key report findings included:

• Almost three-quarters of grocery items that the report’s authors tested on Instacart showed different prices to different shoppers. Some items had up to five price points simultaneously. For instance, people shopping at a Safeway in Washington, D.C., saw a dozen Lucerne eggs listed at five prices: $3.99, $4.28, $4.59,

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States including New York, Colorado, California, Georgia, Illinois and Pennsylvania have introduced or advanced legislation to curb individualized or algorithm-driven price manipulation, according to the consumer groups. Additionally, Texas Democrat Rep. Greg Casar’s "Stop AI Price Gouging and Wage Fixing Act" would ban the use of personal data to... See more