Pricing

The paper price tag is disappearing from grocery store shelves. In its place, small digital screens called electronic shelf labels let a store change any price in seconds from a central computer, no employee walking the aisles with a pricing gun. Kroger says the switch saves labor and improves accuracy. Nearly one in four Kroger stores now runs on the technology, and Walmart plans to have it in every U.S. store by the end of 2026. The efficiency argument is real. The question worth asking is what else that same infrastructure makes possible. ...

Kalibrate and the Quiet End of Gas Station Price Competition For decades, gas stations competed the same simple way: undercut the guy across the street. Drive by two stations a block apart and you’d often see genuinely different prices, because each owner was racing to win your business. That race is disappearing, and a lawsuit filed in June 2026 argues software is the reason why. What the lawsuit alleges A proposed class action filed in federal court in Sacramento accuses Kalibrate, a fuel-pricing software company headquartered in Manchester, England, of running what plaintiffs call a system that coordinates pump prices across competing gas stations instead of letting them compete independently. The suit names major retailers alongside Kalibrate itself, including Marathon Petroleum, BP, Circle K, 7-Eleven, Walmart, and Albertsons, collectively operating more than 1,700 gas stations across California. ...