Walmart is doubling down on its pledge not to use AI, customer data or digital shelf labels to set personalized prices for its shoppers.
In a public letter Monday, Dan Bartlett, Walmart’s executive vice president of corporate affairs, challenged what he described as repeated “mischaracterizations” by Lindsay Owens, author of the recently released book “Gouged,” about Walmart’s pricing practices and use of technology.
“The facts are straightforward. We price products, not people,” Bartlett wrote.
“Walmart does not and will not use an individual customer’s personal information, income, shopping history, urgency or willingness to pay to set an individualized price. We do not engage in dynamic pricing, raising prices in response to a hot afternoon or an approaching snowstorm, for example.”
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Bartlett defended the retailer’s use of digital shelf labels, saying the technology does not identify customers or independently set prices.
“Digital shelf labels replace paper tags and allow approved price changes to be displayed more efficiently and consistently,” Bartlett wrote. “They do not identify customers, nor do they independently set prices.”
He said the ability to update prices more quickly is not evidence that Walmart uses, or plans to use, the technology for dynamic pricing.
Bartlett also argued that its patents are not evidence that it plans to pursue personalized pricing.
“Another example is your reliance on Walmart patents as evidence that we will pursue individualized or dynamic pricing. Again, we do not and have committed not to,” Bartlett added.
Bartlett additionally rejected claims involving Sparky, Walmart’s AI-powered shopping assistant.
“Your comments about Sparky also draw unfounded conclusions,” Bartlett wrote. “We do not use AI to upcharge our customers.”
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He said that Owens has pointed to higher average order values among Sparky users as evidence that the technology could be encouraging shoppers to spend more or “bidding up their cart total.”
“Higher average order values do not, on their own, establish that Sparky caused customers to spend more on individual items,” Bartlett said. “They certainly do not establish that customers were charged higher prices for the same items. Sparky helps customers find, compare and discover products.”
He added that information customers share with Sparky is not used to change the prices they pay.
Owens on Monday pushed back against Walmart’s letter, saying the “confusion around Walmart’s pricing practices is of its own making.”
“Walmart says one thing in its damage-control letters to customers, another to its investors behind closed doors, and a different thing entirely to the United States Patent and Trademark Office,” Owens said in a statement shared with FOX Business.
Owens, who serves as President and CEO of Groundwork Collaborative, said her organization is releasing a new analysis of Walmart patents.
“The arsenal of technologies the company is building that can be used to profile and track us should worry every American who is concerned about their privacy and pocketbooks,” she said. “This personal data, according to Walmart’s own patents, is a critical element of the new pricing strategies the company is developing. Today, I am releasing a new analysis of Walmart patents so Americans can decide for themselves.”
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She also raised “serious concerns” about Sparky and “the safeguards governing the information it can access,” calling on the retailer to answer questions about what data Sparky can see, how that information influences recommendations and purchases, and whether sensitive consumer information could be “exposed” or “misused.”
Owens’ book, published Sept. 29, examines corporate pricing practices and argues that some “deceptive tactics” are used to “cheat consumers out of their money,” according to a description of the book.
In recent posts on X, Owens alleged Walmart has touted Sparky’s ability to increase spending and has developed patented technology that could “vary prices based on consumers’ behavior and demand.”
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Bartlett’s letter also comes shortly after Walmart separately reassured customers that it would not use personal data or AI to personalize prices.
In a letter published Sept. 25, Walmart President and CEO John Furner reaffirmed the retailer’s long-standing “Every Day Low Prices” strategy, saying the company prices “the product, not the person.”
