FALMOUTH, MA - APRIL 8: Instacart shopper Loralyn Geggatt makes a delivery to a customer's home during the COVID-19 pandemic in Falmouth, MA on April 7, 2020. Some Amazon, Instacart and other workers protested for better wages, hazard pay and sick time. (Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Grocery delivery app Instacart uses artificial intelligence pricing tools that have caused many U.S. shoppers to pay higher or lower prices for identical products from the same store, according to a new study.
The study, released Tuesday by Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive advocacy group, Consumer Reports and news organization More Perfect Union, enlisted 437 shoppers across four cities to add the same items to their carts within the Instacart app from the same store.
The researchers ran the experiment at a number of popular grocery retailers that partner with Instacart, including Target , Costco , Albertsons , Kroger and Safeway.
Almost 75% of the items tested were offered at different prices to shoppers, the organizations found. In one case, users observed that a carton of a dozen Lucerne eggs was listed at five different price points at a Safeway in Washington, D.C.
The total cost for the same basket of goods at a single store varied by about 7%, which could amount to a "cost swing of about $1,200 per year," Groundwork said.