Yesterday, MNB took note of a Boston Globe story reporting on continuing efforts by youth organizers to address what they say is inequitable pricing – they found that a shopping cart of items at their neighborhood Stop & Shop in Jackson Square cost $34, about 21 percent more than a similar list at a Stop & Shop in suburban Dedham, essentially penalizing people in less affluent neighborhoods.
This week, the Hyde Square Task Force in Jamaica Plain called on Stop & Shop “to use its consumer data profits to eliminate the price inequities the group uncovered in a study last year.”
Today, the Globe offers Stop & Shop’s response to its story from earlier this week:
“In response, Stop & Shop said that the youth’s shopping list compared less than 1 percent of the 10,000 items sold at the stores in Jackson Square and Dedham, and that the overall price difference is less than the 21 percent the original study reported … The youth’s original study ‘avoided items on sale’ to focus on items listed at regular price. However, Stop & Shop said in its statement that almost all of its sale items are equally priced across the entire chain.
“‘Knowing this fact, the students still did not include sale items in their follow-up research provided to The Globe in December,’ the company wrote, referring to the youth’s subsequent shopping trips at the chain’s Grove Hall, Mission Hill, and South Bay locations … The company also said that the youth’s letter misrepresented an August meeting, at which Hyde Square Task Force youth organizers convened with company representatives to discuss their pricing strategy. In the letter, the youth said the grocery chain’s lawyer ‘forcefully ordered the conversation to stop immediately’ when probed about its consumer data policies.
“The lawyer only sought to stop that line of conversation because the company’s representatives couldn’t answer questions that were out of their purview, the grocery store said. ‘Our lawyer simply directed the conversation back to pricing because it was Stop & Shop’s pricing team in attendance, and they were not the right subject matter experts to adequately address other matters,’ the company said.
KC’s View:
As I said when the original task force study came out, this was an opportunity for Stop & Shop to create a teachable moment – it could’ve educated the young people, helped them understand the economics of the situation, given them an appreciation for how retailing works, and maybe even given them jobs in which they could develop their careers.
But that doesn’t seem to be the tone of the Stop & Shop response. (The company lawyers may not have been “forceful,” but it is pretty good bet that they were condescending. Kids know when they are being patronized, and they a sixth sense for detecting arrogance. They don’t like it.)
Maybe this is the moment for the task force to give Stop & Shop a lesson in economics.
As I said yesterday, the task force makes an interesting point about using revenue from consumer data sales to drive down prices in areas where costs might be higher. But I suspect they’ll be frustrated, though – that data is used to feather the corporate nest and improve the bottom line.
Stop & Shop maintains that it is possible for consumers to opt out of being tracked, so I have a suggestion for the task force. If you’re not satisfied with the company’s responses, start a grass roots campaign to get customers to opt out of being tracked. It’ll be hard, but you might get some traction if you try to put a dent in what Stop & Shop is able to sell. You’ll also get a lot of earned media coverage, because this is the kind of story that appeals to the media, precisely because it addresses the larger issue of how customers’ information is being sold and used.
The post Stop & Shop Responds To Youth Task Force Pricing Charges appeared first on MNB.
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