The legislative session in Albany has put several issues relevant to the retail food industry to the forefront. Among them, a restriction on digital shelf labels (DSLs).
Advocates pushing for New York to enact this legislation have been pushing a false narrative, one that implies DSLs enable “surveillance pricing” or rapid price changes that occur in real-time, throughout each day. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Digital shelf labels are simply electronic versions of the paper price tags displayed beneath products on store shelves. Instead of requiring employees to print, sort and replace thousands of paper tags by hand, stores can update those labels electronically to ensure the price shown on the shelf matches the price charged at checkout. This is a benefit to shoppers as it eliminates pricing discrepancies between shelf tags and at checkout. This is simply a tool that maximizes efficiency and accuracy by modernizing an outdated system.
In addition to being positive for retail food stores and their shoppers, this is also a benefit for retail food workers. In many grocery stores, employees spend significant time every week replacing paper tags aisle by aisle, time that could otherwise be spent stocking shelves, helping customers, or keeping products available. Digital labels reduce that repetitive manual work and allow staff to focus on more valuable tasks.
Rather than focus on the net positives of DSLs, lawmakers have been fooled to believe that the broader utilization of this technology leads to widespread “surge pricing” or price gouging. Both are widely unsupported by research and ignores the fact that numerous other industries have used DSLs for decades, including gas stations and drive-through restaurants.
FIA is not suggesting that lawmakers shouldn’t ask industry about how pricing evolves, but we are stating that they should not rush to pass legislation absent facts and clarity. This is what those pushing this legislation are aiming to do. Legislation based on hypothetical concerns rather than real-world evidence risks creating unintended consequences. Restricting digital shelf labels would not lower grocery prices or address the underlying drivers of inflation. It would simply force retailers and workers to rely on slower, more costly, and less accurate paper-based systems.
At a time when New Yorkers are already feeling the pressure of rising costs, the focus should be on solutions that improve efficiency, accuracy and transparency – not on banning tools that help stores display prices more reliably.
New York’s legislative session is slated to conclude on June 4. It is our hope that lawmakers will avoid enacting this legislation which will only harm the industry, consumers and the tremendous employees which work each and every day to effectively serve their communities.
