Stores already uniquely identify customers with membership cards/accounts. They're also doing their damndest to link those more closely - see how Kroger is shifting from the Kroger card to digital coupons that require you to sign into an account.

They could simply offer the worst prices if you don't use your card (Kroger basically already does this), so you're effectively required to identify yourself.

> how would the register ring up the correct adjusted prices

Facial ID, "loyalty" cards, and device fingerprinting. Reading an NFC doesn't expose anything, but placing your phone next to a bluetooth beacon could, NFC+store app could, and so would your face.

the ufcw is pushing this narrative because they're continually afraid that they "threaten the jobs of grocery workers".

i guess the ufcw is stuck in an attitude that you can't train someone who was told "stick this piece of paper here on this shelf" to "stick this tag on this location on the shelf and scan a barcode".

gotta keep some stupidly low level clerk work available out there apparently.

I also think that was a little too far fetched for the real world currently, but .. I'm not 100% certain. I have no doubt at all that there are sociopathic CEOs out there who would think this is an entirely reasonable proposition in order to increase profits.

But I also think that technically if they are tracking you in the store and adjusting the labels when you near products, it would not be difficult to show you that price that at the till, where they are still tracking you.

The real problem would be ensuring that the other customers were shown appropriate prices. Perhaps that would not be a problem I don't know. If three people are near a product, then just show the max price you think one of them is willing to pay, the others can suck it up? Perhaps the others weren't going to buy that in any case? You know one of them wants to buy that particular item, they always do. And, many people don't really look at the price labels in any case. If the store tags a person who will reject items as being too expensive at the till, then just charge them less than the price that was shown which they didn't look at when they picked it up. Once you move into the "profit above all" mindset of tracking customers and cynically adjusting the prices, it doesn't seem to me that anything would be out of bounds.

Also, I have been reading comments online for >10yrs from people claiming to work in the field, who have been saying that this stuff is already happening. Remember this? https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-targ...