alt Hacker NewsStores are now putting QR codes for pricing, not listing the prices out on stickers/paper. You check on your phone, and often times walk through "scan and go" making direct payment on your phone.
This is often done in stores where they say that prices can change daily, and that these tools help them keep prices up to date. The darker pattern is what this law prevents, and that even with this sort of labeling, they can't charge you different from what they charge me in the same store.
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I think this would be illegal in many places. A number of states require prices to be visibly posted, and some also require unit price to be shown.
Interested know which stores are doing this QR code for pricing thing (and what area of the country).
So we’re now going to spend several hours at the grocery store, scanning every item and waiting for some app to come back with a custom price?
I've looked online and can't find any real examples of QR code-only stores.
It seems like QR codes are growing in popularity as a way to look up more product details, user reviews, etc. -- especially at electronics stores.
But the idea of prices being hidden entirely doesn't seem to exist anywhere in normal consumer stores. There seem to have been some store experiments and retail "concepts" (prototypes not rolled out), but it seems like the consumer backlash is extremely strong so these experiments have stopped. Consumers want to be able to browse prices, that's pretty fundamental.