紐時賞析／在Instacart買雜貨 同品不同價

Same Product, Same Store, but on Instacart, Prices Might Differ

在Instacart買雜貨 同品不同價

On a Thursday in early September, more than 40 strangers logged in to Instacart, the grocery-shopping app, to buy eggs and test a hypothesis.

9月稍早的某個周四，互不相識的40多人登入美國生鮮雜貨即時配送平台Instacart，購買雞蛋並驗證一個假設。

Connected by videoconference, they simultaneously selected the same store — a Safeway in Washington, D.C. — and the same brand of eggs. They all chose pickup rather than delivery.

這些人透過視訊連線，同步選擇位於華府的喜互惠以及同一品牌的雞蛋，都選擇店取而非宅配。

The only difference was the price they were offered: $3.99 for a couple of lucky shoppers. $4.59 or $4.69 for others. And a few saw a price of $4.79 — 20% more than some others, for the exact same product.

唯一的不同是顯示在他們眼前的價格：有些幸運的購物者看見3.99美元。其他人看到4.59或4.69美元，少數人看到4.79美元，比一些人貴了20%，但明明是同一款商品。

The shoppers were volunteers, participating in a study published Tuesday and organized by the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive policy group, and Consumer Reports, a nonprofit consumer publication. In tests in four cities across the country, nearly 200 volunteers checked prices on 20 grocery items on Instacart.

這些購物者都是志願者，參與的是星期二公布的一項研究，由進步派政策團體 Groundwork Collaborative 與非營利媒體《消費者報導》共同進行。在全美四個城市進行的試驗中，近200名志願者在Instacart檢視了20種雜貨商品。

On item after item, they found significant differences. In a Target in North Canton, Ohio, some shoppers were charged $3.59 for a jar of Skippy peanut butter that others could get for $2.99. At a Safeway in Seattle, some people paid $3.99 for a box of Wheat Thins while others paid $4.89.

在一項又一項的商品上，他們發現價格有顯著差異。在俄亥俄州北坎頓目標百貨，有些購物者買一罐吉比花生醬被收費3.59美元，但其他人能以2.99美元的價格買到。而在西雅圖的喜互惠，有些人買一盒小麥薄片餅乾花了3.99美元，有些人花了4.89美元。

An Instacart spokesperson said that stores on its platform set their own prices and that some of them engaged in pricing tests to “learn what matters most to consumers and how to keep essential items affordable.”

Instacart一名發言人表示，其平台上的商店各自訂定價格，其中有些商店會進行價格測試，「以了解消費者最重視的東西，及如何保持必需品價格實惠」。

A Target spokesperson said the company “is not affiliated with Instacart and is not responsible for prices on the Instacart platform.” Instacart said that during the period covered by the Groundwork study, it was “evaluating different approaches” to covering its costs but has since ended pricing tests on Target orders.

目標百貨一名發言人表示，本公司「與Instacart沒有從屬關係，且不對Instacart平台上的價格負責」。Instacart表示，Groundwork的研究涵蓋的期間，平台正在「評估不同的成本回收方式」，但此後已停止針對目標百貨訂單的價格測試。

Safeway and its parent company, Albertson’s, declined to comment.

喜互惠和其母公司艾伯森拒絕評論。

Groundwork’s findings are the latest example of how the notion of a single price, offered to all customers for a predictable period, is breaking down in the digital age. Companies are using sophisticated algorithms to adjust prices quickly in response to competitors’ offers and consumer behavior. “Dynamic pricing” strategies, in which companies raise prices during periods of intense demand, have spread beyond sectors where they have become familiar, such as air travel and ride-hailing services, to other parts of the economy.

Groundwork 的研究顯示，在數位時代，「商品在一定期間內對所有顧客提供單一價格」的概念正逐漸瓦解。企業正使用更精密的演算法，依競爭者價格與消費者行為迅速調整售價。「動態定價」策略，例如在需求高峰時調高價格，已從航空、叫車等熟悉的產業擴散至經濟其他領域。

文／Ben Casselman，譯／羅方妤