Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is accusing Instacart of ripping off consumers by charging different prices for the same product to different customers. “This is jacking up grocery costs across New York City, Long Island, and across the nation,” Schumer said Sunday. He claims the pricing tactics could cost certain families as much as $1,200 more per year. Schumer cited an investigation by Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative, which found that some grocery prices differed by as much as 23% per item from one Instacart customer to the next. The magazine says Instacart’s algorithmic pricing experiments were found to be happening through the platform at several of the nation’s biggest grocery retailers, including Albertsons, Costco, Kroger, Safeway, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Target. “Artificial intelligence will decide that shopper #1 pays $10 for those items, and shopper #2 pays $15 for the same exact item,” Schumer explained to reporters.  “They’re the exact same item at different prices for different consumers all decided by a robot.  And the robot looks into, who can afford to pay more?  Who can I rip off?  Who’s less knowledgeable about prices?  It’s gross,” Schumer said. According to Consumer Reports, “Instacart has disclosed its pricing experiments in corporate marketing and investor materials, noting that ‘shoppers are not aware that they’re in an experiment.’ But the company described the resulting price differences as small and ‘negligible.'” Schumer is calling for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate. In response to the magazine’s investigation, it says Instacart responded in part by saying it has now stopped its price experiments at two retailers where evidence of such experimentation was found, Costco and Target.  Instacart also maintains that customers it conducts pricing experiments on do not, on average, end up paying more as a result. “Some consumers may see slightly higher prices for certain items and lower prices for others; however, most customers see the standard price,” Instacart told Consumer Reports. ...read more read less