Summary
Overview
Lindsay Owens reveals how modern pricing technology has transformed shopping from a transparent marketplace into a surveillance economy. Companies now use sophisticated algorithms and personal data to charge different customers different prices for identical products, while repair restrictions and dynamic pricing extract maximum profits at every turn. Through examples from Instacart experiments to real estate cartels, she exposes how the basic concept of a fair, knowable price is disappearing—and what we can do about it.
The FBI Raids: When Landlords Use Algorithms to Fix Rent Prices
The FBI raided Cortland Management, a major Atlanta apartment developer, investigating whether RealPage—a Texas real estate tech company—was facilitating price-fixing among landlords. Unlike traditional cartels where CEOs meet in smoke-filled rooms, this modern version used software to coordinate rent hikes across thousands of properties. The algorithm was designed to keep prices artificially high, even recommending landlords leave units empty rather than lower rents, fundamentally breaking how supply and demand should work in a healthy market.
- FBI conducted dawn raid on Cortland Management investigating RealPage's potential role in landlord price-fixing
- RealPage's algorithm had a hard floor for prices but soft ceiling, designed to prevent price drops at all costs
- Software recommended leaving units empty rather than lowering prices to avoid 'cascading' price reductions
- RealPage had pricing advisors who called landlords to ensure they followed recommendations and shared competitively sensitive information
" If you and I were landlords and you called me and said, what if we decided to do some price fixing? I'd be like, Jordan, like, no, that's not okay. But if you called me and said, I just downloaded this new app. It's called RealPage. And it's really interesting. It's giving me a lot of information about our city. It's giving me a lot of information about our buildings. I think you could learn a lot from it. Yeah. It just so happens to also spit out prices. "
" The statute around price fixing and collusion is sort of technology agnostic, right? If you're coordinating in a back room using an abacus, that's price fixing. If you're coordinating on your couch in your jammies with an app that has an algorithm, that can be price fixing too. "
The Instacart Experiment: Same Store, Same Time, Different Prices
Lindsay's organization recruited over 400 people to simultaneously shop for identical items on Instacart at the same locations. The results were stunning: 75% of items varied in price between shoppers, with differences as high as 23% for the same products. The average 7% price variation translates to $1,200 per year for a family of four—essentially a month's rent for many households. After public backlash and government pressure, Instacart claimed these were just 'routine pricing tests' before eventually shutting down the program.
- Study had 400+ people shop same 23 items at same Instacart locations simultaneously
- 75% of items in shopping carts showed price variation between different shoppers
- Price differences reached as high as 23% for identical items like eggs
- Average 7% variation equals approximately $1,200 annually for household of four
- Instacart used Eversight AI platform for experiments, which they acquired in 2021
" If you and I were standing in line at the grocery store and we had the same basket of goods, it would ring up the same. And if it didn't, we would be pulling out our receipts asking what is going on here. "
" You don't go to the grocery store one time. You don't buy one grocery. You buy a whole basket. You go every week, maybe twice a week for the rest of your freaking life. So like this can really add up. "
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