As grocery prices remain stubbornly high, and families struggle to afford everyday essentials, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer sounded the alarm on Instacart’s use of artificial intelligence to charge different customers different prices for the same exact grocery items. Schumer warned that AI-enabled pricing schemes allow large corporations to quietly raise prices behind the scenes, leaving some shoppers with significantly higher grocery bills than others for no legitimate reason. Schumer detailed how these deceptive pricing tactics could cost certain families as much as $1,200 more per year, with New Yorkers and Long Islanders especially vulnerable. Schumer said that consumers are being squeezed and that federal regulators must step in, calling the Federal Trade Commission “checked out” when it comes to protecting grocery shoppers. Schumer demanded new action from the FTC to crack down on AI-driven price gouging and ensure families are not being taken advantage of at the checkout line.
“When a shopper fills their grocery cart whether in real life or digitally, they should trust that they are being treated fairly and that prices are transparent. What we are seeing more and more of is that companies like Instacart are using artificial intelligence to rip off consumers by charging different shoppers different prices for the same exact items. This is jacking up grocery costs across New York City, Long Island, and across the nation. So, today, I am sounding the alarm on this predatory practice and demanding the federal government take new action to protect families from this shakedown pricing,” said U.S. Senator Charles Schumer.
According to Consumer Reports, many U.S. shoppers who order grocery deliveries through Instacart are unknowingly part of widespread AI-enabled experiments that price identical products differently for different customers—sometimes by as much as 23 percent. Based on how much Instacart reports the typical household of four spends on groceries, the observed average price variations could translate into a cost swing of about $1,200 per year. Instacart is the most dominant e-commerce grocery delivery platform in the U.S., with nearly 250 million orders fulfilled in the first three quarters of 2025. The company calls itself “the largest online grocery marketplace in North America.”
Instacart repeatedly showed different customers different “original” prices for the same discounted item, making the purported savings appear larger or smaller, depending on which group they had been sorted into. For example, most Instacart shoppers at a Safeway in Seattle were shown original prices of $5.93, $5.99, or $6.69 for Premium-brand saltine crackers, while the final sale price was the same for everyone—$3.99.
Schumer pointed to the Instacart CEO’s quote as a reason to take this issue seriously. Instacart CEO said, “AI helps retailers dynamically optimize their pricing both online and in-store to really figure out which categories of products a customer is more price sensitive on versus less price sensitive on and really adjust their prices based on that information.”
Schumer says that an answer like this proves the case for the federal government to step in and take new action.
“When you read what these executives are saying, it is very clear their north star is anything but the consumer or the family,” Schumer said. “They are focused exclusively on profits, and that is why the Federal Trade Commission must take a serious look at these shakedown tactics and rein them in before grocery prices go even higher.”
According to Food and Water Watch and Groundwork Collaborative, holiday meals are more expensive this year. While the Trump Administration tries to convince voters that the economy is doing great, Americans are still grappling with record-high prices and are pulling back on food spending this holiday season.
New polling from Data for Progress shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans are concerned about holiday prices, with 37 percent planning to buy fewer items. A majority of people said they are taking steps to brace for higher holiday prices, such as buying fewer items, hosting smaller gatherings, or cutting back on travel. More than half of voters believe that Trump’s economic policies are to blame for higher prices.
According to Groundwork Collaborative, using NIQ data, a full meal is up nearly 10% from 2024, more than three times the overall rate of inflation.
Since President Trump took office, grocery prices have risen by over 3 percent. Some holiday staples will cost Americans more than 20% over last year’s prices, including onions (56%), spiral hams (49%), cranberry sauce (22%), and creamed corn (21%). Canned fruits and vegetables are up 5 percent year over year, with a 50 percent tariff on steel driving up canning costs for the roughly 80 percent of canned goods that rely on imported steel. Domestic steel manufacturers are also raising prices, as tariffs have removed competitive pressure from imports. Aluminum foil is also up 40 percent this year due to higher input costs driven by tariffs.
“Every ‘beep beep’ at the grocery checkout is a one-two punch in a shopper’s face, and this administration has got to take it seriously,” Schumer said.
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