Wal-Mart Spark's best.. AND Scariest Feature | Digital Shelf Labels

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Walmart is releasing a very polarizing feature in their stores. It can be good and it can be bad. Right here on the gig grind reports from the streets. Now you already know clicking to ner flow.

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[00:00:43]All right, guys. Yesterday I was doing a shop and I discovered a feature, a benefit in Walmart stores while shopping. Uh, one of the associates actually put me on to it, but I don't know. I'm having mixed feelings with it now because I've done some research. Uh, but first, please go ahead and give me a like and subscribe down below. I would greatly, greatly appreciate it.

[00:01:12]All right, so let's get right into it.

[00:01:14]Let's get right into it. I have a couple short videos that I want to go over, but first, I want you to see what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is right here.

[00:01:25]It's called the flash tag feature. You see the little circle there that I put there on this woman's shirt. Um, we all know one thing we don't want to do is shop for clothing when it comes to Walmart. Shop for clothing. Shop for anything that looks tough to shop for.

[00:01:42]We just don't. We just avoid it like the play, right? I'm the same way. I I I avoid it. I avoid it. This one had one shirt on it. Uh, this shop that I did had one shirt on it. Um, but the lady was like, "Hey, just just use the flash feature." I'm like, "What?

[00:01:59]What? What are you what are you talking about? Use the flash feature." Um, and she explained to me how it works and the benefit to using it. Now, this right here is this right here is me hitting that button that I just circled right here. Let me show you what it looks like.

[00:02:19]See, it's flashing here. Tells me the side that it's flashing.

[00:02:25]>> So, the shirt is right there in front.

[00:02:27]It flashes on the side of the shirt, not the back side where the shirt isn't. Um, but it's even better on like the regular tags. Like say say ramen noodles is sitting on the shelf and you can't find them. You can hit that button and it will start flashing to let you know where the ramen noodles are that you are looking for. That sounds great. It It definitely sounds great for us. I'm sure it's great for the employees. Uh but there are some negative things about this flash tag feature for sure that I didn't even think about before doing some research before making this video.

[00:03:03]Um first, I'm going to show you guys the the good the the the good part about it.

[00:03:10]And this is how Walmart kind of boosted their efficiency by adding this in. I know they put a lot of money in uh but let let me show you from from Walmart perspective here.

[00:03:21]Go over to Yeah, right here.

[00:03:25]Sweet.

[00:03:29]>> My name is and I am the food and consumer team lead a 5080 store in Texas. I have worked at Walmart for four years now and I am proud to be a Walmart associate. Today we are here in Graven, Texas and I'm going to show you the new store technology that has been a game changer for us. Last year we replaced traditional paper price.

[00:03:49]>> Said last year we just got ours like now.

[00:03:52]>> Before the shelf lab was doing a store key chain took a couple of days and now it only takes minutes.

[00:03:58]>> Couple of days.

[00:03:59]>> Updates are saved by the merchant and using my work phone I can quickly update the shelf price. The prices and promotion display at the chees are always up to date.

[00:04:08]The new digital shelves helps to manage price changes automatically and fast, allowing me more time to do what matters most, helping our customers.

[00:04:18]>> How are you?

[00:04:20]>> We also use the digital shell system to prepare online orders using the big to life feature.

[00:04:26]>> This is when she told me >> online orders can be prepared faster and more accurately.

[00:04:32]Assembling customer orders are guided to the and shelf location. The LED light helps us uh pick a custom.

[00:04:40]>> Look at Look at it flash. You know exactly where it is.

[00:04:42]>> Accuracy by spotlighting the product for the order.

[00:04:46]DSLs also help with the process.

[00:04:50]When an associate is going to stock the items on the shelf, it is easier to locate and place the item on the cube place by flashing the tag. This technology helps us speed up the process and makes our life so much easier.

[00:05:06]We also use DSLs when building our plans. DSLs ensure that we have the right price on the right item at the right time. DSLs are making Walmart an even better place to shop and work.

[00:05:23]Now, yeah. Um, all everything she said was right. It's it's going to be much quicker. Uh but there's some things that implemented on the employee side that they have this timer they got to go by now because if you can't stock the shelves or pick or shop for those items efficiently when you can see it flashing, something's wrong, right? So they have these timers that they got to go by. I'm talking about they're zipping around the store uh because they're on like a strict timeline now. That's a negative in a way, right? That's a negative. Um, but there was definitely something there was definitely something there that was mentioned um when when she said we can just update the update the pricing in minutes rather than it taking two days to update the pricing in the stores.

[00:06:17]That's kind of that that sounds like oh man that'll be efficient. That'll be great. But we have to think about something that's called dynamic pricing.

[00:06:27]If you guys have ever heard of dynamic pricing, this is the scary part of this.

[00:06:31]Everything else is positive. This is a very scary part to this dynamic pricing.

[00:06:37]Uh what that means is um let let me give you the exact definition right here because I I'mma put it on the screen for you as well.

[00:06:45]Right here. Dynamic pricing, also known as surge demand pricing, is a revenue strategy where businesses continuously adjust prices in real time based on market demand, supply, consumer behavior. While it maximizes profits, it has sparked consumer backlash and new state level legislation ban.

[00:07:08]uh down we got surge price with ride share and all that but at the bottom you see the DSLs the digital shelf labels major brickandmortar retailers are using digital tags to change instore prices instantly throughout the day sounds crazy here we have hurricanes we have all kinds of like natural disasters to come imagine them being able to just go oh bread double bing Bing. Oh, milk.

[00:07:38]Let's raise that price. Bing. This is scary business. It was It was so great yesterday. Yesterday, you couldn't tell me nothing because um let me show you.

[00:07:49]This is This is um video of me finding that finding the the shirt that I was looking for. How easy that was.

[00:07:58]Just scanned it. Boom. Because of the flashing light, I knew exactly where to find the shirt. And to me, that saved me it it honestly probably saved me about four four minutes for the one shirt. I'm I'm talking average about four or five minutes per freaking clothing item. It is bad. And I saw it over in like the baby section. All of grocery like the middle aisle groceries. I don't think like the um surrounding like meat and and dairy and stuff like that has it yet, but I did see it in the middle aisles of grocery and in the women's section, which women's section. Put put that in there, please. Oh my goodness.

[00:08:39]But the dynamic pricing is very scary stuff. Let's Let's watch this other video here. I didn't watch this. I didn't watch this. So, I think it's talking about exactly what I'm saying now. But let's let's go.

[00:08:54]Two days. That's how long it used to take employees to change paper price labels on the 120,000 items in a typical Walmart store. With digital tags, it takes minutes.

[00:09:06]>> What really allows retailers >> Let me Hold on. Let me back up here a little bit. See those tags?

[00:09:13]>> You see those tags?

[00:09:16]Very hard to see. And And even I had this um from a YouTube for one of these channels. I don't know which one it was, but this this lady right here, um, her name's Sheila. Yeah, the lady right here made a great point because I have a hard time seeing these the the numbers on these tags. So, right here, she said, "I visited my local store today. It was very hard to tell what the item price is. I have poor vision. This new system is confusing and made pricing prices difficult to read.

[00:09:48]Tags on items do not show the price. The new system will make it impossible for me to shop without a helper. That hit me. That that part right there hit me because it's true. It's hard to see. And she doesn't just have access to make it flash. You know what I mean? Cuz she's just shopping as a normal customer. This is geared This is geared towards the shoppers and the employees. They're not even really thinking about the customer here.

[00:10:18]Um, let's let's continue.

[00:10:20]>> It really allows retailers to change prices by store, by region immediately.

[00:10:26]>> The world's largest retailer is switching to electronic shelf labels, known as ESLs, at all its US stores later this year. The biggest grocery retailers in Canada have also dabbled in digital labels with Soies on track to switch to ESLs this year. The savings on labor costs are obvious, but consumer groups worry about the potential for algorithmic and targeted pricing made possible by digital price tags and AI.

[00:10:53]These types of algorithms are already used in the travel industry.

[00:10:57]>> If you buy an airline ticket very early, uh, it's usually cheaper, and as it gets closer and closer to sold out, it will get more and more expensive. Another concern is surge pricing used by services like Uber where prices are set based on real-time supply and demand.

[00:11:13]>> People need coffee more in the morning.

[00:11:15]So, should they charge 20% more?

[00:11:17]>> Though, proponents say ESLs could help reduce mistakes on the cost of items and present more deals similar to what's already available in other industries.

[00:11:26]>> Happy hour at restaurants where if you go early, you get a deal.

[00:11:30]>> But AI technology can enable targeted pricing. In December, Instacart found itself in hot water in the US over what critics called predatory grocery pricing, pushing up costs on certain items for some customers.

[00:11:43]>> What scares people um is the fact that based on their demographics and personal information footprint that they're going to pay more than other people based on that.

[00:11:54]>> Experts Global News spoke to say backlash against Canadian companies that misuse ESL technology would be swift. I don't think you'll see the big grocerers using it in Canada. I just think that they they're too smart. They realize that consumers would be very angry.

[00:12:11]>> But Canada's regulators are often spurred to action by complaints and ESL technology is still in its infancy. An Gaviola, Global News, Toronto.

[00:12:21]>> Wow. I mean, that's that's very apparent. That's that's ex these these companies are just greedy, man. These fun companies are greedy to the core and and it's scary stuff to know that they can just click a button and change depending on demand, depending on national like stuff that's happening or even not national, you know, in in one certain area you having tornadoes, the bread is going up.

[00:12:51]You know what I mean? Because now you got a supply to demand uh issue.

[00:12:56]That part scares me to death because that we're we're inching and inching towards a a time where this this is going to be very easy for them to do.

[00:13:05]I'm talking about a click of a button.

[00:13:07]All prices on on imagine how easy that algorithm would be. All prices on milk, eggs, anything for for hurricane stuff relief, 25% increase. One button, the price tags change. Imagine how easy that would be nowadays. Um, I don't know, guys. Leave it in the comments below. Oh my god, I was so pumped. If you watch the other channel, the Nola Grind channel, when I had first discovered this, I was so pumped about this being a possibility, how easy this was going to be in the stores because I honestly was thinking about me in the in the shopping that I was doing. I was not thinking about wh why would they do this? Yeah, efficiency. They're saving on um labor.

[00:13:56]They saving it on They're saving on all that. They're saving on the tags prices.

[00:14:00]All the paper, all that stuff costs money, guys. The paper, the labor, all that stuff costs money. When when you when there's a tag on the shelf and you you scan it, you scan it and it's like, this was this is $4, but on the shelf it says $2. Most of the time the consumer is going to get it for that $2. They lost $2. You know what I mean? So these price tags are changing automatically and things. So very scary and very it's like I said it's very polarizing. I am happy to be a shopper with this. I am terrified to be a consumer with this.

[00:14:36]Let me know in the comments below what do you guys think about this new DSL digital shelf labels. Uh just leave it in the comments below. I know it's probably going to be mixed because I I'm mixed on this so I don't know. And also guys, YouTube really believes that you would like this video right here. Give it a try. See you in the next time.

[00:14:56]>> Peace.

[00:14:58]Purple, green, gold, but my heart feels smiles while I fade away. Phone keepers a sparkle.