Walmart is bringing digital price tags to every U.S. store by end of 2026

By year’s end, every Walmart $WMT -0.72% location in the U.S. will carry digital shelf labels, the company says, according to CNBC.

The tags, known as DSLs, allow workers to update prices across multiple products at once. Amanda Bailey, an electronics team leader at a Walmart in West Chester, Ohio, told CNBC DSLs had freed up roughly three-quarters of the hours she previously devoted to price updates. A Walmart spokeswoman characterized the labels as a workforce support measure and said “the price you see is the same for everyone in any given store.” Kroger is running its own tests with the technology; a spokesperson told CNBC the tags are updated for two reasons only: when the company’s website price changes, or when a weekly promotion begins.

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The rollout is drawing opposition from federal lawmakers. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico) has introduced the Stop Price Gouging in Grocery Stores Act, which would bar grocery stores larger than 10,000 square feet from installing DSLs — a threshold that every Walmart store format would exceed. Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Oregon) has introduced a parallel House bill. “Without proper regulations, it is not so hard to see corporations using the loopholes to raise prices on consumers,” Hoyle told CNBC. “The idea exists. It is only a matter of time.”

According to Yahoo Finance, Walmart has recently filed for two machine learning pricing patents, which have caused concern online. One patent covers a system that automatically lowers prices, while the other uses machine learning to suggest prices based on demand. A Walmart spokesperson told the Financial Times that the company does not use surge pricing and said these patents are meant to help with markdowns, with final pricing decisions still made by employees.

Scott Benedict, who previously held executive roles at both Sam’s Club and Walmart and now works as a retail consultant, told CNBC that while shoppers have reason to ask questions, the fears surrounding the technology are probably greater than warranted. “Every penny matters, and people notice small changes. Sensitivity is especially high right now given inflation, tariffs and broader economic pressure,” he said.

The dispute over DSLs comes as Walmart courts a more affluent shopper. Walmart has been winning over wealthier consumers: households with annual incomes above $100,000 account for nearly three-quarters of the retailer’s recent market share growth, a shift the company has matched by raising product quality and improving in-store experience. Lower-income shoppers, meanwhile, have faced mounting financial pressure — a divide that makes any technology perceived as enabling higher prices especially sensitive. Broader legislative pushback is underway: New York enacted its Algorithmic Pricing Disclosure Act in November, and Pennsylvania recently introduced its own bill to outlaw the practice.

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