Another grocery giant is following in Walmart’s footsteps, hitting shoppers where it hurts — their wallets.

Walmart may have found another way to nickel-and-dime shoppers before they even get to the checkout, as back in 2024, the retail giant revealed it would add digital shelf labels — or DSLs — to all US stores.

Some shoppers fear dynamic pricing would peak its sneaky head out.

Also known as surge pricing, the controversial practice is where businesses have the ability to adjust their prices in real-time with digital tags. The changes are based on market conditions like demand, competitor pricing and inventory — or so they claim.

Walmart told The Post that its DSL system does not allow prices to increase during store hours as items are locked in for the day — it’s built into their program. If shoppers spot a change during the day, it would only be a price decrease.

“Stores may take temporary pricing actions that benefit customers (i.e. lower an item’s price), while our systems prevent stores from increasing prices during the shopping day. A pricing correction could occur in the rare instance of an obvious error. Otherwise, pricing changes are generally implemented outside shopping hours,” the spokesperson told The Post.

When Walmart — the largest retailer in the US — adopted the DSLs, shoppers were furious and worried tags would constantly change. The behemoth even scored a patent for a demand forecast tool that will not only predict what customers will buy, but it will also recommend a price based on the projection.

While the tool predicts and recommends, a spokesperson for Walmart told The Post that getting shoppers the lowest price is its core principle. The chain stressed that an employee is always either accepting or denying the request — not the tech.

“Price updates are still people led and support Walmart’s Everyday Low Price (EDLP) promise. Associates review and push approved changes through a secure system, typically outside of shopping hours, so prices remain stable and consistent during the day,” the company statement said.

Now, there’s another chain taking heat for its shelf practices. 

Kroger will expand its already large number of stores using sneaky digital tags. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that hundreds of more locations in the Cincinnati-Dayton division — which includes Northern Kentucky — will now use digital price tags.

The powerhouse has been rolling out electronic shelf labels — or ESLs — to hundreds of its stores across the country as early as 2018. Kroger previously shared that nearly one in four of its locations nationwide have them.

ESLs are supposed to reduce paper and save the company hours of labor, and free up workers to help shoppers with other tasks. However, customers smell something fishy.

Much like the system Walmart uses, Kroger’s ESLs will have the ability to change the price of any item sitting on store shelves in just seconds — a potential cash grab. 

Kroger denies that the pricing system will be used for surge pricing. But shoppers are buying it.

“Bad idea. You can literally get a higher price on your entire cart before you get to the register. That doesn’t even sound legal,” a shopper wrote to Facebook.

Another wrote, “There [are] too many other stores out there to shop at, so Kroger, just lost me as a customer.”

“It is an effort for these corporations to squeeze every last cent out of a consumer. This is a real application of AI and how it will play a role in life going forward for everyone,” A worried shopper wrote on Facebook. 

Lawmakers aren’t falling for it either, as putting trust in huge corporations with little oversight on the matter may not be the best practice — shocking. 

“Digital price tags may enable Kroger and other grocery chains to transition to ‘dynamic pricing,’ in which the price of basic household goods could surge based on the time of day, the weather, or other transitory events,” Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bob Casey wrote in a letter to the grocery chain.

Kroger has not gotten back to The Post’s request for comment on surge pricing.