What is a "membership discount" (assuming you don't mean coupons) in the context of a grocery store? Can you give an example of a major grocery store that has one?
For what it's worth,
> The bill clarifies that certain practices, such as promotional pricing, loyalty programs, or price differences based on objective costs like shipping, are not considered prohibited dynamic pricing.
Harris Teeter is an example of a large chain that has promotions (not coupons) that are applied at checkout only if you have your VIC card (their free membership program). There’s a lot of BOGO, a few dollars off etc offers that are tagged to the price label throughout the store.
Got it, thank you for the example. That seems to be still allowed by the bill.
The behavior targeted here seems to be more like "Our data indicates this person is poor and desperate, let's charge them more for rice and beans than we charge other people, since that's most of what they'll buy. We've calculated that we can charge up to $X to exhaust their budget/foodstamps and they'll still buy."
I used to shop at HT at the last place I lived. It was always crazy seeing all of those discounts pop up. I don't know if I was actually saving money over the other stores nearby but it certainly felt like it. Honestly, I like shopping at Lidl now. My grocery bill always feels much cheaper. I don't get much savings using my phone number, I think they want you to clip coupons on the app but I still walk out paying less than I would elsewhere. A large portion of the stuff at Lidl are not major brands, I suspect they are the companies that produce white label products for store brands.
Sure, I was asking about membership discounts (e.g. people who shop at this store and are "members" get 10% off everything compared to "non-members"), vs loyalty programs with individual product electronic coupons/promotions, which aren't covered by this bill.
Typical European loyalty programs offer spend-based ‘points’ accumulation which can be spent as a discount later. Additional offers on top of that like ‘bonus points on product X’ or personalized offers based on purchase history add to the degree of variation in how much individual customers end up spending.
If a store exists that has a "membership discount" (e.g. members get 10% off their purchase), like maybe GNC does, it seems that would be allowed, too.
For what it's worth,
> The bill clarifies that certain practices, such as promotional pricing, loyalty programs, or price differences based on objective costs like shipping, are not considered prohibited dynamic pricing.