I’m not ok with this.
It’s not something I do very often, but see others do it ‘all the time’….
When shopping in a brick and mortar store, you scan the barcode of the thing you are interested in buying and see if you can find it cheaper some other place – probably on-line and probably from Amazon.
Sometimes (not very often) the store will price match, it’s becoming far more common that they will do this, often the price match is only given very reluctantly and you get a fair bit of bad blood flowing getting it done.
Amazon has got some tech to mess with this process.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/15/amazon-online-shopping-control-in-stores/
It’s super simple, first, they look at the wi-fi you are joined to, if nothing obvious there, they check your GPS from the photo you took (most people do not turn that off). Depending on your location, they will mess with the price you see.
The patent, ominously titled “Physical Store Online Shopping Control,” is for technology that examines what a person is searching for when connected to a retail WiFi network — that is, a WiFi network provided by and located within a store, such as an Amazon bricks-and-mortar location. The technology can actually determine whether you’re searching for a competitor’s item online and take subsequent action.
I’m not Ok with this…. And I am a huge Amazon fan / customer.