Walmart’s Sweeping Change Will Affect Prices in Louisiana

If it hasn’t happened at your local Walmart in Lafayette, Breaux Bridge, Opelousas, or Covington, Louisiana, just wait; it will. It's funny how when you mention the word “change,” people seem to bristle. I bet you did, just thinking, “What the heck is Walmart doing to us now?” 

This change is not so much what Walmart is doing to us as it will be what Walmart is doing for us. And like Sam Elliot’s character in the movie The Big Lebowski proclaimed, sometimes you eat the "bar" and sometimes the "bar" eats you.  

What we do know is the pricing policies at every Walmart store in America will be changed by 2026. When the new high-tech approach to pricing will come to your local store remains to be seen but rest assured it’s going to happen. 

If you’re of a certain age you probably remember or maybe even worked as a stocker in a grocery store. Those are the guys and gals that work usually in the overnight hours making sure store shelves are full for shoppers the following day. And once upon a time stockers in stores used to have these cool gadgets called “sticker guns” or “label guns”. Those devices with the help of the stocking crew affixed the adhesive price tags to the items on the shelves so you and I would know how much the store was charging.  

There were a few problems with this old-school method in the past. Often stickers would become unstuck or fall off. Mischievous customers would switch price tags to create their own “special savings” also known as stealing. Or there would be a price change on an item and the store would have to relabel certain items in the middle of the day. 

Thanks to digital technology those gooey stickers are no longer needed, and many grocery retailers have switched to digital shelf tags. No longer is each individual product tagged with a price, the entire shelf of items now has its own price display.  

The tiny price “tags” are directly connected to the store’s computers and with a simple keystroke, a department manager can change the price on an entire shelf of items. And make that change several times a day if needed. Walmart is installing this new technology in every one of its stores. The change is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. 

It certainly will save the Walmart brand a lot of money in labor costs which I am sure they’ll pass on those savings to us. No, I am not going to hold my breath and wait for that to happen. However, I see a bigger concern for shoppers across the state.  

From what I know of the digital price tags store managers could literally flip the switch and change prices on items every ten seconds. They probably wouldn’t but the technology is that efficient. To me, the issue for shoppers is this.  

Have you ever been to a theme park when it started raining? Suddenly the one-dollar plastic poncho in the gift shop now carries a price tag of five dollars.  So it would be conceivable that Walmart could raise the price of an item between the time you place it in your cart and the time the item is scanned at the self-checkout.  

Think of how that might look during a hurricane when certain items become in short supply. Can you imagine how the price of water, bread, ice, and booze would escalate in a matter of minutes? No, we’re not suggesting Walmart or any other retailer would do that. But the fact I thought of it probably means someone else has thought of it too. And I bet at least one of those who thought of it works for Walmart.  

Just so it won’t seem like we are piling on Wally and his World several other retailers such as Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh Stores, and some midwestern grocery chains have already made the transition and so far so good. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.