Target is being accused of price-gouging a mom buying diapers for her baby.
If you shop at Target online, you might face the same problem without even knowing it.
The Target app is marketed as an easy hub for tracking your purchase history and easily accessing deals. However, it may actually be working against you—at least, according to this mom.
What is dynamic pricing?
Dynamic pricing means the price you pay can vary depending on your location (like whether you buy online or in person), time of day, and demand. Target will price-match other stores (including its own variety of price listings). However, it’s tedious to make sure you’re getting the best deal on every single item.
Target assumes that people who shop in the store or are located within a certain radius are more committed to their purchases and will be willing to pay a higher price than online shoppers who might need more convincing, the Huffington Post reported.
One investigation found that the online cart of 10 random items was $262 when they were located in the back of the store parking vs. when they entered.
And Target isn’t the only major retailer doing this. Walmart does it too. And Amazon reportedly changes its prices every 10 minutes, “even adjusting prices or offering additional promotions in the time between when a customer is adding a product to their cart and paying for it,” the Huffington Post reported.
Diapergate at Target
In a series of videos (with one gaining more than 55,000 views), mom Christina Santiago (@christina.santiago) calls Target out for unnecessarily upping the price on diapers.
In one video, she shows that when she looked up the diapers she wanted online, they were priced at $27.99. But in the app, she says they came up to $31.49. That’s a $3.50 difference—a pretty significant jump.
Confused, Santiago says she had both her husband and sister-in-law check the price on their apps, and it was also coming up cheaper on their end.
A baby the age and size of Christina’s goes through five to seven diapers a day, according to Healthline. That means the 54-pack she bought lasts anywhere from a week to 10 days. On the conservative end, she’d need to buy 37 boxes of diapers in a year and would end up spending an extra $129.50 because of Target’s dynamic pricing.
@christina.santiago Replying to @Heather Ashley | 🤰🏻 #greenscreen me & Target are not friends right now. With how much money I spend there, and how expensive diapers are this is just not cool! Still love you @Kudos Diapers 🤍🤍#diapergate #target #target #kudosdiapers #tcfdiapers ♬ original sound – Christina | IVF Mama 💙
Target’s bandaid solution
Santiago reached out to Target’s customer service to get to the bottom of things.
“They just beat around the bush,” Santiago says.
While the customer service agent reportedly said she’d price-match the item, Santiago says that it was the principal of the matter, pointing out that she shouldn’t have to go through a chat to get the best price.
Annoyed, she says she exited the chat only to get a follow-up email an hour later. While Target ended up lowering the price for her anyway to $25 ($3 less than the lowest listed price), Santiago shares an email it sent her that explains what happened.
“Please note that our pricing varies from time to time and also differs based on location and sometimes prices may appear different due to errors for technical glitches,” the email reads.
So, according to the email, Target is admitting you may end up paying more, not just because of dynamic pricing but because of errors on its end that you may very well miss.
“I’m just frustrated that Target is doing this,” Santiago says.
Commenters react
“I saw a Tik tok about how this will be the future that all prices will be customized to you in an app and nothing in stores. It’s scary!!!” a commenter wrote.
“Folks we are seeing here the first glimpses of dynamic pricing on our basic necessities,” a person said.
“This is why I never uses store apps. It gives them so much data about you, including predictive consumer behavior,” another added.
The Daily Dot reached out to Santiago for comment via email and Instagram direct message and to Target via email.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
