Walmart is replacing price tags with digital shelf labels. Will surge pricing be an issue?

Walmart, the world's largest retailer, is making changes to how people shop.

This month, they announced it would be doing away with sticker shelf pricing at its 2,300 stores by 2026.

Here’s what is replacing sticker tags.

What is Walmart replacing price tag stickers with?

The retailer said it’s replacing old-school price stickers with digital shelf labels, according to Fortune.

A spokesperson for Walmart said the digital shelf labels are currently in 63 stores, including 32 in Texas.

What are digital shelf labels?

DSLs are electronic shelf label systems used by retailers to display product pricing on shelves, typically on the front edge of retail shelving. The system can automatically be updated or changed under the control of a central server. Walmart tested this technology at a store in Grapevine, TX.

Large retailers are moving to this technology because it could save workers time by eliminating the need to replace price tags in stores.

Daniela Boscan, a food and consumable team lead at a Walmart store in Hurst, Texas, wrote in a blog post that switching to DSLs speeds up customer service. According to Boscan, the digital labels will help employees save time because Walmart carries over 120,000 products with individual price tags.

“A price change that used to take an associate two days to update now takes only minutes with the new DSL system,” she said. “This efficiency means we can spend more time assisting customers and less time on repetitive tasks.”

What is surge pricing?

Surge pricing is a strategy where prices increase in response to higher demand. If you have ever used the Uber or Lyft app, they use surge pricing as their price model.

Fast Food chain Wendy’s, attempted to introduce sure pricing on their menus but was met with disdain.

While some consumers are unsettled about big retailers introducing surge pricing in their stores, Walmart said in a statement that it won’t use DSLs to create price surges.

“We said these menu boards would give us more flexibility to change the display of featured items,” they said. “This was misconstrued in some media reports as an intent to raise prices when demand is highest at our restaurants. We have no plans to do that and would not raise prices when our customers are visiting us most.”

How many Walmart stores are in Texas?

According to the Walmart store directory, there are 517 stores in Texas.

Social media reaction to Walmart’s changes

According to Livingcost.org, the average monthly cost of living in Texas is $2,170. With a family of four, it's $5,094. Key items such as dairy products, rice and produce have become more expensive for Texans.

Here is what people are saying about Walmart replacing price tags with DSLs.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Walmart is switching to digital price tags, including 32 Texas stores