Instacart is experimenting with pricing, charging some people shopping for groceries at the same time and same store location prices that can vary by as much as 23%, an investigation has found.

On average, that could cost a family of four a swing of $1,200 based on Instacart's prices, the study by Consumer Reports, More Perfect Union, and Groundwork Collaborative, a Washington, DC-based think tank, found.

That is particularly troubling as American shoppers say they are grappling with higher grocery prices, in part due to inflation and tariffs, said Lindsay Owens, executive director of Groundwork Collaborative.

Instacart has "turned the simple act of buying groceries into a high-tech game of pricing roulette. When the same box of Wheat Thins can jump 23% in price because of an algorithm, that’s not innovation or convenience, it’s unfair," Owens said in a press release. "Americans shopping for groceries aren’t guinea pigs and shouldn't have to pay an Instacart tax."

Investigation found 74% of grocery prices were different

Groundwork Collaborative, Consumer Reports and More Perfect Union conducted an independent experiment involving 437 shoppers in live tests in four cities earlier this year.

Volunteer shoppers simultaneously added 20 grocery items from a specific grocery store to their Instacart shopping carts and researchers analyzed the prices. The tests were done at Safeway and Target locations in North Canton, Ohio; Seattle, Washington; Saint Paul, Minnesota and Washington, DC. A follow-up test also evaluated two products at other Albertsons, Costco, Kroger and Sprouts Farmer Market locations, which found similar price experimentation, but the results were not included in the study.

Almost three quarters or 74% of the grocery items in the experiment had multiple prices for shoppers at the same store. For instance, a box of 10 Clif Chocolate Chip Energy bars sold for $19.43, $19.99 and $21.99 on Instacart at a Seattle Safeway store.

The average difference between the lowest and highest price was 13%. But some shoppers found prices that were 23% higher than the other shoppers at the same store for the same product.

Overall, researchers found Instacart basket totals varied by an average of about 7% for the same cart at a location during the experiment.

"If you and I were standing in the checkout line with the exact same box of cereal, and we were charged different amounts, we would think it’s some kind of bad joke," Owens told USA TODAY.

The consumer groups are calling on Instacart to stop the pricing experiments and on lawmakers to protect shoppers from "pricing schemes and 'surveillance' pricing."

On Tuesday, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) introduced legislation to outlaw surveillance pricing. The "One Fair Price Act" would prevent companies from being able to use customers’ personal data to set individualized prices.

States including New York, Colorado, California, Georgia, Illinois and Pennsylvania have introduced or advanced legislation to curb individualized or algorithm-driven price manipulation, according to the consumer groups. Additionally, Rep. Greg Casar’s (D-Texas) "Stop AI Price Gouging and Wage Fixing Act" would ban the use of personal data to set individualized prices.

Instacart, retailers respond to investigation

In a statement provided to USA TODAY, Instacart said retail partners control the prices on Instacart. A subset of 10 retail partners do test pricing, Instacart said. "These limited, short-term, and randomized tests help retail partners learn what matters most to consumers and how to keep essential items affordable."

Instacart said personal, demographic and user-level behavioral data is not used to set online prices.

"These tests are not dynamic pricing – prices never change in real-time, including in response to supply and demand. The tests are never based on personal or behavioral characteristics – they are completely randomized," an Instacart spokesperson said. Instacart also issued a blog post on Tuesday, Dec. 9, outlining its commitment to affordability.

A Target spokesperson told USA TODAY that the retailer is "not affiliated with Instacart and is not responsible for prices on the Instacart platform."

"Target does not vary our regular price for any particular guest or group of guests. Guests at a given location get the same regular price when shopping directly with Target," the spokesman said.

In a response included in the report, Instacart said it used publicly available pricing for Target and that its pricing experiment with Target had ended.

Albertson's, the parent company of Safeway, did not respond to a request for comment on the study from its authors or USA TODAY. Similarly, Costco and Kroger did not respond to either request. Sprouts declined comment to the study and did not return a comment to USA TODAY.

Shoppers want one price

The idea of dynamic or variable pricing in grocery will not be welcomed by consumers, said Neil Saunders, a retail analyst at the research and analytics firm GlobalData.

"When buying food most people expect the price to be standardized and not to fluctuate depending on who is buying," Saunders told USA TODAY. "The issue is that as this is online, many shoppers may not even be aware of dynamic pricing."

Ultimately, Saunders said, it is difficult for consumers to identify dynamic pricing other than by checking prices in store or monitoring them over time.

Lynn Folk, 58, of Oregon, Ohio was one of the volunteer shoppers for the study, shopping via Instacart at a North Canton, Ohio Target location.

Among the prices she saw in her Instacart cart during the experiment, were some that were both higher and lower than others shopping the same items at the same store.

"It feels kind of dirty," Folk told USA TODAY of the pricing differences. "It shouldn't be that my neighbor is paying more or less."

Betty Lin-Fisher is a consumer reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at blinfisher@USATODAY.com or follow her on X, Facebook or Instagram @blinfisher and @blinfisher.bsky.social on Bluesky. Sign up for our free The Daily Money newsletter, which breaks down complex consumer and financial news. Subscribe here.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Instacart charges shoppers different prices for same items, report says

Reporting by Betty Lin-Fisher, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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