Instacart doesn't just own your pricing, it owns the power dynamic

In 2025, an independent study found Instacart engaging in first-degree price discrimination; a move that exploits shoppers’ willingness to pay.

This story is not about grocery tech gone wrong - it is about power.

When a platform sits between the retailer and the shopper, the question is no longer just what price gets charged: the real question is who sees the customer, who learns from the customer, and who ultimately controls the relationship. That is the part too many retailers keep missing.

The Platform Always Wants More

This is not a story about one company behaving badly. It is a structural story. Platforms do what platforms do: collect the signal, package the signal, and monetize the signal. If a grocer hands over the keys to their front door, it should not be shocked when the platform starts acting like the real owner of the customer relationship.

Retailers Keep Calling It Convenience

And this is where the industry needs to be honest. A lot of retailers talk about digital transformation as if it automatically means progress. It does not. If the transformation just means someone else now owns the interface, the data, and the pricing machinery, then the retailer has not transformed. It has handed away control and called it convenience.

The Trap

The platform sees the behavior. The grocer sees the order. Those are not the same thing. Once the retailer loses the full picture, it loses bargaining power. It loses strategic clarity. And over time, it loses the ability to shape the economics of the customer relationship on its own terms.

To be fair, this is not always some grand villain plot. Sometimes it is just drift. A retailer adopts the tool because it is easy, because it promises growth, because it feels like the fastest path forward. But that is exactly how platforms win. They make dependence feel efficient until it becomes expensive.

Own the Relationship

So yes, the immediate issue is pricing. But the deeper issue is ownership. Who owns the shopper relationship? Who owns the data? Who owns the decisions that shape the margin? If the answer is not the retailer, then the retailer is already behind.

The message is clear: if your front door is open, someone will move in.