Kroger says it has no plans to implement facial recognition after the uproar over price hikes at grocery stores.

On Tuesday, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib took to X a letter addressed to Rodney McMullen, the CEO of Kroger. In it, he expressed concern about Kroger’s electronic shelving labels (ESL), and the retailer’s alleged plans to use facial recognition technology in digital displays—both tools, he wrote, that could be “abused for profit.”

Tlaib isn’t the first US executive to express his dismay at Kroger’s ESL technology, either. Back in August, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Robert Casey wrote to McMullen again, saying they were “concerned about whether Kroger and Microsoft are adequately protecting consumer data” and raising a wide range of questions about the company’s plans for its ESLs (which , As of this writing, Kroger has not responded publicly).

Both characters have caused concern—and a healthy dose of shock—for X users, many of whom shared that they had no idea such technology existed in grocery stores. But despite public concern now surfacing, Kroger has been working on its ESLs for at least five years, and it’s telling. Fast company has no plans to use facial recognition in its stores.

Here’s everything we know about Kroger’s ESLs, and what they might mean for shoppers.

What is ESL?

ESL is essentially a digital version of price tags that are commonly found in all grocery stores. For companies, these labels are beneficial because they reduce the manual work of reviewing tags, they can help stores quickly update item prices and track their inventory, and they can even help employees and customers identify items with a bright light system. Some stores use tags to display barcodes with useful information, such as nutrition facts.

In interview no Grocery DiveAnne Mezzenga, CEO of the retail blog Omni Talk, explained, “They face a huge price change problem and the loss that grocers can have when they don’t have accurate prices on the shelf.” He added that ESLs can help reduce waste by eliminating the need to print tags and shelf speakers.

Which grocery stores use ESLs, and when did they start?

Kroger started using ESLs back in 2018, and currently uses ESLs in at least 500 locations. In June, Walmart announced that it will introduce ESLs in 2,300 stores over the next two years after a successful pilot.

Other stores, including Schnucks, Hy-Vee, Ahold Delhaize USA, and Dom’s Kitchen & Market, have also adopted the technology over the years.

Why are people concerned about ESLs?

While industry leaders continue to promote the usefulness of ESL, government officials and the media are raising several red flags about how dangerous the technology can be.

The first issue is the fear that stores may start using ESLs at a variable or increasing rate. This explains the idea that, in order to achieve higher profits, grocery stores can start adjusting prices depending on the time of day, demand, or other factors—similar to something like Uber’s pricing model.

In their letter to Kroger, Warren and Casey wrote, “For example, stores can use this technology to increase the price of turkeys in the days before Thanksgiving, or the price of ice cream on a hot day, causing customers to experience the unexpected. the price increase when they get to the point of purchase and find themselves unable to buy the things they had originally set out to buy.”

For their part, Kroger and Walmart have assured customers that they will not use ESLs for dynamic pricing, and will instead use the technology to offer shoppers better discounts on items such as clearance items, for example.

“Kroger’s business model is built on the foundation of lowering prices to attract more customers,” a Kroger spokeswoman said. Fast company. “Everything we do is designed to support this strategy, and customers are shopping more through Kroger now than ever before because we’re fighting inflation and offering great value. To be clear, Kroger does not and has never engaged in ‘price gouging.’ Any evaluation of electronic shelf tags is designed to lower prices for most customers where it matters most. To suggest otherwise is not true.”

What about facial recognition technology

Another concern Tlaib raised in his book is that grocery stores may begin using facial recognition technology as part of their in-store advertising and pricing efforts. In a letter to Kroger, Tlaib wrote, “the use of facial recognition tools has the potential to invade customer privacy and recognize biased pricing.”

In 2019, Fast company explore this issue in the ESL technology topic. We reported that Kroger is testing a new technology in one of its stores, called Enhanced Display for Grocery Environment (EDGE). That year, Kroger said Fast company that it was working with Microsoft to use AI-powered facial recognition technology in some of its digital displays.

The companies announced in a 2019 press release, “EDGE Shelf will enable Kroger to generate new revenue by selling digital advertising space for consumer packaged goods (CPGs). Using video analytics, personalized offers and ads can be presented based on customer demographics.”

The proposal, as described Fast companywas to use gender and age information to display personalized ads or coupons. Tlaib, Warren, and Casey cited Fast companyA 2019 article as their main proof of concept that Kroger plans to use facial recognition and “use customer data to create profiles of each customer.”

However, according to a Kroger spokesperson, the one-store EDGE pilot described in that 2019 filing quickly sunsetted, and Kroger no longer uses EDGE technology in any of its stores. They added that Kroger has not, and has never, used facial recognition in its stores—and they are not aware of any plans to do so in the future.