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Imagine you and I are doing our grocery shopping. Same store. Same shopping list. Same time of day.

We both add a box of cereal to our carts. Except you're being charged $2.99, and I'm being charged $3.69. That's about 23% more for the exact same thing, and neither of us has any idea.

Sound far-fetched? Something remarkably similar actually happened.

In December 2025, Consumer Reports and the Groundwork Collaborative released an investigation in which more than 400 volunteers compared Instacart prices for identical products at the same stores, at the same time. Some shoppers were offered prices up to 23% higher than others, and entire grocery baskets varied in price by an average of about 7%.

Instacart said the tests were randomized and not based on shoppers' personal data, and the researchers didn't find prices tied to factors like ZIP code or income. The company ended the experiments days later. But the investigation made one thing clear: The technology to show different people different prices already exists, and most shoppers would never know.

So how do you know whether the price you're being offered is the best price available — or just the price a company thinks you'll pay?

The Internet Knows More About You Than You Think

Search for a pair of shoes, and suddenly those shoes are following you around the internet. We've all gotten used to it. But the same information that helps companies decide what to advertise to you can also help them figure out how much you're willing to spend.

It's called personalized pricing, sometimes referred to as surveillance pricing: using information about individual shoppers to determine which prices, discounts, or offers to show them. Economists call charging different customers different prices for the same thing price discrimination, and the concept isn't new. Senior discounts and coupons are both versions of it. What's new is the precision. A company can potentially set prices one shopper at a time.

In a January 2025 report, the Federal Trade Commission described pricing technology that can draw on everything from your location and browsing history to your mouse movements and the items you've abandoned in your online shopping cart. To you, closing the browser on something that's too expensive is just a shopping decision. To a company analyzing your behavior, it may be one more clue about the price that would get you to buy.

Not every price difference is surveillance pricing, though. When airfare and hotel rates move with demand and timing, that's dynamic pricing, and it applies to everyone shopping at that moment. Loyalty discounts and shipping costs also vary for legitimate reasons. So how can you tell if personalized pricing is happening to you?

5 Ways to Find Out Whether You're Paying More

Here's the good news: You don't need to be a tech expert. You just need to do a little comparison shopping — not between two stores, but between two versions of the same shopping experience.

1. Check the Price Before You Sign In

Let's say you find a laptop for $1,499 while signed into a retailer's website. Before you buy, open a private or incognito browser window, stay signed out, and look up the same model. Try a different browser or your phone, too. You're checking whether the price changes when the site knows less about you.

Incognito mode doesn't make you anonymous, and it doesn't erase data a retailer has already collected. But it gives you another point of comparison, and sometimes that's all you need.

2. Ask Someone Else What Price They See

This might be my favorite trick because it's so easy. Text the product link to your spouse, your sister, or a friend, and ask what price they're seeing. If they live somewhere else, even better. Just make sure you're comparing the same product, with the same options, at about the same time.

If you're seeing $279 and your friend is seeing $249, you haven't necessarily proved that a company is using surveillance pricing, since a promotion or geographic difference might explain it. But you have found a potentially better price, and that's what we're after.

3. Compare the App With the Website

Some of the best coupons are buried inside retailers' apps. The trade-off is that a signed-in app makes it easier for a company to connect your shopping activity to your account and, depending on your permissions, to your location. Before you check out, compare the final total on the website, both signed in and signed out.

But don't give up a legitimate discount in the name of privacy. If your grocery app is offering $20 off an order and the website isn't, take the discount! We're trying to spend less, not win an award for being the internet's most mysterious shopper.

4. Experiment With Your Location

Location can be one piece of the data used in personalized pricing. Ask someone in another ZIP code to check the same item, or use a virtual private network (VPN) to see an offer from somewhere else. Just be careful: Taxes, shipping costs, and regional promotions vary legitimately, and a lower price is useless if you aren't eligible to buy at it.

5. Don't Buy Immediately — See If an Offer Comes Back

Remember that abandoned shopping cart? It can work in your favor, too. Retailers sometimes follow up on abandoned carts with a discount or promotional offer ("Still thinking it over?"). There's no guarantee this works, and it isn't proof that the original price was personalized. I wouldn't bother for something I need today. But if I'm thinking about spending $900 on a new piece of furniture? I can probably survive another 48 hours without it.

You Found a Lower Price... Here's What to Do

Let's say a retailer shows you a $1,200 price when you're logged into your account, but $1,075 when you browse as a guest. First, confirm that you're comparing identical offers, including taxes, delivery fees, warranties, and promotional eligibility. If everything really is the same, the simplest move is often to check out as a guest.

If you want to buy through your account for rewards or a warranty, take screenshots of both prices and ask customer service: "I'm seeing this item for $1,075, but my account shows $1,200. Can you honor the lower price?" You don't have to accuse anyone of wrongdoing. Just ask for the deal. If the retailer refuses, check competitors or ask about price matching.

And if you suspect a company is using deceptive or unlawful pricing practices, you can file a report with the Federal Trade Commission or your state attorney general. States are already taking action. Maryland's restrictions on surveillance pricing by food retailers and grocery delivery services took effect on October 1, 2026. New York requires companies to disclose when a price was set by an algorithm using a shopper's personal data. Connecticut's ban on prices set using personal data takes effect July 1, 2027, and New Jersey's ban on surveillance pricing for groceries follows on August 1, 2027. This is no longer a hypothetical concern. It's getting serious attention right now.

There's One More Thing You Can Do: Share Less Data

I know, I know. Telling people to protect their privacy online can feel a little like telling them to eat more vegetables. Start with the easy stuff:

Turn off unnecessary location permissions. Your grocery app doesn't need to know where you are every minute of the day.

Review tracking permissions on your phone. You may be able to limit how apps track you across other apps and websites.

Clear cookies periodically. It can reduce some browser-based tracking.

Use guest checkout when it makes sense. You don't need an account with every retailer.

None of this guarantees a lower price, and I wouldn't spend hours tinkering with privacy settings to save 50 cents on crackers. But if you can limit unnecessary data collection without making your life more difficult, why not?

My New Rule for Big Purchases

If I'm ordering a $25 birthday gift, I'm not going to conduct a six-part investigation into whether the internet thinks I have expensive taste. But if I'm about to book a $5,000 vacation or buy a $2,000 appliance? You'd better believe I'm going to spend a few minutes comparing prices in different browsers, checking whether I'm signed in, and asking my husband what the website shows him. Even a 5% difference on a $2,000 purchase is $100.

And that's real money.

The most frustrating part of personalized pricing isn't that prices change. It's that you may never know a better price was available in the first place. Comparing prices before you buy is still the basic rule of smart shopping. We just might need to expand what comparison shopping means.

Because these days, the person getting the better deal might not be shopping at another store. They might be shopping at the exact same store as you.

And I'd really rather not be the one paying more.