Consumer Advocate Lindsay Owens | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #693

• 0:00 Lindsay, her think tank, and why she started studying price gouging when inflation hit in 2021.
• 3:00 Price gouging, dynamic, algorithmic and surveillance pricing defined, concert lines versus auctions, and Walmart’s digital shelf labels.
• 10:00 The Live Nation and Ticketmaster verdict, monopoly power, and the breakup states asked for.
• 14:00 Lobbyists, a Congress that feels like a nursing home, and stock trading by members.
• 23:40 The 400-shopper Instacart experiment and Eversight, StubHub fee gaps, and DoorDash’s agitation-index patent.
• 32:00 Coca-Cola’s temperature-priced vending machine, Wendy’s, shrinkflation, and John Wanamaker’s first price tags.
• 42:40 World Cup ticket prices and FIFA’s resale cut.
• 47:00 Walmart patents: the “Karen” appeasement engine, parking-lot suspension cameras, the pulse check and Victor Gruen’s malls.
• 59:00 Walmart’s public letter to Lindsay, Dan Bartlett, her reply and the Sparky shopping assistant.
• 1:06:00 Surveillance pricing: Expedia, the JetBlue funeral tweet, Kroger’s data business, VPNs and a 515-page McDonald’s dossier.
• 1:26:00 Ethical companies, Meta’s Muse and a study of AI shopping assistants that recommend pricier options.
• 1:37:00 Princeton Review zip-code pricing, a shopper’s bill of rights, New York’s surveillance-pricing bill and what to ask Congress.

Gouged (Lindsay Owens) — Lindsay’s new book on the end of a fair price. Amazon 0:00

Ruffles Original Potato Chips — One of the 23 everyday items in Groundwork’s Instacart secret-shopper cart. Amazon 25:00

Music Box (Mariah Carey) — The album with “Hero,” the song Theo tries to name. Amazon 1:41:00

Price gouging — Lindsay gives the legal definition and how companies used inflation as cover. Wikipedia 3:20

Dynamic pricing — Why concert tickets are now effectively auctioned off. Wikipedia 5:00

Electronic shelf labels — Walmart says they are a modern take on everyday low prices; Lindsay worries about what they enable. Wikipedia 7:00

Gerontocracy — Theo reads the definition while they talk about Congress. Wikipedia 19:00

Shrinkflation — Same price, less product, and recipes quietly made cheaper. Wikipedia 35:40

Gruen transfer — The moment a shopper forgets why they came to the mall. Wikipedia 54:00

Consumer Product Safety Commission — Lindsay’s model for a shopper’s bill of rights. Wikipedia 1:42:00

Tide To Go stain stick (mention, said by Lindsay Owens) — She’d like Walmart to make “a Tide stick that actually works.” 1:01:09

Washington, D.C. — Home of the Groundwork Collaborative and the lobbyists who descend on bills. Wikipedia 1:00

Brazil — Where Coca-Cola’s CEO revealed the heat-sensing vending machine in a magazine interview. Wikipedia 32:20

Philadelphia — Where John Wanamaker opened one of the first American department stores. Wikipedia 39:00

New York — Its legislature passed a surveillance-pricing ban that awaits the governor. Wikipedia 1:46:20

• Chime (20:50) — chime.com/theo · fee-free banking. Chime is a fintech, not a bank; see chime.com/disclosures.
• Shopify (22:10) — shopify.com/theo · start and grow a business.
• Modiphy (57:30) — modiphy.com/theo · 50% off a new website.