A Boring Dystopia

It'd probably be the opposite. I bet they'd charge more to specific demographics - and common convenience store beverage brands would probably cost more for poorer people.

Plus, without controls, they'd probably end up charging different ethnic groups more for specific goods - they'd probably obfuscate it somehow, like to charge white people more for something they'd probably say they were doing it because you're a model train enthusiast or something. Or like "our consultants have told us that Tejano music fans are willing to pay a premium for coca cola" and so they jack up the price of coca cola for Mexicans without saying it's because they're mexican.

But yeah, I bet poorer people who have less free time would be "willing" to pay more for essentials because they often have less choice in where they get groceries. In other words you could force poor people with fewer options to accept jacked up prices whereas non-poor people may have the luxury of shopping around or paying someone else to get their groceries.

Also, if poor people were charged less there'd be a whole industry of personal grocery shoppers who'd get discounted prices for rich people and charge them a service fee in exchange.

If it would mean things getting cheaper for poor people, it wouldn't even be all that bad of an idea.

Well, except for the privacy issues, obv.

Ya'll, this already happens - wholesale and retail pricing vs consumer pricing. This exact principle is why many states refuse sales tax - those disproportionately affect poorer people because a lot of rich people can buy items through their LLCs and get bulk or retailer pricing.

Costco has memberships based on this - there's the regular and then the executive memberships. You spend more on the higher level memberships (essentially an income check) and also get more money back later. Credit card promos function like this. Credit scores and loans function like this.

Grocery stores (capital) will never give us a break on food (money). They will always try to find a way to make the poor pay even more. That's why it's called capitalism - all that is valued is capital and capital accrues more capital. That's the game.

I hate capitalism

The business model for many many many businesses is to give the rich a good deal to encourage more business, and to give the poor a mediocre to poor deal, because they have less options and the volume is lower.

The poverty line is a fucking joke.