Amazon spent the week telling shoppers how much they could save. Walmart spent part of it explaining why consumers shouldn’t worry about how their prices are set.

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The contrast came as Amazon launched its Prime Big Deal Days event on Oct. 6-7, offering millions of discounts across electronics, toys, clothing and household essentials. Walmart countered with its own Deal Days promotion, running Oct. 5-11.

But the more unusual development came when Walmart publicly challenged an economist who has been criticizing its pricing technology.

On Monday (Oct. 5), Walmart published an open letter addressed to Lindsay Owens, president and CEO of the progressive economic policy think tank Groundwork Collaborative. Signed by Dan Bartlett, Walmart’s executive vice president of corporate affairs, the letter accused Owens of repeatedly misrepresenting the retailer’s pricing practices and asked her to correct her public statements.

The dispute exposes an emerging challenge for the retail industry. As AI makes it easier to predict what individual consumers want, it also raises questions about whether retailers will use that knowledge to determine what those consumers are willing to pay.

In a research report published Monday, Owens and Co-Author Elizabeth Pancotti examined Walmart patents describing technology capable of tracking shopping behavior, estimating customers’ willingness to pay and adjusting prices according to individual circumstances. They argued that such capabilities could undermine the transparency consumers traditionally expect at checkout.

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