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Lindsay Owens, the executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, tells me the widespread acceptance of dynamic pricing lets platforms get away with this.
“Working families in New York and across the country struggle with the cost of living, and they deserve protections against corporations using their data against them to jack up prices,” said Lindsay Owens, Executive Director of Groundwork Collaborative. “New Yorkers aren’t corporate guinea pigs, and Groundwork applauds Attorney General Letitia James, and her fellow New York leaders, for fighting to ensure New Yorkers aren’t shaken down by secret pricing schemes designed to squeeze every last dollar out of them. The One Fair Price Act can’t come soon enough.”
A December 2025 investigation put a number on it. Groundwork Collaborative, working with Consumer Reports and More Perfect Union, ran a field test with roughly 400 shoppers buying the same baskets at the same time, and found that nearly 75% of grocery items on Instacart were offered at more than one price.
The K-shaped economy comes into clear view as prices continue to rise, employers and workers lose confidence, and working families struggle to keep up.
Alex Jacquez: “I think people are mostly mad about prices, and they have been for a long time. People are less concerned about the job market and the labor market right now than they are with the rising cost of living.”
Working class Americans face a stumbling labor market propped up by limited concentrated growth, paychecks falling behind cost of living.
The One Fair Price Act, which protects against corporate price gouging powered by consumers’ personal data, now heads to Governor Hochul’s desk for signature.
Lindsay Owens is an economist who works for consumer rights group Groundwork Collaborative. Her first book, Gouged, is out later this year. “The price of watching live sport — and live music — has exploded over the last decade for three main reasons: monopoly, dynamic pricing and scarcity,” she said.
Why are US consumers so angry? It’s not just high prices. These experiences are not just frustrating. US households are losing $165bn a year on the “annoyance economy” or “what we pay in time, fees and irritation to navigate our daily lives”, the Groundwork Collaborative, a thinktank that focuses on concentrations of private power, estimated in February.
Young Americans are grappling with the affordability crisis and a tough job market. MS NOW Reporter Maya Eaglin spoke with some voters about their concerns. Groundwork Collaborative Executive Director Lindsay Owens and former Campaign Manager for Julián Castro's presidential campaign Maya Rupert join Erielle Reshef to share their thoughts.