Episode summary
Groundwork Collaborative CEO on Affordability Concerns | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec · Guests: Max Chafkin, Lindsay Owens
Summary
Affordability dominated the conversation, with the host and guests arguing that voters’ anger is not just about inflation but also about how companies set prices. The discussion framed President Trump’s weak marks on the cost of living as part of a broader sense that the economy feels unfair, especially for younger consumers, renters, and households facing higher housing, health care, and grocery costs. Bloomberg’s Max Chafkin and Groundwork Collaborative CEO Lindsay Owens focused on what Owens calls the reinvention of the ripoff: firms using data, algorithms, and AI to charge different customers different prices for the same goods and services.
Owens said companies now have broad leeway to run A/B tests and personalize prices, citing Groundwork’s work on Instacart, where some shoppers allegedly paid 23% more for eggs and where the group estimated losing households could pay $1,200 more a year. She argued that much of this behavior sits in a legal gray area that policymakers should scrutinize more aggressively. The host and Chafkin connected that argument to election politics, suggesting that corporate pricing power and tech-driven personalization are becoming populist issues.
Looking ahead, Owens said she would like to see a different oversight agenda in Congress, with hearings focused less on symbolic investigations and more on CEOs using pricing techniques that she says are emptying wallets.
Key takeaways
- The host argued that affordability, not just inflation, is the issue voters care about most in the election.
- Lindsay Owens said companies use data and AI to set prices in ways that make the economy feel less fair.
- Groundwork’s research on Instacart found some shoppers paying 23% more for eggs, with a possible $1,200 annual hit for a family of four.
- Owens said many pricing practices are legal or in a gray area, but she wants Congress to scrutinize them more aggressively.
- The host and Max Chafkin said corporate pricing power is increasingly becoming a political issue as voters sour on big business and tech.
Notable quotes
“Voters are no doubt about it concerned about affordability and it's something that many of our guests on Bloomberg have highlighted”
“It's focused on what it calls quote surveillance pricing. It's the idea that retailers such as Walmart might charge customers different prices for items in stores and online”
“Pricing used to be simple. Companies figured out how much it cost to make an item. They put their margin on top and they stuck it on a sticker”
“some Americans were paying 23% more for a dozen eggs from the exact same grocery store at the exact same time”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts, radio news. — You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenc on Bloomberg Radio.
Well, the US economy picked up steam ahead of next week's uh this week's tomorrow's today's midterm elections. Third quarter gross domestic product rising at the fastest pace in a year and a measure of inflation rose in September by the most in six months. are really highlighting the persistent disconnect between the strength of the economy and how Americans feel about it.
Voters are no doubt about it concerned about affordability and it's something that many of our guests on Bloomberg have highlighted. PIMCO's Rich Clarida, Nila Richardson from ADP among them. We can't list all the voices in some audio video that we want to play to you, but we still wanted to feel and share with you kind of what feels like has been a non-stop drum beat from our guests on affordability.
The first voice though you will hear is Schwab's Kevin Gordon.
You see it survey after survey, anecdote after anecdote, but younger people today, especially in Gen Z, they just don't really believe in that classic American dream. — And the American dream is being, you know, running past us. — We do and have had a K-shaped economy for some time, but the K the branches of the K have been diverging more widely in the last six or seven uh years. 47% of Americans, according to our research, saw real wage declines over the last four years because of inflation. So, this is why consumer sentiment is dismal.
Trump's tariffs, the war in Iran, u both of which have uh have jacked prices up for consumers. Cities like New York, in states like California where housing's become, you know, impossibly unaffordable.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- affordability concerns
- cost of living
- inflation
- pricing behavior
- surveillance pricing
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Groundwork Collaborative
Watch the episode
Watch “Groundwork Collaborative CEO on Affordability Concerns | Bloomberg Businessweek” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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