09-28-26 Part One - Walmart Won't Take It Personal

Red Eye Radio

The episode explores the intersection of technology, economics, and politics, beginning with Walmart's commitment to avoid personalized pric

Key takeaways

• Walmart CEO John Furner reaffirmed a strategy of pricing 'the product, not the person' to avoid using personal data for individualized pricing.
• Bill Gates warned that unchecked artificial intelligence has the potential to cause one billion deaths.

Main topics

• Walmart pricing strategy
• AI existential risks

Notable quotes

We price the product, not the person.

Conclusion

The episode highlights a deep skepticism toward doomsday narratives an

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:06) Now, it's Red Eye Radio. Gary McNamara and Eric Hurley talk about everything from politics to social issues and news of the day. Whether you're up late or you're just starting your day, welcome to the show. From the Relief Factor Studios, this is Red Eye Radio. Speaker 3 (0:25) All across America, we are Red Eye Radio. He is Eric Hurley and I'm Gary McNamara. Hey, I saw the story where... Bill Gates said AI has the potential to kill a billion people. And I'm like, well, that's not the problem. We'll discuss that, by the way, a little bit later on. This is it right here. When I saw this story, Walmart vows not to use customer data for personalized pricing. We won't do it. They assured customers they would not use personal data and then take that personal data with AI to personalize prices. that are different for each and every consumer. Oh, my God. First of all, they Speaker 4 (1:10) may not change prices, but they're already using your personal data if you have an account with Walmart and you have, like, I have Walmart Plus. And they'll tell you, okay, here are the things, basically, your items. It says my items. You can click on my items. And it will show you everything you buy, usually on a regular basis, or something you just bought, whether it's in-store or online. Oh, yeah. So they're using personal data. Speaker 3 (1:39) Yeah. Speaker 4 (1:40) You know, and Amazon does the same thing. Now, it is different. People think about it and go, well, wait a minute. You know, Charlie's getting a different price than I'm getting. You know, but there are other companies. I don't know about Walmart, but there are other companies that are already doing that, where they'll give you a flash. They'll send you a deal. It's like sending you a coupon, basically. And through the app, they'll send you a notification. Hey, flash deal on this thing you were looking at the other day or something you bought in the past. And it's good for today only or the next two hours only or whatever it might be. They're already doing that where it's, you know, it's down. And basically, hey, we'll give you this coupon. But we're not offering the coupon to everybody. It may not be the same pricing for everybody. That's going to happen. They may not do it now, but if Walmart is going to compete with other e-commerce companies, and, of course, that's their number one goal. That's their game now. I don't see how they get around it eventually. I don't know how long they hold off. Speaker 3 (2:43) I just love it. In a letter published Friday, the Walmart president and CEO, John Ferner, reaffirmed the retail giant's longstanding everyday low price strategy, saying the company prices the product, not the person. I've heard concerns about companies using that information and technology to charge you more. I want to tell you where we stand. We price the product, not the person. He says prices may fluctuate when the cost of goods or transportation changes. Well, we know that already. Sure. Walmart will not use customers' income, shopping history, urgency, or other personal information to set prices. Look, Walmart is not a car dealership. Speaker 4 (3:22) Right, exactly. MSRP! And why is every month truck month? It's truck month at Walmart. But it's, you know, the thing is. Speaker 3 (3:32) You know what? When I see those ads that say, you can save. You buy this weekend. You'll save $19,000 on this truck. Yeah, Speaker 4 (3:44) why didn't Speaker 3 (3:45) you Speaker 4 (3:45) price it down there to begin with? Well, no, no. My first Speaker 3 (3:49) question is always. Speaker 3 (3:52) If the reduction you're trying to tell me is $19,000, how much is a damn truck? Speaker 4 (3:57) Yeah. Speaker 3 (3:58) Oh, if you're Speaker 4 (3:59) saving $19,000. If I'm saving $19,000. You can easily spend $75,000 on a pickup truck. It's crazy. It's insane. That Speaker 3 (4:08) always gets to me. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. That's all I wish to pay for a vehicle is $19,000. No, I mean, Speaker 4 (4:15) you know, here's the thing is that it's, I think this, by the way, I think this income pricing. thing is is i think that is it has a lot of people concerned it i don't think any smart retailer would ever do that because the moment that gets out and it would get out you know there is because i don't know of any e-retailer doing it right now or any retailer doing it right now um there may be some out there that i'm not aware of i'm just saying i don't know of any The moment an insider in that organization, in that company, gets that out to the media, it's over. Because people don't want to be treated that way. Because here's what they'll say. Well, wait a minute. I'm now making $90,000 a year because I work three jobs. Speaker 4 (5:08) My income last year was, you know, $20,000, $30,000 more than my neighbors or whatever. But I'm making that much because I'm working three jobs. Speaker 4 (5:22) And so, you know, the moment it doesn't matter because this trying to this idea of pricing based on income levels and that the rich should pay more. You know, I mean, they know they're paying more because they buy more expensive stuff. Means testing pricing Speaker 3 (5:42) is only for the government monopoly. Yes. Speaker 4 (5:45) Right. Like school lunches. Speaker 3 (5:51) Or Social Security very soon. Yes, exactly. Which is going to happen. Yeah. No, I mean, Speaker 4 (5:57) it's, you know, this. Speaker 4 (6:01) I see Walmart trying to get ahead of something that I don't think will ever be a broad thing because the moment it gets out, if you're not competitive on pricing, and that includes, hey, this person often buys this and will offer because there's companies like Ibotta who have entered, they're an e-coupon company that have, in fact, integrated their business model into pretty much every retailer, right? And so those retailers are able, and they're manufacturers' coupons. That's all they are. And then they just offer it through whether you're buying it in store or buying it online. And they offer it through that, you know, through that way. So if you're not being as competitive as you can be, which might include, hey, this guy buys a lot of this. Let's offer him this coupon or this special for the next two hours or whatever. That may happen. In fact, it is happening right now. That happens with. Sometimes with these restaurant delivery companies, with these food delivery companies, they'll say, okay, here are these specials that are going on right now, and here's a special just for you. They always say, just for you, and it's basically their repeat customer. And you reward repeat customers, and that's been happening for quite some time, going all the way back before e-commerce. Speaker 4 (7:31) Any company in their right mind that tries to price things higher for higher income is going to run into a loser all day. And the moment that gets out, that rumor will always be that it's still in place. That's the problem. People won't be able to tell if it's actually gone if they ever do it. And an insider comes out and says, hey, they're doing this. then in the back of people's minds, they'll think a lot of people will believe, well, they're still doing it. They said they stopped, but they're probably still doing it. Speaker 3 (8:04) Yeah, and that's, you know, it's like, you know, it's like AI. Speaker 4 (8:09) Yeah. Speaker 3 (8:09) You know, and we'll get to the whole Bill Gates story, but I'm like, okay, he said it could kill a billion people. You know, AI, if not you. And I'm like, give me the specific scenario. I can't find a scenario. If you can't tell me a scenario, shut up, because you did the same thing about climate change. Right. And, you know, I see stuff like that. But the rumor gets out, and that's the thing. We live in a social media conspiracy theory culture. Speaker 4 (8:35) Right. Speaker 3 (8:35) That's part of our culture today. So if you do it, Walmart getting ahead of this is probably a very, very smart thing to do. I got to tell you, though, the beautiful thing about technology. You know, so I traveled over the weekend, you know, to see Dad. And, you know, so I didn't get back till Saturday night. By the way. To the airlines, again, I've said this I don't know how many times on the air. Don't brag about arriving early at DFW. Speaker 4 (9:01) And then sit on the tarmac for five minutes waiting at the gate? Speaker 3 (9:04) Five minutes? An hour on the tarmac waiting for your gate to open. Oh, my gosh. You land 30 minutes early, brag about we've landed 30 minutes early, and then they – and it seems to be happening. My last two flights, you'll see it. You'll see these planes. It's like Saturday night it happens. I don't know if it happens Sunday night, but you'll see, and I don't know whether it's just the buildup or whatever or things start slowing down or just so many of the airlines are late. But when we came up, I looked and I could see these American Airlines planes sitting, and I went, these gates aren't ready. We went over the bridge to the other side where our gate was. In B, and you could see the planes. You drove over to Love Field. Get out, everybody. Right down 183. Yeah, exactly. Airport freeway. 183 to Loop 12. There you go. Right over to Love Field. And it was amazing how those wings fit under each and every bridge. But when you go to the other side, there's like five planes, and then finally there was like eight planes all sitting there. I counted it. You know, sitting there some for like 15, 20 minutes, all waiting for gates to open. But don't say, you know, and we've arrived at the airport early, 30 minutes early. Don't brag about it because early means you get me to the gate and off the plane. Right. Speaker 4 (10:30) You know, Speaker 3 (10:30) it's not, don't brag about tarmac or runway to runway. Right. Or tarmac to tarmac. Right. It's gate to gate. Speaker 4 (10:39) Yes, exactly. But you know, the Speaker 3 (10:41) thing is, you know, as I've always said. You know, I'm not one of those, you know, you go on social media and the airlines are just eviscerated, you know. I can't believe it. I couldn't get in. They kept canceling my flight. Yeah, there's thunderstorms. They can't fly when you do that. And people seem to not understand that or don't want to understand it. But I fully understand that once you get in that tube, and like I said, you land early and they say 30 minutes. There's that anticipation. All right, I can be home by this time and everything else. And then you just sit there and they park for an hour. And you can see they've changed gates already. When you're in the air, they change gates a couple of times. And you're like, well, they change gates. And the gate, after they change three times in an hour and a half, what gate I'm going to land at? Speaker 4 (11:22) And Speaker 3 (11:23) then they brag, I land 30 minutes early, and then I'm sitting in this tube for an hour. And then the jet fumes started getting to everybody. Speaker 4 (11:30) They Speaker 3 (11:31) were like, the pilot's trying to do it. We know the smell is there. And actually, you know, a little bit, tiny bit. I mean. 5 % nausea. I just thought, oh, nausea. What's that? And I started thinking, wow, this is pretty bad. And then they got out and said, the pilots are trying to do something about it. But it's just, you're sitting in that little tube and you want to get out. And I think it's just a natural human instinct. Even though overall, even though both flights were late, and it has been a record this year for me for late flights. It's been... And, you know, I'm not, you know, again, you're not sure what it is. You know, they, you know, they do the domino effect now of, you know, for example, if your plane's coming in, can't tell you how many times, probably 90 % of the time when I see I followed my flight coming in, the one that's supposed to be at my gate, and they switch it and put you on a later flight that may even be on time, but it's getting in, so it'll make your flight late. You know, they just do that rolling. They keep it. If there's somebody later than you, they put the plane there, and then they just keep rolling along. They didn't used to do that. To me, I saw the change after U.S. Air took them over. And, you know, because American, if your plane was late, your plane was late way back then. And if it was canceled, it was canceled. Now they do that rolling, you know, thing. But other than that, it was a great time. Dad, for some reason, found his cognitive abilities, came completely back for the two days that I was there. It was absolutely wonderful. I posted a picture of my sister and I, you know, because we celebrated our birthdays, you know, with my dad. Speaker 4 (13:13) Yeah, happy belated Speaker 3 (13:15) birthday now, right? Yeah, it was yesterday. My sister's was last week. Mine was this week. And dad was smiling, laughing. It was, to me, it was a miracle. And again, it just... I'll say this because it's something that I didn't know was going to happen as I got older. That doesn't happen for every tragedy. But I'm just amazed, happened with my mom, happened with my dad, that in the worst tragedies that you think of a scenario in your life, something happening, and you still find an incredible, joyful moment in it. I had one of those again this weekend. In the worst times of your life, you can still find those instances. where there's incredible joy that's based on that tragedy. Speaker 4 (14:01) And Speaker 3 (14:01) my siblings and I, we actually had that conversation over the weekend with my dad. So that's something that I didn't know was going to happen in life. I did not know. And that it would be so incredibly rewarding when it happens. Speaker 4 (14:15) You know, I believe I'm a firm believer in God, and I believe in prayer. When I was in the hospital with my dad, I found that there were moments that came to me that kept me positive, but it's what you pray for. Give me the strength and the ability to get through this, you know, this event, set of events that's going on here, and also, you know, help all of the caretakers, professional and non-professional caretakers that are taking care of my dad, help my father. get through this and help my mom deal with this as best she can. And I found myself in the same situation where there were moments of joy and laughter and people. Speaker 4 (15:06) And it's coming together in a pretty tough situation, I think. And I think it's part of our coping mechanism. And I give credit to God. So glad to hear your dad was doing better for those two days. And we'll pray that continues. Speaker 3 (15:25) Yeah, it was really good. And the only other thing is... Speaker 3 (15:33) And how technology, you know, we've spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks talking about technology, the history of technology, and how people don't, you know, I think really appreciate, you know, where we are today. Yeah. But Speaker 4 (15:44) something Speaker 3 (15:44) just happened over the weekend. I've got, you know, I've got a recliner couch with a recliner on one side, one on the other, and a console in the middle. You can put your drinks down. It's got USB ports. Well, the whole thing went dead on Saturday. And I was reclined back. And by the way, when it reclines back, it's impossible to get it back. Manually. Speaker 4 (16:02) You Speaker 3 (16:02) just can't. I'm like, what is it? Because both sides wouldn't work. Speaker 4 (16:06) Like, Speaker 3 (16:06) what do I do? So I had to tip the thing over, the whole thing over, which then gave me a chance to clean the carpeting underneath the couch. And I went on the internet. If both are going, it's either some cord coming in or it's the transformer. And because just going on the internet, within 30 seconds, okay,