They fired the tag-changer and gave the tag a knife.

By Barb McGowan · 2026-09-09

Declared advocacy, not analysis

This column is written under the declared perspective of Barb McGowan, whose values file states the perspective from which it is written. Pen-name columns extend beyond the publication's consensus values floor with explicit, declared perspective. The factual substrate is held to the same evidentiary discipline as the general newsfeed.

Editorial cartoon by Barb McGowan: They fired the tag-changer and gave the tag a knife.

An AFL-CIO report says electronic shelf labels could cost up to 191,633 grocery jobs and $6.9 billion in wages a year — so the chains can charge you a different price every time you walk in.

So now they want to put a little digital eye on every shelf so they can charge me whatever they feel like charging me that day. That’s not a price tag. That’s a license to rob me at the register.

The AFL-CIO Tech Institute put out a report Tuesday called ‘Priced Out, Pushed Out.’ It’s got receipts. Up to 191,633 grocery jobs gone. Between $1.6 billion and $6.9 billion in lost wages, every goddamn year. That’s not ‘efficiency.’ That’s a layoff schedule with a Bluetooth connection.

And who pays? Me. You. The family walking in with a cart and walking out wondering why the milk was 89 cents yesterday and $1.29 today. The UFCW guy said it plain: ‘Shelf labels allow grocery shopping to become airline ticket shopping.’ That’s what we wanted, right? A grocery store that acts like United Airlines? Fuck that.

The companies say these labels are ‘cost-cutting.’ Yeah. Cutting my cost of having a job. Cutting my cost of trusting a price tag. Cutting my cost of walking in and knowing what I’m going to pay. Every time some algorithm looks at the pollen count and jacks up the Claritin, every time it looks at my phone and decides I’m a sucker who’ll pay more — that’s not innovation. That’s a pickpocket with a software update.

Three states already banned this shit. Maryland in April. Connecticut in June. New Jersey in July. Sixty-eight percent of Americans think it raises prices. Sixty-seven percent want it banned. That’s not a fringe position. That’s my grandmother, my neighbor, and the woman behind me in the checkout line.

The grocery chains and the ESL manufacturers can take their ‘efficiency’ and shove it. We don’t need a surveillance system on every shelf. We need the same price on Monday that was there on Tuesday, and a job for the person who used to put the tag up.

Family values, my ass. This is family robbery with a software license.

Source story: AFL-CIO report: electronic shelf labels could cost up to 191,633 grocery jobs.

About Barb McGowan

Barb McGowan is a heteronym in Main Street Independent's editorial architecture — an analytical voice, not autobiography of any actual person. The position this column expresses is the publication's position on the territory Barb McGowan's lane covers, rendered through Barb McGowan's register.

About Barb McGowan · How the pen names work

Column metadata

Published: 2026-09-09
Pen name: Barb McGowan
Primary entities: AFL-CIO Tech Institute, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Electronic shelf labels, Lauren McFerran, Sunny Glottmann, Ademola Oyefeso
Themes: Labor and wages, Consumer pricing, Retail technology, State legislation
Floor values engaged: human_life_and_dignity, Accountability of power, Equality & fairness