It’s not just the US. Im an American working remotely for a European grocery delivery platform, and one of the key feature requests from partners in UK and France is location-specific pricing. Presumably price discrimination for those in wealthier neighborhoods.
> price discrimination for those in wealthier neighborhoods.
In the case of this Aldi price map, they are doing regional pricing - it would seem that every store in an area has the same price regardless of neighborhood wealth for the individual store. So you get naval oranges in Los Angeles at $1.89, $2.39 in Chicago, and $2.99 in New York City (and Houston).
The difference probably has a lot to do with the cost structure for operating the distribution network. If you switch to the organic pasta sauce, it appears that the price is the same $1.99 everywhere except Los Angeles, where it is $2.19. Their oranges are likely coming from California and their pasta sauce is coming from somewhere east of the Mississippi.
It's not necessarily wealth that governs price changes, but access. Anyone with a car and 'enough' money for gas can go to the store across town if it's cheaper, but if a store is isolated enough by geography or neighborhood income level, you'll likely see higher prices.
Case in point: the Kroger in Oxford Ohio (where Miami of Ohio's campus is located) has had remarkably higher prices than other Krogers in the area for as long as I've known. Oxford is 'close' to Cincinnati, but there's enough corn and soybean fields between the two to make the trip a pain.
