Building an economy that works for all of us. #WeAreTheEconomy Find us on Bluesky @ groundwork and Instagram @ groundworkcollab.
Washington, D.C.
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🚨 NEW: Homeownership is slipping out of reach — especially for young Americans. The median-priced home now costs +$400,000. Something is broken.
Our new housing plan borrows an idea that helped families buy affordable starter homes more than a century ago: the Sears “house in a box.”
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Do you ever wonder why, in the times of space exploration & AI, we still don’t have a lightbulb that lasts for more than a few months?
That’s because light bulb companies have purposefully made their product worse.
Why? @owenslindsay1 on the @weeklyshowpod explains.
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Groundwork Collaborative retweeted
"Gouged" isn't out until next week but it's already helping "spark" conversation around @Walmart's Sparky chatbot, and delivering for consumers.
@Walmart just announced their "promises" around pricing, but make no mistake: they're cleaning up their spill on aisle four.
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Groundwork Collaborative retweeted
In her new book, “Gouged: The End of a Fair Price, and What That Means for Your Wallet”, @Groundwork Executive Director @owenslindsay1 pulls back the curtain on the tricks, traps, and high-tech tools corporations use to squeeze more money from consumers. From surveillance pricing and algorithmic price fixing to hidden fees, Owens shows how these deceptive tactics are reaching nearly every part of our household budgets and driving up costs – offering a guide for recognizing them and fighting back.
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No lesbian bars, mask mandates, or clown school. Just corporations using increasingly sophisticated technology to figure out exactly how much money they can extract from you. Sorry!
Our @owenslindsay1's essay in @bostonglobe.
bostonglobe.com/2026/09/24/m…
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Groundwork Collaborative retweeted
We didn’t have to “leap” to much. Walmart spells out this illustrative example in its own patent application.
patentimages.storage.googlea…
You’re taking a patent that describes pricing technology and leaping straight to “Walmart scans your tuna and secretly raises the mayonnaise price just for you.” That is not what the patent proves.
A patent establishes that someone has claimed an invention. It does not establish that Walmart is using it in stores, and it certainly does not prove that two customers standing beside each other are being charged different prices because one scanned tuna first. That distinction matters.
Dynamic pricing, demand forecasting, personalized recommendations and individualized pricing are not synonymous. Collapsing all four into one scary story is rhetorical legerdemain, not evidence.
If Walmart is actually doing what you claim, show the transaction data, the deployed system, or the patent language that explicitly authorizes a customer-specific price increase based on what that individual just scanned.
Until then, you have described what technology might theoretically permit and presented it as something already happening.
That’s not an exposé. That’s speculation wearing a lab coat.
#AStoneGroove #SilentMajoritySpeaks
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Groundwork Collaborative retweeted
Imagine scanning a can of tuna in your grocery cart, and suddenly your next item, mayo, now has a HIGHER PRICE BUT ONLY FOR YOU.
Walmart just patented tech that could make this surveillance pricing possible.
@owenslindsay1 breaks down these corporate pricing tricks.
Lindsay Owens (@owenslindsay1), author of Gouged, explains how smart carts have made it easier to target specific consumers with higher prices. New pod out now! @Groundwork
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Groundwork Collaborative retweeted
You’re not imagining it: shopping has become a game of predator and prey.
Thrilled to share the first excerpt from "Gouged" in @BostonGlobe. Yes, you’re being ripped off. Yes, you're being watched. Yes, there’s something we can do about it.
Read it: bostonglobe.com/2026/09/24/m…
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Groundwork Collaborative retweeted
Really excited to announce that I've joined the Substack club.
Come for the pricing schemes, stay for the corporate doublespeak, bombshell investigations, policy fights, and the occasional Walmart whistleblowing.
substack.com/@lindsayowensph…
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Banger after banger keeps dropping from the @BostonGlobe this week. Newest hit? The first excerpt from @owenslindsay1's new book, Gouged!
This is the book for the smart consumer: Sellers can now overcharge you 24/7, often without you realizing it.
Learn how & what you can do 👇
bostonglobe.com/2026/09/24/m…
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Yes, like a mask on a Saturday night at the western mass lesbian bar, you are being ripped off.
New AI tools have transformed how companies price everything – and they’re coming for every line item in your budget.
The 1st excerpt of @owenslindsay1's new book Gouged is here!
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Just one day after the western mass lesbian bar story dropped, the @bostonglobe is out with its newest exclusive: the first excerpt from @owenslindsay1's new book, Gouged!
This is the book "corporate America doesn't want you to read," per @RBReich.
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Groundwork Collaborative retweeted
I spilled a lot of ink on how agentic commerce could supercharge personalized pricing (and overcharging in particular) in my new book, Gouged. bit.ly/GougedPRH
This is the most robust study on the topic yet and it is bad news for consumers. Really phenomenal work from @brian_jabarian.
Economic misalignment in personal AI agents is a serious safety issue. We document it in 325K experiments across 13 agents.
You delegate a specific action to your personal AI agent and give it access to relevant personal information so it can take the best action for you. But then it infers your wealth from this info and gives you the pricier option, *even when you explicitly ask for the cheapest option*.
Such a blast working with the amazing @niloofar_mire, @AmanPriyanshu6 and @SupritiVijay
See Niloofar’s great thread below and paper here: arxiv.org/abs/2609.24927 And hope it makes you read again Shakespeare!
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NEW: Our new report exposes how AI is already driving up costs for Americans on nearly every line of the household budget – and how that toll will only grow.
AI could be used to lower costs for working families. Instead, its turned into a hidden tax.
groundworkcollaborative.org/…
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Our @owenslindsay1 joined @NRDC yesterday for Climate Week in New York City to discuss building durable environmental progress in a changing world.
Thanks to all who came out!
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We're excited to announce @owenslindsay1 is officially on Substack!
Subscribe now to keep up to date on how consumers can fight back – as individual shoppers and collectively – before the idea of a fair price becomes a relic of the past.
🔗: lindsayowensphd.substack.com…
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Groundwork Collaborative retweeted
We have a book! Well I have a book! You can have one on Tuesday if you order here: bit.ly/GougedPRH
(Also, supply chain and scheduling and relocation issues in the printing space right now need to be taken up by @TheStalwart and @tracyalloway. My editor laid out a harrowing tale this morning and I’m glad I didn’t learn the sordid details until after it was in my hands. )
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Groundwork Collaborative retweeted
NEW from Rishi Bharwani, Janelle Jones, @zoezoe_butler and @owenslindsay1:
A lot of talk about AI could harm us in the future. Not enough about how it's being used to harm us right now. From enabling scams to driving up medical bills, we look at the hidden costs of AI today.
Our new @Groundwork report looks at how AI is already raising and reshaping costs for electricity, car insurance, travel, health care, electronics, and more.
groundworkcollaborative.org/…
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Groundwork Collaborative retweeted
Our new @Groundwork report looks at how AI is already raising and reshaping costs for electricity, car insurance, travel, health care, electronics, and more.
groundworkcollaborative.org/…
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