The escalating cost of living keeps making headlines and inspiring furious Reddit threads. Food prices remain a flashpoint, especially when it comes to coffee. But behind every grocery store gripe lies a deeper unease about whether wages are keeping up and the tariffs that continue to dominate economic news.

While Canada isn’t subject to the highest tariff rate when compared to other countries, and many of our own counter-tariffs were lifted last September, uncertainty can still ripple through supply chains and shape consumer expectations. Analysts warn some imported goods could get more expensive as firms reassess costs. Those price variations may have less to do with tariffs and more to do with how companies choose to respond. In the recent past, firms have used such moments as a convenient cover for padding margins—the kind of “seller’s inflation” that was rampant during the pandemic.

But the fixation on tariffs and inflation obscures a different shift revolutionizing pricing: algorithms. The Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project warns automated tools are reshaping what Canadians are charged for essential goods and services, including groceries and fuel. Companies can now use software to tailor prices based on everything from our browsing patterns, location, loyalty history, device type, and operating system. The same item can appear at one amount for you and another for someone else, depending on who you are, when you see it online, and what the algorithm believes you are willing to pay.

As former United States Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan told The American Prospect, we now live in a technological environment that can serve “every individual an individual price based on everything they know about you.” And it’s making things more expensive.

Our day-to-day navigation of prices rests on a comforting illusion—that we all encounter the same marketplace. In reality, this is happening less often. Firms have always had the right to set prices, but that process has become continuous and individualized: a ceaseless micro-calculation of how much you personally might be willing to pay for something. In a way, we’re all participating in an ongoing pricing experiment. And, like the best subjects, we barely realize it.

This new marketplace emerged, in part, because the tools to reshape it became cheaper, faster, and ubiquitous. For firms, price personalization—or discrimination—no longer requires building a proprietary system; it can be purchased off the shelf.

Shopify’s app store will........

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