It’s no secret that New York City is becoming an increasingly difficult place for everyday people to afford to live. Our rents continue to increase, inflation seems to get worse, and now between tariffs and the war in Iran, just about everything we buy, from food to gasoline, has become more expensive. Working New Yorkers, especially those living in public housing, are already struggling to make ends meet and need every resource available to them to afford to live in this city. That’s why I am disappointed that the City Council is now considering misguided legislation that could eliminate many store discounts as we know them.
The bill, Int. No. 891, targets surveillance pricing, a term that refers to using personal customer data to set prices. Proponents claim this is to address our affordability concerns by ensuring that stores are not charging consumers more, but the truth is this bill would actually make our cost of living even higher. That is because the proposal also prohibits stores from lowering the cost of goods by making some discounts illegal. If this bill passes we may actually be forced to pay more for many products than we already do.
