Below is a summary of our interview with Josh Pollack. You can listen to the full interview using the embedded media player below or on your favorite podcast platform (e.g., Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon Music).
In this episode of Pricing Heroes, we chat with Josh Pollack, President and Principal Consultant at Pollack Retail Solutions. With over 25 years of experience in retail strategy, Josh has led pricing, forecasting, and inventory management at major retailers like Sam’s Club and Circuit City. He has also spearheaded pricing transformations at ALDI (both US and International), PetSmart, FullBeauty Brands, and Cabela’s. Throughout his career, Josh has operated at the intersection of pricing, merchandising, technology, and analytics, striving to align these disciplines in ways that optimize profit while maintaining customer trust.
From Theater to Retail: A Roundabout Journey into Pricing
Josh’s entry into the retail world was anything but conventional. He started out pursuing theater and even earned a degree in the discipline, only to discover later that his interest in the creative process could merge effectively with the analytical rigor of business. “I didn’t start out thinking, ‘I’m going to be a retail executive and then a pricing expert,’” he admits, illustrating how sometimes the best career paths emerge unexpectedly. Yet his theater background taught him something vital in business: the sanctity of deadlines. “When a show opens on Friday night, it opens—whether you’re ready or not,” he says. This mindset served him well in merchandising, where creativity and data must coalesce to shape the customer experience. Over time, after earning an MBA, he grew increasingly focused on pricing as a powerful lever that can shape both profitability and brand perception.
His combination of artistic flair and data-driven discipline eventually propelled him to lead major pricing transformations, demonstrating that unconventional beginnings can lead to exceptional contributions. By approaching merchandising and pricing with a sense of urgency and structure, Josh was able to navigate complexities that others might have found daunting, developing holistic solutions that ultimately improved both financial outcomes and customer experiences.
Why Merchandising and Pricing Need Each Other
Having led both merchandising and pricing teams, Josh recognizes that conflict often arises when pricing reports to a separate analytics or finance function, rather than being tightly integrated with merchandising. “You want to manage product design and product lines around a pricing structure that meets profit targets, inventory targets, and creates real value for customers,” he explains, highlighting how tightly interwoven product and price decisions can be in industries such as apparel and footwear. He believes that in less commoditized categories, merchants need the freedom to align pricing with the broader brand vision, rather than treating it as a standalone, numbers-only exercise.
Even so, Josh cautions that simply handing pricing authority to the merchant team is not enough: genuine collaboration requires clearly defined roles, shared performance goals, and a transparent flow of information. In his view, the most successful retailers ensure that pricing teams deliver robust analytical insights while remaining respectful of the merchant’s product expertise. By structuring incentives to reward both analytical rigor and creative thinking, companies can create a unified approach to product and price—a synergy that ultimately enhances brand health and drives better margins without alienating customers.
Thriving in Volatile Markets: Balancing Profit and Perception
Josh predicted in his blog post, Taming the Price Volatility in 2023 and Beyond, that inflation, supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical uncertainty would keep markets volatile, forcing retailers to navigate tricky pricing waters. “If you continuously raise prices on lower-elasticity items, you risk noticeable deterioration in value perception,” he warns, emphasizing that short-term margin gains can quickly erode brand loyalty if consumers feel taken advantage of. He cites retailers like Costco and ALDI, which focus on consistent, fair pricing to foster lasting goodwill, as prime examples of how balanced strategies can yield substantial customer loyalty.
Still, Josh acknowledges that a singular low-price model is not feasible for every business. Many retailers adopt a hybrid approach, with high-visibility, price-sensitive items kept competitively low while other products see carefully calibrated increases. He notes that this strategy can indeed boost profits, provided brands remain vigilant about customer sentiment. By monitoring overall basket size, frequency of visits, and long-term changes in brand perception, retailers can gauge whether their pricing shifts are sustainable. Maintaining open communication about rising costs or strategic changes also helps preempt the feeling among consumers that they are being exploited.
AI, Dynamic Pricing, and the Risk of Eroding Brand Equity
As AI-driven price optimization becomes more widespread, retailers gain the ability to update prices rapidly in response to changes in demand, competitor moves, or inventory levels. “We’re in a grand experiment,” Josh says, describing how shoppers might perceive dynamic, real-time price adjustments as unfair—particularly if they see different prices than their neighbors for the same items. This sentiment could intensify in brick-and-mortar environments with Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs), where shelf prices may fluctuate minute by minute. While loyalty-based discounts and personalized promotions can be easier for consumers to accept, even these strategies require care to avoid appearing arbitrary or manipulative.
Josh stresses that brands should treat AI-powered pricing as a complement to human judgment, rather than a replacement. He advocates for small-scale pilots—where a handful of products are subject to dynamic rules—before rolling out broad changes. In his view, retailers must establish clear guardrails to preserve fairness and transparency. He argues that data-driven insights are invaluable, but they should be folded into a larger strategy that recognizes emotional factors driving shopper behavior. By proceeding thoughtfully and acknowledging the psychological dimensions of price, retailers can harness AI to grow margins without undermining the trust they have worked hard to build.
Beyond Shrinkflation: Maintaining Integrity and Quality
For brands under pressure to protect margins, shrinkflation and skimpflation have become tempting tactics: slightly reducing product quantity or quality while keeping prices the same. However, Josh remains skeptical of the long-term benefits, noting that “the whole idea is to hide the fact that you’re giving the customer less,” which can come back to haunt businesses once consumers catch on. Although such tactics might provide a near-term boost to profitability, they can damage a brand’s reputation and breed distrust among loyal customers.
He suggests that retailers consider openly communicating necessary price hikes to avoid eroding product integrity. By preserving quality and being forthright about cost drivers—be they higher input costs or supply chain challenges—companies can maintain a stronger bond with their audience. Where shrinkflation tends to rely on customer ignorance, transparency fosters respect and a perception of fairness, which can often sustain brand loyalty even in times of economic turbulence.
The Road Ahead: AI Improvements Versus Macroeconomic Shifts
While AI undoubtedly offers incremental gains in pricing accuracy and forecasting, Josh sees broader macroeconomic factors—tariffs, shifting trade policies, and geopolitical upheaval—as even more consequential forces. “You might move from a 75% accurate forecast to 85%, which is good,” he explains, “but that shift is modest compared to, say, a tariff change that disrupts entire sourcing strategies.” For retailers, this means that while advanced analytics and automation provide essential daily support, the capacity to pivot quickly in response to external shocks remains critical.
Maintaining agility in the face of large-scale disruptions requires a blend of data-driven tools and strategic foresight. In Josh’s view, companies that couple sophisticated technology with leadership willing to adapt major facets of their supply chain or product assortment will be best positioned to ride out unpredictable markets. AI is an increasingly powerful ally, but real resilience also relies on proactive, high-level decision-making that anticipates how external changes ripple through pricing and profitability.
Recommended Resources
For pricing professionals looking to expand their horizons, Josh suggests:
- The Indicator, a podcast by Planet Money
- Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans by Melanie Mitchell
