Your DeKalb Farmers Market is unlike anywhere else in metro Atlanta. The chaotic hum of the market is somehow embraced into order and organization. Multiple languages printed on identification cards reflect flags representing various countries hanging above the meat and seafood counters and rows of produce stands. Immaculate pastries are stationed behind glass, while long lines snake from the rotisserie chicken stand on Wednesdays. Shelves come stacked with ingredients that provide a glimpse of home for so many Atlantans.

Dynamic pricing is an increasingly common phenomenon: You can see it when Uber prices surge during rainy weather, or when you're booking a flight at the last minute or buying tickets to your favorite superstar's concert. On an earnings call last week, Wendy's ignited a minor controversy by suggesting it would introduce dynamic pricing in its restaurants, but the company quickly clarified that it wasn't planning on using it for "surge pricing."

One place you hardly ever see dynamic pricing? American supermarkets.

Why is that? Why shouldn't the prices for meat or bread or produce go down as they get older? Why does all the milk in the store cost the same, even when the "sell by" dates are weeks apart? Wouldn't a little more flexibility around prices be better for customers and help reduce waste?

Professors Robert Evan Sanders and Ioannis (Yannis) Stamatopoulus had similar questions. So they set out to discover what was keeping supermarkets from employing a more dynamic approach, and what might convince them it was time for a change ... in pricing.

This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Nick Fountain. It was produced by Willa Rubin and edited by Keith Romer. It was engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez.

Amazon laid off workers at its brick-and-mortar grocery stores last week — the latest sign of the e-commerce giant's struggles to stand out in the competitive grocery landscape.

The $25-billion deal is likely to draw intense scrutiny from federal regulators and critics as it would form a new supermarket colossus at a time of soaring food costs.

Keeping U.S. markets filled with a dazzling array of choices relies on an army of farmers, suppliers, truckers and retail workers. What's gained and lost as all that food makes its way to the shelves?

Principal Lynn Janes knows she is responsible for some hungry kids. “We have a lot of students, who, the only times that they really get a full solid...