CVS extra care and similar discount cards

[interface2x]

*Originally posted by doreen *
**The drugstore has all of that sensitive information whether you have a card or not. It could be that Rite-Aid (which doesn’t have a card) is set up differently, but I can’t imagine having a card scanned while paying at the pharmacy counter. What would be the purpose- CVS doesn’t give discounts on prescriptions, do they? **

To be fair, drugstores are very careful with their prescription drug lists. I did advertising analysis for a certain mentioned pharmacy myself and they debated for months over whether to even provide prescription counts at the ZIP Code level. They can get into a shitload of trouble if they share names.

[dantheman]

*Originally posted by KP *
**Your example actually makes his point. If they hand out cards for the asking, then the stores obviously consider the so-called ‘discounted price’ their real price, and the discount itself is a fabrication. No one is saving money compared to what they’d be charging without the cards, but some people are paying more.
**

I have no illusion that they don’t artificially raise prices. But if some people are paying more, doesn’t it stand to reason that it’s the people who don’t have the “club” card?

In addition, the issue of price isn’t the same as my point, the issue of privacy.

Let’s bear this in mind - even if you have a card, you’re under absolutely, positively no obligation to use it. Ever. If you’re buying something you’d rather the general public not know about (e.g., tampons, enemas, condoms), then don’t use the card. This isn’t difficult to figure out.

But as MsRobyn noted, some stores coordinate with charities through the use of their cards. If my buying Tylenol using the card helps some kid get a math book, I have no problem with the store knowing I bought Tylenol. You see my point?

If there are any stores out there that require the cards, I’m not familiar with them. Many stores offer them - under the offer of discounts - but I don’t know of any that won’t let you buy anything without the card. So most of these arguments are pointless, since the customer always has a choice.

In most stores, after the initial sign-up drive, the cashiers are given a card to use to ring up for people who ‘forgot their card’, at their discretion. After a year or two, even that pretense is dropped, and I’m often rung up on the cashier’s card before I even get a chance to pull out my own (In my area, the stores without cards are cheaper than stores with cards, with equal quality for most items, so my primary grocery shopping is uncarded. I do have cards for the stores that use them - they won’t derive any usable information from my less-than-monthly convenience or emergency visits)

They wouldn’t derive any information period if you never used them. If they’re the lie you claim they are, why do you have them, especially since the stores around you that don’t have the cards are cheaper?

And again, if the cashier is ringing you up under some generic card, precisely what private information are they gleaning from you? None. Not one iota. So what’s the problem with them?

The cards are a civilized form of extortion, that imply that you need to fill out the form and give information they would otherwise not be entitled to (and people do, sheep-like, by the tens of millions) for a ‘discount’, but in the end, you get the same price you’d have gotten if cards weren’t used. My proof? Consider this: well over 95% of all customers get the discounted price, whether through their cards or the cashier’s card (according to industry numbers). How do you think their marketing would fly if they told the truth: “We reserve the right charge 10-20% more if you don’t hand over your personal info”?

Ok. 95% of all customers get the discounted price. This is bad? A discounted price would mean it’s less than the marked price. Are they artificially raising prices, or are they discounting them? Are they raising them for the non-card people and discounting them for the card people? If that’s the case, then using the cashier card not only saves your privacy - it saves you money! This is bad?

As to the uses that information can be put to, well, I can only suggest you research it yourself. You wouldn’t believe me.

Try me. I suspect they take my name and address and mail me stuff. So what? Their flyers get tossed the same as the preapproved credit cards. This is no different than any other business doing a mass mailing.

I notice you mention the SSN thing, though, and that is definitely a valid point. People should never give that info out except to such trusted entities as banks and the government. Stores don’t need them, and I won’t give 'em mine. If they deny me a card, so be it.

I certainly don’t have a problem with you or anyone else not wanting a club card, but I’m at a loss to understand the fervor with which you condemn it as something other people don’t mind doing. It’s not nearly as draconian as you make it out to be, particularly since every consumer has the freedom NOT to get them.

[Markxxx]

I think they are kind of worthless. First of all I have a card from Dominicks (In Chicago owned by Safeway) I found it in the parking lot 7 years ago and have been using it ever since.

At Jewel (in Chicago owned by Albertson’s) more than half the time by the time I hand my card to the cashier she’s already entered a number in the system and I got the discount.

The thing to do is have fake info and memorized it.

[ftg]

Note that these “fine businesses” are aware that people might not provide correct info, borrow someone else’s card, or have a cashier use their card. So part of the system is that you get “extra rewards” by mail for using the card. I.e., to get the real original price of everything, you need to give them your mail address. Jerks.

The average person has no idea that they are being suckered into helping the companies get high quality marketing info which they will use for any and all reasons, ethics be damned.

Note: I am not a “miltia” or “beware the sign of the beast” type. I have a PhD in Computer Science. The information gathering going on, and the evil it is used for is immense and scary.

If everybody opts out, the cards go away, the prices come back down, our wallets get smaller, etc. It’s a win-win-win-… for us.

As for privacy and pharmacies: remember the Florida chain last year that sold their list of Prozac users to a drug chain? And that’s just one that you hear about. There are no doubt thousands more.

[Meeko]

–Hijack

I recall some time back… years ago, A drug store in Atlanta threw out its perscription records in the trash… and local news picked them up, made a fuss about it… muckraking at its finest. I don’t know if ‘the wrong hands’ ever got that information, but, cards are not the only source of information.

Also, all of our information is in ‘the book’ anyway right?