For most of those stores, if you look at the bottom of the card “application,” there is a statement that you don’t have to fill out any information and you’ll still get the card. Just get the card and don’t fill out the form. Geez, what a stupid thing to complain about.
Actually, the data for this tracking doesn’t occur with cards. This information is garnered by what passes through the checkstand, and taking into account shrinkage (the stuff that dissappears).
Sorry, meant to add a little more.
One of the reasons WM was able to grow to the size it is, is because of their logistical processes. They pioneered the logistics pipeline to the point that almost every other large company that deals with moving cargo around has followed their lead. It’s a really interesting study in the evolution of businesses…
I wasn’t trying to criticize you for starting this thread - just saying, “if anyone wants to know what I think, it’s over here.”
I always type in (area code) 867-5309.
I’ve done this in several area codes, and only ever had to fill out one card. When I did fill it out, I put the name down as “Jenny.”
I know. I just didn’t want to seem like I was being a copycat.
Every store I go into, the clerk scans their own card when I say I don’t have one. So why the fuck don’t they just say fuck these cards, everybody gets the discount automatically?
Speedway has pissed me off the most. I have one right here on the other side of the block, so it makes sense to go there. Plus for only 59 cents I can refill my 20 ounce coffee mug. But man, are they pushing that Speedy Rewards card. Are they getting kickbacks or something on that thing? Why is Flubadub behind the counter so concerned that I don’t have this stupid card?
Over here in Li’l ol’ Madison, Sentry has ditched the card, do you have one of those over in West Allis?
Hehe, I don’t mind anything that helps me save money, so to me, it just seems like a silly argument. “They’re trying to help me save money! Those bastards!”
They want you to use the card, because it helps them track demographics. In return for helping them compile running databases, they reward you with discounts you wouldn’t normally get otherwise.
I realize people who fill it out with fake info, stores who scan for you if you don’t have a card, etc. skew that, but it doesn’t change the primary reason for the cards’ existence, and the information they do gather is obviously useful to them.
If they’re helping the companies that sell products in their stores target certain demographics, they’re likely also making a profit with that information. So what? Good for them, and if they want to market certain products/discounts/sales/coupons to my demographic that I’d find useful, hey, so much the better! Sounds like a win-win to me. They make money, I save money, everyone’s happy, and I get new stuff. 
If so many of you are up in arms over cards, the AC Nielsen Homescan Panel I am a member of would really drive you nuts. 
After I purchase things (anything with a bar code), when I get it home, I scan my purchases with a Homescan scanner, and enter any additional requested info. about the purchase (was it on sale, did you use a coupon/loyalty card, for some stores, they request prices), and once a week I connect the scanner to my PC and upload that week’s purchases. There’s also surveys to do occasionally.
It sounds like a giant pain in the ass, but I’m so used to it now it takes me maybe 3-4 extra minutes to scan a 300 dollar grocery shopping trip.
In return, for every week I upload data, for every survey I answer, for “milestones” of participation, etc. I get points, which accumulate and you can then order stuff from their “gift catalogue”.
They also send me little “gifts” every couple months. I just got a really nice travel mug, last month they sent me a pewter keychain, a couple months ago they sent me a pen (like a Cross-brand type pen).
What can I say, I’m easily amused, love to save money, and really love free stuff.
I just don’t see this stuff as an “invasion of my privacy!” when it’s voluntary.
No one made me sign up for Homescan, no one makes you sign up for those cards, or even put accurate info in for them unless you also want to cash checks with them (and you’d have to give them accurate info to cash checks anyways).
It was my Safeway “loyalty” card that I was thinking about changing the address on, while I was changing all my other addresses. After I had mentioned it to the cashier, it occurred to me that there is no benefit to me for Safeway having my correct address, so I just said, “Forget it.” and left.
I finally got a card at the supermarket closest to my house because I’ve been shopping there for 15 years and I felt kind of weird not having one the cards. Yeah, probably a dumb reason.
Half the time I don’t even use it, like when I do the self-check out I typically don’t remember to scan the card through. I also don’t shop based on the card, I get what I need with little regard to the little stickers that say I’ll get a discount with “the card.”
However an unexpected little windfall of sorts came the other day. I noticed my card was linked to some sort of gasoline discount program. And I found out I’m up to $1.15 off/gallon. So I went to the participating gas station to get my reward the other day :).
Yeah, theres one over on National near 108th Street (HWY 100) by the Target. My office used to be right there on 102nd street so I’d shop there after work. But my company moved last year so I haven’t been in there since. They must have dropped the card after we moved.
WM’s logistics are unparalelled - this is the main reason they were so effective in providing aid after Katrina. They also have huge datacenters that tightly link everything together from placing orders with suppliers to knowing how many 16-ounce bottles of Mr. Pibb they can expect to sell on the third Sunday of every month. The cash registers supply mountains of raw data - WM developed and refined data mining processes to make use of it.
As for Safeway, they do seem to know what I’m buying and they do give me coupons at the register tailored to those purchases.
Last weekend, I bought some assorted produce, milk, a chicken and a bottle of peppercorns. The “Catalina” machine spits out a coupon for my regular brand of dog food, and a coupon for that new wheat bread that tastes like white bread.
Either they’ve been paying attention and know that I usually buy dog food, and have bought that wheat breat more than once, or their data mining shows that people who buy onions, carrots, celery, chicken and pepper are making sandwiches instead of soup.
Not to worry. I got a card from Albertsons, but never filled out and returned the “application” and Safeway screwed up internally somehow - they have someone else’s name associated with my phone number. All I care is that I can plug in the phone number as I can remember it and not have to carry anything.
There are entire industries that exist solely to mine useful information out of raw data like this. Throw a couple servers at the project, and pretty soon, if your data says 90% of shoppers in a given ZIP code don’t shop at your store, you stop throwing away money trying to advertise to them and pretty soon, the savings in printing and postage has paid for the servers.
I was happy to find out that the Publix near my house doesn’t even have one of those cards- the price on the shelf or sale tag is the price- no cards, no ad cut outs, nothing.
My favorite experience was at CVS. I bought an item and it rang up around 4 dollars too high. When I questioned it (since the sale tag had a picture of the “CVS card” on it), the cashier was all "Oh, you need the card PLUS the coupon from the sale flyer. Fuck that. I did it that one time, then that was it. I haven’t set foot in a CVS in ages because it pissed me off. I mean, just price the shit at the price you want to sell it at! Cut coupons AND have to do their stupid card? I particularly liked how he wasn’t going to say a word about the price difference, even though he knew off the top of his head that the item had a coupon in the recent sale flyer.
Fuck 'em. I’m going to Walgreens. Until they start the same crap.
I don’t really mind the cards that much, but I really don’t collect them either. I think that I have two right now–one for the grocery store where I do most of my shopping, and another for a pet food store that I visit every couple of months, and whose form I’m quite sure I never sent in.
The grocery card saves me money only because it’s the store I happen to shop in the most–I would shop there even without a card, so it seems silly to pay full price on everything. PLUS I get gasoline discounts with the card (at the station I’m most likely to fill up at anyway). And if I should somehow lose my keys, the card might help them find their way back to me eventually.
However, I recently found out that I can actually add electronic coupons to the card, through the store’s website. I hate keeping track of paper coupons, but I can go to the store’s website to see what electronic coupons they have that I might want to use, then “attach” the coupons to my shopper’s card. The discount is taken out automatically at the register. (The store sometimes mails paper coupons to me, but I always lose or forget them. I would rather they just “attached” those to my card and called it a “frequent buyer bonus” or something.)
I used to work at a retail computer store that used shopping cards, and there were actually several advantages, even though our cards didn’t give discounts on merchandise. The cards allowed us to easily track customer purchases, so that if a customer lost a receipt or needed a proof of warranty, we could find the information easily with their customer card number. (We could also look it up by credit card number, but that didn’t always help if the purchase was made by cash or check, or if the customer couldn’t remember what card they used.) The advantage for the store was that it was a little piece of advertising that customers carried with them, to help keep them coming back.
Reading this thread sparked an idea! Why not have a “shopper’s card” and whatever chain store you decide to patronize can just be added to it? One person, one card, multiple places to gou…er, provide you with groceries.
What fucking planet do you live on? We are not allowed to use reason & common sense here on Earth, especially in the USA. If we wanted things to be easier and less annoying we would have them that way already!
Now take your sense of logic and get the hell out of here!
:p;)
Or hey! I have an even better idea…let’s just drop the whole damn fucking card system entirely! Retailers can post prices at which they wish to sell their good, and I will pay those prices!! Heavens!
The idea is to get “loyal” customers, apparently. And since it’s an incredible hassle for some, if not many, people to cut out coupons, the shopping card thing is the way they’ve chosen to go.
On the annoyance scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being least annoying, I’d have to put shopping cards at approximately 1.000000000000000000000000001.
The whole card thing is just so totally juvenile! “Show me the secret handshake & I’ll let you in”. And the places that want you to save their queer little stamps on a card (I think subway did away with that, but many book stores still do it!). I guess I wouldn’t be opposed to the 1 card system previously discussed. But do these store really think we’re going to carry 50 fucking cards around? Geezus Khrist!
And once again I bring up Speedway. I went there today for coffee. (to answer your “If you hate it so much why do you go?” question, it’s because 59 cents is less of a hassle than brewing an entire pot at home, and I can go there, get my joe, and get home in 6 minutes total). Do those guys get pistol whipped if they don’t get so many people to sign up or what? Asking me if I have the card is one thing, but then to go into this long sales pitch (while other customers are waiting) is another. What The Fuck?
You know, they are probably reading this thread right now and entering that all you guys hate cards in their database. You can never be too careful with your privacy.
Anyway, I’ve worked at stores where they tie your hours to your ability to sell promotions. They hire about 15% more staff than they need, and then keep everyone on a “just barely making rent” number of hours. Then they rank you on how many promotions you sell, and if you are low on the list you find yourself assigned to a bare minimum number of hours- decimating your ability to pay rent. Trust me, all these employees are as grumpy about it as you are.