Nope, but when the store had a sale, everyone could get the sale price. So everyone got the benefits of a card, even wihtout providing their purchase history.
How does giving them your grocery receipts in exchange for a stipend turn into* “encouraging you to buy stuff you ordinarily wouldn’t”*?
If I was asked to participate in a study and was asked to buy stuff I normally wouldn’t, and wouldn’t use, I wouldn’t participate. Easy enough.
If it was stuff I hadn’t tried, but would use, and I was being given a stipend, hey, fine, I’m always up for something new.
As I said before, I just don’t get all the raging hate and paranoia directed at these cards. Use 'em, don’t use 'em. What’s the big deal?
Part of the annoyance, for me at least, is I remember life before them. There was a sale. I selected the crap that was on sale. I paid for the crap that was on sale. I went home (with my crap that was on sale). The only card I used was my credit or debit card. Now, having to fish through my collection of cards to take advantage of the sale price I used to be able to take advantage of sans a card is really, really annoying. I know it’s a little thing that only takes a few extra seconds, but I hate it so very, very much.
I’m usually a get-over-it kind of gal, but I still–years after the major markets at which I shop have implemented them–can’t stand them. It’s alarmingly refreshing to shop at a market that doesn’t employ them.
Finally, are they even doing any thing with the data they collect? I mean, has anything really changed? They still aren’t putting the lube near the cucumbers, so it’s not even like I’m benefitting from this annoyance.
Take another look at the post. The $70 (in 1975 dollars, it looks like 1.5 minimum wage at 20 hrs/wk) stipend encourages the buyer to spend more on groceries. If you have more money to spend, you buy more groceries. So they can see what you buy with your current budget, then what purchases you add when you get richer. I’m sure I didn’t ascribe any evil motives to the study.
While my hate is hardly raging and my paranoia is nearly nonexistant, I’ll offer my reasons, despite my promise not to upthread. For me, it’s a combination of several things:
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A general distaste for the increasing invasiveness of marketing in our society. I’m tired of being advertised at everywhere I go, everywhere I turn. I’m sick of buildings named after companies. I loathe product placement in our entertainment. I hate ads before movies. Generally, I don’t like being treated as nothing more than a mobile wallet. Grocery store cards are just more of the same. They’re a method used by the store to train brand loyalty into me, both for the store and to a lesser extent to brands of products within the store. There’s not much I can do about marketing elsewhere, but cards require me to be cooperate, so I refuse.
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I really firmly believe no one actually saves money with cards. Just think about it. Stores admit these programs are very expensive to implement and run, and that money has to come from somewhere. There’s no WAY the whole cost is coming from the few shoppers who continue to shop there without a card. Look at how hard the stores push these cards - do you think they’d do that if they weren’t making money off them? I’m absolutely convinced that I spend just as much, if not less, by shopping at a non-card store than I would shopping with a card. Cards are a way to make people think that they’re saving money by giving discounts off already inflated prices. Again, think about it. No one pays very close attention to what they spend at the grocery store. There are so many items, all with fluctuating prices, that it’s nearly impossible to track. So the stores’ strategy is to make people feel like they’re saving. They don’t need to actually charge less to make that happen, so why would they? The site LucyInDisguise linked to is pervaded by tin-foil hat paranoia and written on about a fourth-grade level, but if you poke around, you can find actual numbers from price comparisons that back me up. I’ve seen other studies elsewhere that tell the same story. Generally speaking, card stores are more expensive than non-card stores.
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Cards are completely unnecessary. This kind of ties in with #1 again, but why should I help the store with their marketing research? From #2, there’s no benefit to me. In fact, it’s a hassle dealing with the damned cards. It’s not a major hassle, but if I can avoid it, why wouldn’t I? Here’s the thing: I go to a grocery store for a simple transaction. I give you money, you give me food. Period. The end. If the store would like something more from me, like my information, or the ability to track my habits, they can make me an offer. The offer they have made, I reject, because I don’t believe the hype. If they want to pay me $10 a month to use the thing, without raising their store prices, I’d consider it. But that’s not going to happen.
As I said, for me, it has nothing to do with paranoia. I’m not worried about the FBI charging into my house or a store tatooing a barcode on my forehead. I just think the cards are a huge marketing ploy that a surprisingly large number of people are buying into. Me, I refuse.
Pardon me, Balthisar, but are you fucking kidding me? No, really, am I being how you say…whooshed, or are you this much of an arrogant asshole? (Obviously if it’s whoosh time, I take that back).
Hey, WOOKINPANUB, he hasn’t even come back to tell us what a “pobe” is. That’s an arrogant asshole.
Thanks. I wanted to be sure it wasn’t just me.
Perhaps the pobes are holding him hostage at Farmer Jack’s until he RELENTS AND GETS THE FSCKING CARD!
I’m rooting for the pobes.
E.
It kinda reminds me of an article I read years ago about how only a fool would buy a box of breakfast cereal without a coupon. You go to the store and buy a box for $5.00, but with a coupon it’s $2.50, which is the real price. So everyone who wasn’t a fool, had to clip the coupon out of the paper. I prefer having the card, and not having to clip coupons to get a normal price.
Also, I don’t really find it all that invasive they’re tracking what I might like and putting it where I’m likely to find it. It’s no worse than sticking all the candy & gum in the checkout lane so your kids can scream for sweets. Or in a lot of stores, they have the bakery & deli right there as you walk in the door.
I’m not following - how does putting the bakery and deli by the door fit into all this? Are we talking impulse buys? Because those kind of seem at the bottom of the impulse buy list, especially if you have to get someone to slice/server it to you.
-Joe
What the store is doing is studying customer behavior and then placing things to maximize buying. Don’t all businesses try to do that? Maybe the bakery & deli are low on your list, but I’d bet a lot of research went into where to put the bakery & deli, and a lot of people are easily tempted to grab a pound of potato salad or a dozen chicken wings or some chocolate muffins, who didn’t come to the store for those things. Yes, it’s impulse buying. How is that different than placing the frozen pizza next to the beer, based on member card usage?
Yes but it’s research that was done by coercing people into participating. Suppose the cable company increased your bill 25%, but said if they could track everything you watched, they’d cut your bill by 30%.
My cable company knows who I really am. Consumers demand some degree of anonymity on-line. My grocery store doesn’t know who I really am. If they required all customers to provide bank account info, credit card info, real names, addresses, phone numbers, etc., I’d get pissed and shop elsewhere. If all the stores started doing that, I imagine some consumer rights groups would raise a stink, as at the very least, it would discriminate against people without credit cards, etc.
I don’t mind grocery stores “making” me get a member card and tracking my buying, as long as I retain a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Although, Costco et. al. absolutely require you have a card connected to personal information. That bothers me a bit. So I don’t buy my booze & cigarettes from them. The fact they know I go through x amount of toilet paper & paper towels every six months, doesn’t bother me so much.
I don’t understand why it would bother you if they knew how much you drank. Also, you have to provide personal information to get the card. Yes, you can lie, if you’re the kind of person who does that in their day-to-day life.
Either way, if you want to pay anything other than the highest possible price, you have to get the card. The gallon of milk that was once $2 is now $2.59, but only $1.89 with your card. So you’re penalized for the fact that the card exists and you would rather just shop.
I’m not a Pitter either so I’ll probably get stomped like a narc at a biker rally, but given the above, so?
This is just a tiny, tiny cog in the very big ‘let’s give them what they want’ wheel. If you disaprove of the tactics why shop there at all, card or no?
And what’s wrong with beer next to pizza?
Pobe: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pobe&btnG=Google+Search
Pobe: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=pobe&btnG=Google+Search&sa=N&tab=wi
Does that answer everbody’s questions? 
Hmm, it is rather odd that our OP hasn’t been back since Post 1. 
Someone email the dude and ask what’s up? I think “pobe” is a typo for “prole”, but I am not certain.
I also remember life before the cards, and to be honest, I only carry one with me - the Safeway card, because that’s where I go the most often. I have cards from Giant, Graul’s and I think Superfresh. If I go to one of those other places, I use my phone number. No need to carry the card.
Hardly. I don’t think any of them were ever in the Eskimo army, except possibly the polar bears, and I don’t see them making General; Lieutenant-Colonel, tops, I would have said.