I recently had to sign the type of machine mentioned in the OP when picking up prescriptions at the pharmacy, to verify my ID.
What would happen if I refused?
And I’m with TaxGuy. Who cares if Safeway knows that I buy Iams brand catfood instead of HappyCat brand and that we go through six gallons of milk each week and prefer Charmin toilet paper over Angel Soft?
Does it really matter if “they” know I buy Lunchables for my kids or that I buy store-brand ice cream or that I have a Jalepeno Popper habit? Will they think I’m a bad mom?
But “they” would still have a copy of my signature. Back to the problem in the OP. What difference does it make if you sign the Evil Signature-Capturing Machine or a paper receipt?
Here’s one of those sites I was thinking about (links below). Sure, you are saving, but these concerned citizens who may or may not have adequate research to back up their vitriol:
Caphis, follow the links in my previous post, there’s an article re: using these cards to invade privacy in the name of homeland defense. You can argue with featherlou about the validity of the article and his tin hat afterward.
HOLY CRAP! They’ve got the inside scoop here! Stores might want people who spend LOTS OF MONEY IN THEIR STORES!? I am aghast at this criminal and disgusting practice… :eek:
I read your articles, and I still agree that I don’t care who knows what I’m buying. I save money, that’s all that matters to me, and I don’t care about how much anyone else is saving.
If a store stops carrying a “low-cost” item I want, I’ll buy it somewhere else. If a store wants to raise a 24oz 6-pack of Pepsi to $7, then I’ll buy it somewhere else.
But the items that I can get the cheapest at that store with my card? I’ll buy them there.
I have about 7 discount cards for various stores, and I want more.
I’m not a card-carrying member of the paranoigentsia, but I have alarm bells ringing when business says they’re doing things for one reason, but that reason doesn’t add up to me. I don’t like “loyalty cards”-we didn’t need them, and I don’t think they add any value to my world - I believe the article when it stated that we pay more for product now than we did before so-called loyalty cards. Of course we do - they are able to track our purchases, see that orange juice sales didn’t drop at all when they jacked the prices 30 cents per can, then give us a go at 40 cents per can in a couple of months. The phrase “all the market will bear” could have been coined for loyalty card databases.
I think part of the danger is also what some of your are saying here; it’s just my grocery list, who cares who sees that? I care. I see this as a much larger issue than just Safeway knowing what brand of toilet paper I buy. Complacency aids corporations in doing whatever they please.
Corporation profitability at all costs scares me. But, I’m not a Capitalist. There probably isn’t anything here that Capitalists couldn’t embrace whole-heartedly.
This also scares me. I haven’t done enough research on these things, and I don’t have all the answers to what is wrong here and why, but I have a strong gut feeling that we’re not going to like this trend. I’m seeing symptoms, but I’m not sure what the diagnosis is yet.
Hmm. The things I buy haven’t noticably changed in price. If anything, I’ve noticed a drop in price. If they DO go up, then it’s because people keep buying. So don’t blame the companies raising the prices, blame the people willing to keep paying. Again, if I see a rise in prices for a product at a store, then I just buy it elsewhere. WalMart’s a good place to start.
I’m not a capitalist either, but I still see no real problem here. It’s just an elevated form of supply and demand… the cards just make it easier to see where the demand is.
I don’t think this compares to grocery store discount cards. If the customers didn’t like it, there are plenty of other banks.
Well, I had to stop laughing after “Businesses try to attract customers who spend lots of money in their store,” to be honest. Especially cause I imagined it delivered in some deadly serious, end of Scooby Doo, Deep Revelation voice. Painting loyalty card programs as some kind of deep, evil conspiracy against the poor is a bit of a stretch. There’s no one as unloyal as a grocery store shopper. I have one for the Kroger across the street and I still hit the 2 Publixes around the apartment semi-regularly (did so yesterday, as a matter of fact). I’m not too worried. Profit margins in the grocery sector are razor-thin as is and yea, they might cut some low-profit stuff, but they’re not going to get rid of all the generics. And if they cut out enough low cost stuff, chains will pop up that sell low cost stuff. Witness the rise of Wal-Mart and the dollar store.
Identifying your good customers and catering to them is as old as business itself, man! This is not some new development. For example, when I worked retail, we had a guy who would come in and order $400 worth of stuff once or twice a month. Would we do stuff for him that we wouldn’t do for someone who bought a magazine once a month? Of course we would! We’d be insane not to! The Dope is doing the same thing now: Identifying their best customers (the people who paid) and catering to them (letting them search). Was the store I worked at horribly unethical because we noted what people read (Harry Potter) and stocked 600 copies of it instead of Proust?
I’m not an uber-capitalist. I think the “invisible hand of the market” is a bunch of crap. I think businesses are going to do what’ll make them money, no matter what, and the government’s there to rein em in…
But jesus, grocery stores aren’t obligated to stock any particular item.
Your mileage is varying from mine - I’ve been buying my own groceries for 20 years now, and the prices have done nothing but go up - and quite significantly in the last couple of years. I’ve been noticing 30% increases, where prices used to stay fairly stable for years previously. I don’t notice much difference from store to store, either.
Again, your mileage is varying. Here in Canada, our banking system is quite different from the US system in that our banks are nation-wide, and they are all very much the same. There is virtually no difference between any of the six or seven banks available to us.
The only one of these I use is for CVS Pharmacy. They give you the card & a prepaid postcard to send in your information. I’ve used the card for 5 years & have never sent in the card. It doesn’t seem like they care to track how often I buy toothpaste.
Have you ever been handed a credit card that’s got the entire signature area filled with “SEE ID,” but with no signature anywhere on the card? It baffles me to no end that they’ve not signed the card, even though most credit cards clearly state right under the box “not valid unless signed.” [i.e. their credit card company owes them NOTHING if it gets stolen and used before they’re able to cancel it.] Even worse are those who don’t sign the card at all.
Customers are a curious species that seem to have a lower than average IQ and less manners compared to the rest of the population… but, well, there are plenty of very nice and very smart customers out there bringing up the average.
I had a CVS card, but lost it somewhere a couple years ago. When I go to CVS now, and the cashier asks for my card and I say I don’t have one, rather than try and give me a new one (too much work, apparently), she just scans the “store card” and I get the discount anyway.
Sorry, but I don’t buy the “it saves me money” argument on the grocery store cards. Sure, they circle the number on the receipt and say “You saved $3.27,” but all that means is that they would have charged me $3.27 more if I didn’t carry their stupid card in my wallet. That’s not a valid comparison with what I would have paid at any other store, so how can they claim savings?
My cynical self says that the “regular” price is inflated, and the card-only price is what they would have sold it for anyway.
