Well, the specials did. But the coupons applied only to those who had the coupons, and I’ve seen supermarkets ’ coupons differ between the circular in the newspaper and the ones delivered to my house. The supermarkets that I have cards for haven’t gotten rid of specials without either coupon or card- they still have those. They have gotten rid of the “with coupn” specials and substituted “with card”.
As we gently drift more and more toward a cashless society, big brother becomes more and more entangled in our everyday lives, computers and home devices become more and more connected, etc., etc., (can someone say 666) these cards will probably fade from everydad use. I mean, really, once they implant the chip (or whatever they’ll use) in your right hand or forehead, why will they need cards? No, really!?!
every day use
and I was doing so well on my soap box :smack:
I suppose the drugstore would like for me to buy the Big Brand. Or maybe not. Often, there is a flashy sign on the shelf pointing out how much cheaper the house brand is. The card gets me an automatic discount on all house brand products.
At the grocery, my register tape usually tells me I saved $5 or more with my card (today, on a one-bag trip, I spent $21.58 on produce, yeast, yogurt, and beer. There’s no discount on the beer, but the card saved me $2.23.) I could keep my information secret from them, for 5 bucks a trip. I could, but I’d be a sucker to do so. Yes, they can do targeted selling. If I buy Goombatz pasta sauce, the register spits out a coupon for the next bottle. That’s okay by me. I don’t really see a big downside in it.
I’ve read that it’s a form of price discrimination. For folks who care, and scout out sales, and look at ad circulars, naturally, having stuff marked down increases sales. On the other hand, for customers who don’t know and don’t care, the ones who don’t clip coupons and just shop where it’s convenient, and who wouldn’t tailor their shopping to the sales anyway, don’t have to get the savings. It allows the store to charge two different prices for the same item - one price to those who are willing to pay the full price, and one for those who only want it if it’s on sale.
This doesn’t need demographic data at all, but it’s defeated if the cashier scans the store card. When I worked at a grocery store, they discouraged us from doing that.
Here’s the best case I’ve found against loyalty cards: CASPIAN.
Among my reasons for hating loyalty cards (supporting cites can be found at the link above):
Even with the “discounts,” stores with card programs have higher prices than stores without them. Think about it: the computers and administration of the systems cost them millions. They pass these costs onto us.
Big Brother. I believe the Caspian site has a report on a store chain that, shortly after 9/11, without being asked, and without any permission from customers, just handed a huge amount of purchase data over to the government, thinking it might help “catch the terrorists.” Even without appalling cases like that, the fact that such enormous amounts of data are being collected is a privacy abuse just waiting to happen.
It’s just none of their damn business what I buy. (I have several cards, but they don’t have my real information. Of course, this means I can only buy with cash, which is sometimes inconvenient.)
I’m frankly appalled at how blandly most people accept this prying into their personal lives and buy the lie that the cards “save” them money.
I ran across the CASPIAN site a long time ago, and used to do the cards with-fake-info, but now I just vote with my $$ and refuse to shop anywhere that uses them except when it’s some kind of emergency. Sometimes that means going to the Great Satan Wal-Mart grocery, but life is all about compromises. I don’t want to see a day where to get the cheap prices, you pretty much HAVE to give the stores all your personal info because ALL the stores use the cards. And there’s nothing stopping them from starting to require they verify the info with your ID, or whatever, when you get the cards.
It’s not even so much that I mind them tracking the buying info for their stock or ordering purposes, I just don’t think you should be able to use prices to essentially extort personal information out of your customers. Everyone has to eat… if all the stores started doing this and I didn’t want to participate, I’d be out of luck. There’s a pit thread going on about Best Buy asking why the flaming-blue-hootie they want to know your phone number when you check out; I’d be curious how many people are up in arms about Best Buy asking for personal info, who also use the frequent shopper cards.
I already had to get one for PetSmart, the only one I have. I used to shop there instead of PetCo because they didn’t use the cards, but then PS started getting them. Unfortunately those are the only two games in town where I can get my pet supplies since I don’t have the stereotypical cat/dog/bird, so like my grocery store example above – if I want the cheaper prices, I pretty much have no choice. And the prices have not gone down one bit since I got the card. Other people that worked at the store indicated that they raised their prices slightly to encourage people to get the cards. Feh.
Specifically, your reasons for hating supermarket purchase tracking cards. I didn’t see a single argument there against the type of loyalty card I was talking about for a small store (see my earlier post in this thread).
If I go ahead with my loyalty card program, I don’t even care if I have your real information on the card, and I’m certainly not going to be raising any prices. The equipment doesn’t cost me “millions” (in fact, it’s built into the point-of-sale system I purchased last year for $5,000). All I want to do is encourage customers to buy more at my store.
Some of the rabid anti-loyalty-card posts in this thread have me worried. Do you just hate supermarkets, or would you really stop buying from a neighborhood store if they implemented cards like I described (buy $X, get a discount on your next purchase)?
Marble Slab Ice Cream gives me a little cardboard card the size of a business card, and when I buy an ice cream, I get a stamp. Five ice creams, I get one free!
I like those. Free ice cream == teh awesome. People pay the same whether or not I get the card, but I get rewarded for going there five times. The type of shopper cards I was referring two are the ones that create two-tiered price structures and impose a penalty on those who choose not to participate.
I don’t like any frequent shopper cards that require the giving of personal identification, including even if I have the option to give you fake info. If you don’t need the info then just give them a piece of paper with an ID# or something.
I’m not a fan of all the personal info that’s being kept on us all, either. I know it’s I’m not a fan of all the personal info that’s being kept on us all, either. I know it’s inevitable that it’s going to happen, and get a lot worse. But I fight it all the time. Even when they ask for my zip at the register, I give them 99752, which is a bank of PO boxes above the artic circle in Alaska. Sometimes the cashier will get the joke. 
Please check out http://www.dbmarketing.com/ I am just changed jobs to be the exact kind of marketer who would like to do a loyalty program, this guys books and such are a terrific introduction to the topic, and most of it is right on the website.
The short answer to the OP is that it makes money for the store, why else would you do it?
You can vote with your $$ at any store, regardless of whether they have cards. If every grocery store in your city went to cards, you’d still be free to go to one of them and not get a card. Yes, you’d pay more than if you had the card. That’s your decision, whether your privacy is valuable enough to you to justify the extra cost. But you do still have that option.
(typed out a whole post that got poofed thanks to that annoying little “back” button that I never intentionally use on the top of my “multimedia/internet” keyboard. BUGGER! I’m gonna pry that sucker out one day. The similar button on my mouse that is also prone to this will be next!!!11)
[partial-disclosure] (hey, I signed a non-disclosure agreement)
I work for a company that provides loyalty card systems to (mostly) grocery stores. <puts up arms to block blows>
The truth is that most traditional grocery stores out there are at war with Wal-mart/Sams, Costco, BJ’s, etc. They’re trying everything they can to compete and loyalty card systems are a good way for a merchant to do that.
The retail grocery business is NOT like most other retail businesses. Their sales volumes are HUGE, but their markup and thus profit margins are miniscule compared to most other retail businesses. I think that a lot of people have the false impression that their local grocer is making a mint off of their $200 basket full of grocery puchases. They aren’t. It’s nothing like the profit margin of most other retail where you can expect to pay around double what the retailer paid for the item.
A loyalty card program allows a retailer to segment (or categorize) shoppers based on their previous purchases. (I’m not going into all the details, and it’s not my expertise anyway, but I’ll just discuss the extremes) At one end of the segment spectrum is their goal for all shoppers, the “loyal” shopper. At the other end is the grocer’s bane, the “cherry-picker.”
The loyal shopper is someone who shops at the store regularly and buys many different products from many departments. They buy certain items regularly, they try new products occasionally, and they also sometimes take advantage of specials. In general, they regularly buy A LOT of stuff and are a very good customer. Losing this customer to a competitor would be bad, specially to that Wal-Mart that just opened up down the street. If the store is able to stock the types of items that the loyal shopper wants to buy, and they regularly target them with attractive specials on those items, their chances of keeping them as a loyal shopper improve greatly.
The cherry-picker is someone who regularly shops elsewhere, but only comes to your store for a few items, often just the specials and nothing else. Before the loyalty card system, the store might have offered certain specials with a limit per-person. This type of shopper would often find ways around the limit and send in each of their family members to buy as many as possible. With the loyalty card system, the store can now more easily prevent this type of abuse and allow more of their loyal and profitable customers to benefit from these specials. The store can also target specific promotions towards these cherry-picker type shoppers to attempt to eventually turn them into loyal shoppers.
When used correctly, a loyalty card system can and often does significantly increase sales AND profit margin at the same time. In the retail supermarket business a 1% increase can be huge and can often be the difference between success and failure.
I find that there are a lot of people who are strongly against cards at their local grocery store, but who have no problem with the REQUIRED “membership” you have to pay for to buy items from places like Sams/Costco/BJ’s. The wholesale membership clubs are a big part of the competition that the grocery stores are attempting to deal with when they decide to adopt OPTIONAL loyalty card programs. You can’t really blame them for wanting to somewhat level the playing field.
IMO: These days there are many other businesses that have all of the identifying information for each of their customers. I think there should be strong privacy laws that protect personal information from being used improperly. But I can’t understand the apparent contradictions in where people sometimes choose to draw the lines.
[stupid]Sorry, I just read the OP as “The price of loyalty cards”. Sounded much more dramatic that way[/stupid]
That’s what I do when I HAVE to stop in a store that uses cards for some reason. But I only do that in an emergency as I don’t have money to just be wasting willy nilly and I would rather not support stores that use cards by giving them my money AT ALL. If I go there an refuse to use the card on principle and pay more, they still win. The only way they lose is if I don’t give them money at all.
I have cards for all the local supermarket/drug store-type places. It was embarrassing to me to hand the cashiers my keychain with all their competitors’ cards hanging as well so I now carry four sets of keys around.
I hope you pay cash at Wal-Mart. If they don’t use credit cards for data mining, I’m sure they will someday. WalMart tracks everything really closely. Me, I’d rather go to a supermarket where they pay their workers a living wage and benefits.
I don’t see how anyone thinks the prices are jacked up with the cards. They replace the store coupons they used to have. (You still get to use manufacturer’s coupons in the Sunday paper.) We have a Safeway and Albertson’s with cards, and a Raley’s without, and the Raley’s is no cheaper.
There are a couple of other benefits of cards. Safeway is giving United Airlines miles with purchases. They track certain things, like sandwich purchases, and you get a free one every so often. And they sometimes print out useful coupons based on your purchase history.
One more thing - if using the cards lets the stores make purchases and stock items more efficiently, with less waste, it will save us all money and result in less food being discarded. Works for me.
Walmart, AFAIK, isn’t making me give them my home address and stuff to use a credit card. I don’t care that they track data (I can see the usefullness of that for both the store and the customer) but as someone else mentioned, they don’t need my home address or phone number to do that. The grocery stores essentially force you to give them your personal info in order to get the cheaper prices. And there’s nothing stopping them from requiring you to show ID to get the cards at some point in the future, so giving them fake info isn’t really solving anything.
The credit card isn’t the same anyway, because I’m trading off a bit of personal identification for convenience. The grocery stores jack up their prices, then penalize you if you don’t give them your info, by making you pay more. The cards aren’t a convenience for me, they’re a gimmick to help the store.
And I do avoid regular WalMart as much as possible, but I don’t have the luxury of shopping at the more expensive places when I can get a fully 1/3rd more food in the generic store brands at the Neighbourhood Market. That’s like an extra 1-2 weeks of food for me, for the same price.
This seem slike a hijack after reading the answers above (although I have to echo what voyager said).
Outside of the customer tracking and data mining, the customer who has the cards and is shopping for the specials will frequently purchase other items as well. Obviously the items that are not on sale at the time have a better profit margin and the store would look to maximize that. Getting them in the door is the first step.
I would classify my wife as a ‘cherry picker’ as she will scan the ads and buy the sale items at a number of different stores during the week to save the money. Left to my own devices, I would probably choose the store that has most of the items that I am looking for to do all of my shopping. That said, having a loyalty card would cause me to consider that store first. Case in point: Shoppers Drug Mart. We have a loyalty card there and rarely purchase drugs and toiletries from anywhere else thanks to the ‘points earned’ that can be redeemed.
The cards don’t do anything to benefit me. Before Albertson’s went to cards their sale prices without the need for a card were the same as the card price is with cards. If they exist and don’t benefit the customer then they must benefit Albertson’s. I don’t object to this if the company uses them to hold down operating costs and thus prices. However I’m not sure any reduction in operating cost is being passed on.