What Do You Buy At The Grocery ... Punk?

fifths writes: "I'm not sure how many of you saw this story from the Scripps Howard Washington bureau -- as reported in the 'Washington Calling' column in the 10-07-2001 edition of the Knoxville(TN) News-Sentinel: 'Federal agents are tracking suspects tied to the Sept. 11 strikes through supermarket club cards that may give a hint of ethnic tastes. "Time was, this data was so disorganized nobody could make sense of it, but not anymore. They're looking for people based on their supermarket tastes," says consultant Larry Ponemon, head of the Privacy Council business consortium.' Anyone else bothered by this? Burn your supermarket cards." Better yet, trade your supermarket cards, frequently. (Perhaps with friends or relatives in the furthest city with the same chain?) Maybe Larry Ellison would like to have a few.

Comments

Re:Don't play the game

[rgmoore]

It's even sleazier to jack up the prices on items and offer "discounts" for people who use the cards when the discounted price is what the retail price should be.

So find a store that doesn't do that. I do almost all of my shopping at Trader Joe's. They're admittedly not a fully national chain, but they are moderately widespread now. They also have the advantage of offering more interesting food than most supermarkets, rather than just the offerings of the big companies. Part of the reason that they don't bother with a card program is that they have no strong commitment to keeping a consistent stock on their shelves, instead focusing on finding things that give their customers good value. It's much less useful to track purchasing habits when the nature of the stock in the store tends to minimize habitual buying in the first place.

If you want a conventional supermarket, ISTR that Albertsons doesn't have a card program, and is proud to announce it. They apparently feel that enough people are bothered by the card process that they can help their market position by refusing to be involved. If the whole process of using the cards is offensive to you, stop doing business with the people who use the cards, and start doing business with people who refuse to do so. It's a much stronger and more reliable way of avoiding being tracked than trying to gum up the card system.

One Thing

[snubber1]

Pop quiz time: How many of you here have Costco memberships? Plenty I'm sure. They got cheap everything there, a deal for everyone. Now guess who does some of the most aggressive marketing analysis based on what you buy and when?

Don't forget you PAY for this privilege.