`Loyalty cards' mean no privacy in store
We're all worried about privacy on the Internet. But how about at the supermarket?
A few weeks
ago, after shopping at Shaw's on
"Your Rewards Card, please?" she asked sweetly.
I didn't have one. "Could you just scan in yours?" I asked.
It's an old trick. Cashiers at supermarkets, drug stores and other retailers that have rewards cards - or "loyalty cards" as they're termed in the trade - always have a store card that they keep around for customers who forgot their cards or who, like me, simply refuse to use them.
"We can't do that anymore," she said. "If you want, you can sign up for one right now."
I looked at the array on the belt. If I used a card, every item on there would become part of Shaw's data base, memorialized for time eternal. Did I really want it known I was a regular purchaser of SlimFast? And suppose PETA hacked in? Would they start to picket my house over the hotel-style turkey breast?
When the cards first came out, I had signed up under a false name: Michael Maus - "Mickey" to my friends - but soon abandoned that after some raised eyebrows. From then on I had done without, never facing a hassle until now.
"I'm sure there has to be a mistake," I said. We called over the manager. I pled my case.
It was, she assured me, no mistake. The rules had changed (a spokesman later confirmed, "as a matter of policy, we do require the card"). "You have two choices," she said. "You can sign up for a card, or you can choose not to use one and pay regular price."
The total bill exceeded $100. "Regular" price, in this case, was at least $15 more than if I used the card.
"No," I said. "If I can't get the discounted price, then I'm not buying."
We were at a standstill. So I made good on my threat. I walked out, leaving the groceries behind.
Loyalty cards are one of the hottest trends in retailing. Dreamt up in the early 1990s, Star Market in 1995 became the first local business to adopt them. They have since spread to major area shopping chains such as Shaw's (which now owns Star), Stop & Shop, Price Chopper, CVS and even Petco. Industry sources claim up to 50 million Americans nationwide use loyalty cards.
Retailers love them, and it's easy to see why. Every purchase a customer makes is maintained in a company data base that can be used to analyze purchasing habits to almost unbelievably precise degree. Moreover, the cards allow companies to create customer-specific marketing and even customer-specific pricing. On top of that, retailers believe that loyalty cards do, in fact, engender loyalty, somewhat like frequent flyer programs. Customers with cards, they believe, will return time and time again.
And the advantages to the consumer? Minimal. This is for the store's benefit, not yours.
Loyalty cards seemingly cut your cost of shopping. In fact, though, they actually just increase prices for those without them. It's a fictitious discount. Average grocery bills are no less today than they were before the adoption of loyalty cards. Nor are stores without loyalty cards charging more. Prices at Roche Bros, for example, are the same as Shaw's "discounted" price, yet the chain doesn't require cards. Every customer, as opposed to just card holders, gets the same low price.
There is a huge downside to the cards as well. Company privacy policies are largely meaningless and unenforceable. The truth is that anything you buy is eventually knowable to someone who wants to find out.
In the middle of an ugly divorce? Records of the condoms you bought at CVS can easily be discovered, providing evidence you were having an affair. Running for public office? The magazines you buy and the hair color you use can become ready fodder for mocking negative stories. Suing someone in a slip and fall accident? Your past purchases of alcohol will be seized on by the other side.
More broadly, there is the problem of personal privacy. It may be good practice to live as if our lives were an open book, but that doesn't mean they really should BE open books. With loyalty cards, they are.
So what can be done? The best would be for retailers to stop with the programs altogether. At a minimum, stores such as Shaw's should end the offensive and near extortionate tactic of demanding one give up personal information or else pay higher prices. We also need to take a look at erecting legal safeguards: limiting what can be collected, who has access to it and the uses to which it can be applied.
Meanwhile, I'm shopping elsewhere, refusing to carry a loyalty card and hoping that the good folks at Roche's can soon open up a store near me.
Talk back to Tom Keane at tomkeane@tomkeane.com.