I, apparantly, am everything wrong with this country!

[TNT]

Yeah, the companies DO keep track of your purchases, but I don't think it's for anything more sinister than market research.

The police can and do use the records in certain instances. We had a case around here were a woman was accused of terrorizing her neighbor by sending him a greeting card laced with white powder. Part of the evidence used in court against her was that her grocery store loyalty card showed she purchased the same greeting card right around the time of the incident.

What I think is funny is when people say the government is going to implant tracking devices in us so they'll always know everyone's whereabouts... and they're mumbling their paranoid thoughts into their cell phones.

And finally, I always thought I was everything wrong with this country... because I work for the cable company.

[Jacen]

I once worked with some people who told me that the government was tracking all our purchases made by credit card so "big brother" could know everything we did and everywhere we went. This was due to the fact that the cash registers were computerized and the credit cards interacted with those computers now. These people claimed the new Visa debit cards were created so that the government could track people who might not have the credit needed for a standard credit card. They thought all discount cards that had to be scanned existed for the same purpose.

They also "collected" lots of guns.

This guy probably thinks like them.

It's theroticly possible, if all bussiness computers in the world were interconnected. Their not.


@Op: to . People like this, In my opinion are living in the stone age. I've seen people that STILL think computers take away jobs. (Even those that won't trust the ATM... hows that for paranoid?)

[daleduke17]

*Ralphs is owned by a chain called Kroger. I don't know if their cards are interchangable. It would be nice for someone to try a Ralphs card at a Kroger and tell me if it works.

Yes. Ralphs, Frys, King Soopers, Kroger, and Fred Meyer cards are all interchangeable with one another.

[drunkenwildmage]

<obscure reference>

Was this guy's name Tim Wilson?

</obscure reference>

[JustADude]

Yes. Ralphs, Frys, King Soopers, Kroger, and Fred Meyer cards are all interchangeable with one another.

Don't forget Dillon's!

[chops]

Yes. Ralphs, Frys, King Soopers, Kroger, and Fred Meyer cards are all interchangeable with one another.

When I was out in Colorado a couple months back, I wanted to test my theory that cards for stores owned by Albertson's (i.e., Shaw's) were interchangeable in this manner...but never got around to it.

This is why I lie when I fill out the forms for the loyalty cards and use cash whenever possible.

Exactly, because some stores have been known to pull your info from your check or credit card and update their databases. When the site nocards.org was being updated regularly, there were a few reports that backed this up; the site has been pretty much idle for the last five years as the owner of the site has moved on to battle RFID in products.

Food Lion gives you coupons based on what you buy, and sometimes they're very nice. So it does behoove any Food Lion/Bottom Dollar/Bloom shoppers out there to use their own card.

So does Price Chopper (the Northeast chain, not the Kansas City chain of the same name). They have a kiosk in front of the entrance that you can scan your card at once a week. It'll then give you about eight coupons that are good until that Saturday, after which time you can scan your card again. I've gotten many coupons for their own brand of soda—$2 off 3 12-packs. Combine that with their current sale ($2.50 each) and it works out to three 12-packs for just $5.50. Awesome deal.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

SC: Your [insert store policy here] violates my constitutional rights!
Annoyed American History major (me): Actually, sir, the Constitution and its corresponding amendments only protects you from the government. Corporations can pretty much trample your rights to Free Speech, Assembly, expression of Religion, right to bear arms, whatever, as long as you're on private property.

(While not entirely true, since they can't very well perform an unlawful search and seizure without being charged with theft, and they're sure not going to billet Redcoats in your bedroom, it shut him up)

^_^

[protege]

They also "collected" lots of guns.

Sounds like the guy across the street from my parents. Nice enough guy, but some of his "theories" are a bit out there. He subscribed to hunting magazines, and some of the "soldier of fortune" type ones too. Did I mention he had guns?

But what made things interesting...is that my father is selling off most of his hunting rifles, mainly because he doesn't hunt any more. So, he asked several people if they were interested, including the guy across the street. When I heard that, I was like "Dad, are you sure it's a good idea to supply him with *more* guns?"

[Department stores *sigh*]

hey my customer went south of the border? cool. did he give you a 15 min long winded speech about it as well?

mine kept talking because when he asked if I was alright with giving all my info to the government I told him if that was the case, then im fine with it. He didnt like that :P

[Kara]

First, welcome to the board! Pull up a chair, there's plenty of insanity to go around

I was at Kroger (Dillon's actually, as JustADude mentioned) when we introduced Loyalty cards. The employees got to go to an off-site meeting and we got our cards about 3 months before they were offered to customers. Then they went out to the public. Most people didn't care, a few went nuts and would rant and rave about how we were violating their privacy, how everyone is spying on them, how they'll just go to Wal-Mart instead, blah blah blah. It really made me wonder what these people were trying to hide. Maybe John Asshat doesn't want someone in marketing to know about all that make-up he buys. Or maybe Janie Bitchnose doesn't want corporate to know about her fetish for adult diapers.

Yes, they partly use them for market research. But, they don't give a crap what you're buying. They just need to know what is selling and what isn't, so they don't run out of product that's in high demand or have a bunch of crap sitting on the shelves that no one is buying at all. Ads are also made based on trends of items being sold at various times, so it allows them to plan their sales around what they've found people generally buy at different weeks/months of the year.

[Brightglaive]

Yeah, I heard something similiar to that once. Except in that case it was the plume trails from airplanes - they're "really" chemical trails caused by secret weapons that are being tested.

Yeah they couldn't be the water from the combustion process of hydrocarbons actually freezing in the air because it's like -40 degrees fahrenheit at that altitude. Absolutely not!!! The government likes to strap chemical weapons to EVERY jet that goes into the air. </sarcasm>

Quote:
Quoth daleduke17 View Post
Yes. Ralphs, Frys, King Soopers, Kroger, and Fred Meyer cards are all interchangeable with one another.
Don't forget Dillon's!

I think Smith's in the Utah/Idaho and rocky mountain states areas are part of that too.

[jacxnomore]

Thanks for the welcomes!!!

The part that struck me as funny about the whole deal was that the guy had a really thick Aussie accent. So he was either a newly naturalized citizen who had taken his "responsibilities" as a new citizen waaay to seriously, or he was a foreigner bitching about things that have nothing to do with him.

During his whole diatribe I just wanted to tell him...
"You do realize that no matter how careful you are about who might have your information, everything about you, including all of your financial history, all of your medical records and just about anything you can think of, is on a computer somewhere and if a talented hacker so desires it can be all his in a matter of moments. Now that is something to be paranoid about, not whether Staples is going to sell the information that you just paid for a 2 page fax and bought a ream of cheap copy paper."

[BookstoreEscapee]

Yeah, the companies DO keep track of your purchases, but I don't think it's for anything more sinister than market research.

Well, I do think junk mail is evil...

Food Lion gives you coupons based on what you buy, and sometimes they're very nice. So it does behoove any Food Lion/Bottom Dollar/Bloom shoppers out there to use their own card.

I've noticed that they tend to give you coupons for brands other than the one you bought;
e.g., I've bought Hershey Kissables and gotten coupons for M&Ms.

I've never gotten quite such paranoia from people but I have had people get pissed at me just for asking if they had a member card. I had one woman say, "No, and I don't want one. I'm sick of being asked about it every time I come in here."

What I said: "I'm sorry ma'am. We're required to ask. Your total is $XX.XX"
What I wanted to say: "Well, if you've been asked so many times that you are so sick of hearing it, maybe you should just get one, then!"

I've also had people not want to put down their phone number because they didn't want us calling them. I always told them they didn't have to give us any information, and as long as they had the card they could still use it. But if they didn't have it, we wouldn't be able to look it up, and if they didn't give an address they wouldn't get any of the extra coupons and stuff they send. I also told them they could give a fake number if they really wanted to, as long as it was something they would remember if they needed us to look up the card. (And that is the ONLY thing they use the phone number for. They don't do telemarketing calls and they don't sell their info. The only time I have called someone was because they left their card behind so I looked them up to call and let them know.)

[mattm04]

We have a lady who will not even use the generic "store card" to get the sale prices, because she claims the gov't is tracking her. She pays for everything with her debit card. She also will tell everyone in line.

[chops]

I've noticed that they tend to give you coupons for brands other than the one you bought;
e.g., I've bought Hershey Kissables and gotten coupons for M&Ms.

That seems to be one of the major uses of the Checkout Coupon system; a particular company can pay them to issue coupons whenever a competitor's product is purchased, in an attempt to win consumers over to their product. For example, every time we buy Arm & Hammer cat litter, we get a coupon for Tidy Cats.