Fun with Shaw's

[Tab]

I hate Shaw's supermarkets - they're big in the northeast, at least. They do this stupid thing where you have a "rewards" card that if you show it, it lets you get something for $2.49 instead of $3.89 for the poor sap without the card. Maybe it's meant to build loyalty, but I only shop there because it's the closest supermarket to my house.

Out of a valiant, but likely doomed, Don Quixote effort to fight the windmills of anti-privacy, I refuse to get a card. They don't need to know what I buy - they can still aggregate me as a consumer by receipt without needing ID - and regrettably I know they can track it through my debit card anyway, but it's part of my lonely struggle against the machine. Still, it pisses me off that I pay more for not having "the card". Usually I can just say my wife has it, and they'll stick in a manager's card, but it just pisses me off as a consumer.

Anyway, I decided to apply for a card online - using my home address (because they'd have to mail it to me) - and online (so I didn't have to show any ID - and used the name "Sue Donim" (think about it if it doesn't strike you right away).

Regardless, fight the anti-privacy machine. People track all this shit about you (I know, I'm in the business). It's not hard to get your mother's maiden name, or the name of your first dog. I don't think they have any sinister purpose, but one day in a court of law, you'll regret buying that Pepsi.


p.s.: haven't slept in 48 hours, maybe this makes no sense. I probably won't post again until after next round of chemo anyway. Tab out.

[elleng]

1. Hope you've been able to get some sleep.

:)

[sazemisery]

2. Makes perfect sense. And the pen name fits marvelously.

:evilgrin:

[Tesha]

3. I hate the "loyality card" thing...

but I love the deals you can get.

I hate that they can track your purchases, but the prices can really sell me on going..

But being perverse, I only buy the deals there - never a whole cart. So in the end, they're hurting themselves with shoppers like me.

Hope your day gets better - and you do too... hugs

[hippywife]

4. It really doesn't bother me that much.

I don't care because I usually only buy last minute things I need and don't want to run all the way into town for. Plus I buy a lot of my pet food at our local store that uses a card because for every $50 I spend, which we do very quickly with three cats and a dog, they give me a coupn for $5 for future purchases of pet food. They also tend to be in-line or even a little cheaper that the larger groceries in town and they aren't giving me back anything at all.

Glad to see you back and contributing again. Still in my thoughts and pulling for you! :hug:

[Gormy Cuss]

5. I don't play the loyalty card game either

When I lived in MA they would routinely use the card at the register because at that time it was against state law to offer different prices to different customers. You just needed to know enough to ask because the clerks usually didn't volunteer it.

The Shaw's name has been ruined. It used to be a very nice, well-run chain in Maine. Once BPM bought it, it started to go down hill.

MA also required item pricing long after the rest of the country gave it up because it protected consumers. I can't tell you how many times the price marked was different from the scanned price and it was disproportionately a lower price on the item.

I'm annoyed now because CVS just bought up our local (CA) drug store chain and there are no sale prices without their card. I told the manager that it's been nice to shop at his store for the past ten years but I'm not coming back. Why make it easier for them to data mine when I can go to Target, Walgreens or Rite-Aid and get sale prices without a card?

[grasswire]

6. I've never given my real info for a loyalty card

...and for a phone number I just put (area code)555-1212 (Information).

It works.

[Warpy]

7. I pay cash at a unionized grocery that doesn't have those damned cards

and find that their prices are often below the snoop card "vaules."

I used to be Minnie Mouse. Lost the card, never replaced it.

[politicat]

8. One of our local chains uses phone numbers.

We only have cells and a DSL line (which can't ring...) but every year or so, I make sure the number I use is still out of commission (it usually is.)

867-5309.

Use your local area code. No phone company assigns it, thanks to a bad 80's one-hit wonder.

[Tab]

9. But Jenny!!

The whole 555 thing started after Peanuts published a phone number that apparently people decided to call locally, with calls ranging from requests to talk to Snoopy to those of a considerably darker nature.

While you're at it, make your zip 90210. "You want to talk to Jenny? I'm sorry, she's being gagged with a spoon right now".

Sometimes America has too much time on its hands.