Being surveilled as to what food / sanitary, etc products an individual buys is just icky. Supermarkets already know how much they sell, now they want to sell our behavioural info too.
Corner stores are gone, supermarkets took over and you have even less variety, and you want to squeeze MORE fresh fruits and vegetables out of your neighborhood? Be my guest and eat only packaged foods so they do make those high margins, don't restock any fresh food and I hope you vote with your wallet to make these supermarkets go out of business. Then you can buy nothing but high margin foods at your gas station.
> I hope you vote with your wallet to make these supermarkets go out of business.
I do -- not to make anyone go out of business, but because I prefer to shop at supermarkets that don't spy on me. At least in my part of the US, they do still exist and while they do, that's where I'll shop.
The point (for me) isn't to encourage or discourage any particular business practice. It's purely a self-defensive move on my part.
If you don't want to use the rewards at any supermarket you don't have to, so what's the problem?
If you're not a zealot that preference probably melts as soon as you need it fast, or an exclusive price or item. Just from my observations the best performing supermarkets are in low crime areas with an ethnic minority as a majority. Supermarkets that try these tracking techniques aren't doing well, and I don't blame them for trying to survive and bring fresh food.
> If you don't want to use the rewards at any supermarket you don't have to, so what's the problem?
The problem is that stores that do use rewards programs hike up their prices so that the rewards programs are necessary just to get normal prices. This means it's not sufficient to just not use the program -- I need to use a store that doesn't have such a program.
It's also not just about rewards programs. It's about all of the various surveillance mechanisms these companies use. Going to a supermarket these days is like going into enemy territory.
But all of this isn't relevant to my comment. My comment was just that any business is responsible for the decisions it makes.
Private companies keeping records of every single thing you buy. They have a very good idea of your diet, lifestyle, health issues, pregnancy, alcohol consumption, etc.
Fortunately, at least in my part of the US, there are still a decent number of supermarkets that don't use these cards at all -- so there's still a few I can shop at and get normal prices without having to subject myself to this form of spying. I just have to avoid the major chains.
