“Well F’ck me deep, hard, dry, and dirty!” I shouted to the walls as I sat up in bed. The dog raised up her head and looked at me. George Noory continued to whisper to me about those bastard aliens that were mutilating livestock, making crop circles, and abducting citizens for genetic experiments. The clock radio oriented me to time and place with it’s red numbers, 3:41am.
You never know when inspiration is going to strike, and it had stricken me like lightning.
Those shopping cards that they try to force you to scan at the market aren’t doing you any good at all, in fact, they are nothing more than the grease, to put on the tool, for the man to use to f’ck you in the ass.
Ok, let me explain.
We all like to imagine that those cards are designed to save us money, hell they even say savings card right on them. So I get to asking myself.. why would Albertsons, Dillons, Vons, Food Lion, Piggly Wiggly, Krogers, and all the rest who provide these cards, want to save me money? Are we friends? Is there a boardroom somewhere that someone stood up in and said to the board of directors, “‘My plan for our company is to make less money, in order for this to happen, we are going to charge our customers less. All in favor of this plan, raise your hands.” And then the board of directors did?!?! And then all of the other grocers decided that reducing their profits by offering more savings was such a good idea that they wanted to do it too??? WTF? That’s the business model? To make less money? That just doesn’t make any sense...
So I get to thinking about these cards. When you use the card you scan it at check-out and then your savings magically appear on your cash register. Hmmmm so they basically have a report of every item in my cart and in return I save a few dollars. Now I’m old enough to remember when grocers just put things on sale. No card, no bullshit, this item is just on sale. I wonder why this doesn’t happen anymore?? Now the wheels are starting to turn and I begin to imagine what the retailer can do with this data. Well they could sell it, sell it to almost any wholesaler, or food distribution center. This information would be priceless, because while they can see what you did buy, they can also tell what you didn’t buy. They find you would prefer Kraft shells and cheese over the store brand, even if the store brand costs less. So guess what won’t be going on sale in your store anymore?? If you guessed Kraft Shells and cheese, you win the 10 x 10 knock off Def Leopard Souvenir Mirror.
What else does this card tell them? It tells them your weekly, monthly, and annual grocery budget. It tells them if you are a loyal customer, or if you shop around. It’s a safe assumption that you are buying bread, and if your not buying it there then you must be buying it somewhere else.
Now lets look at it from the wholesaler’s level.. They don’t care what market you shop at, because they sell to all of them. The grocers won’t offer something on sale to the consumer if the wholesaler doesn’t offer it on sale to them. And why should the wholesaler offer your favorite product discounted to the retailer, when they know it’s one of those items that you can’t live without?
I imagine this is getting a little dry and boring so I'll sum it up. The information that you give the retailer is your power. You are giving the retailer the power to screw you down at the register. They sell this power to the wholesaler for a pile of cash, and then the wholesaler uses this power to manipulate the prices. In the end, prices are higher, not lower, and your name and information are out there in one more database.
These cards that we all scan at the register for our couple of dollars in savings, are telling the food sales people, (retailer, who sells the information to the wholesaler) what not to put on sale because it is your favorite thing. Every scan of the card teaches them what you will always buy, and what you will never buy. The Market can’t do anything about it because they all sold their data to the wholesaler, the wholesaler won’t do anything about it because why should they, and you can’t do anything about it because you wanted to save 1.97 at the checkout stand. Shit rolls down hill. The wholesaler f’cks the retailer, the retailer f’cks you, and you are left with no one to f’ck because you already f’cked yourself. Long story short, you sold your ass for a few dollars at the checkout stand and now everyones lined up for a piece of it.
So what can you do to get up off the ground, pull your skirt down, your panties up, and get on with your life?
I live in Santee, California, and here, Food4Less doesn’t use, or require a shopper’s card. That’s where I do my grocery shopping. Find a store in your town that doesn’t use shopper’s cards and shop there. Tell all of your friends to do the same. Also, if you must shop at a place that uses the shopper’s cards, conveniently forget your shopper’s card at every order. The checker has one back there that she can use, if you insist.
And most of all, always remember that the chain grocery store is not your friend. They don’t want to save you money, they want to get and keep your money. That’s what they do. They are a business, and that’s their job. Friends are expensive, customers are golden.
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