tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post2545533769945894067..comments2024-03-29T05:29:08.934-05:00Comments on Every goddamn day: 03/29/24: 1990sFest: Day Eight — Turns out Big Brother is neighborhood grocerNeil Steinberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-26152085080939611572018-01-27T14:57:33.544-06:002018-01-27T14:57:33.544-06:00Tom, Jewel actually bought the lease of the Dom...Tom, Jewel actually bought the lease of the Dom's near them in the far suburbs, so no other gro. store can move in there. Bananaas 49 cents a lb.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-21862641674826116132018-01-27T14:55:49.629-06:002018-01-27T14:55:49.629-06:00good one, scribegood one, scribeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-67604513206879810352018-01-27T14:12:47.543-06:002018-01-27T14:12:47.543-06:00"they charge you extra if you refuse to use o..."they charge you extra if you refuse to use one" That's it in a nutshell. Stores with loyalty programs raise prices in order to lower them. Using a loyalty card never gets you a discount, it keeps you from being overcharged. When Jewel dumped their program, prices all over the store dropped. They started advertising "everyday low prices" but nothing really changed. <br /><br />Another thing people don't realize is that points earned on a credit card aren't a giveaway. Banks charge vendors a percentage fee for accepting their card. The vendor, in turn, will raise prices at their business to cover the cost. Whatever you earn with those points, you've paid for. If you pay cash, you're getting screwed. Tony Galatihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11944671504245191140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-46819119095544283972018-01-27T12:58:46.335-06:002018-01-27T12:58:46.335-06:00There's a story famous in retail circles about...There's a story famous in retail circles about how Target could, well, target female customers who were pregnant by how they bought progressively larger underwear as well as other things I'd rather not specify. They would then send those women coupons for baby clothes etc.<br /><br />One man became very indignant when his 17-year-old daughter started getting those coupons. He came to the store and gave the manager a dressing-down about how dare they.<br /><br />A few weeks later he wrote to the store:<br /><br />"I guess I owe you an apology. It seems there were some activities going on in my house of which I was not aware..."Bitter Scribehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04645909858616987997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-32594425592734547462018-01-27T11:42:45.759-06:002018-01-27T11:42:45.759-06:00Except for Walgreen's pharmacy, where every 1,...Except for Walgreen's pharmacy, where every 1,000 "points" saves you a whole dollar, I have always tried my best to avoid those cards whenever possible. Especially the ones called "loyalty cards"...the name reminds me too much of the anti-Communist "loyalty oath" that was once a prerequisite for any university civil service job in Illinois as late as 1970. Even a dishwasher in a dorm had to sign one during those final days of the three Rs...rockin', riotin', and rebellion. Grizz 65noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-55629835730414955242018-01-27T11:05:37.557-06:002018-01-27T11:05:37.557-06:00there was a bit of an uproar about cashiers losing...there was a bit of an uproar about cashiers losing their jobs when the stores instituted self checkout lines. management pushed back against the union shops till they figured out it was costing them money to let customers bag their own merchandise because of theft. so some stores got rid of them and people regained a decent low paying job with some benefits. with everybody walking around wired with gps and voice monitoring devices (cell phones and modern cars) the discount cards hardly matter as far as data mining metrics. what I resent is they charge you extra if you refuse to use one. except you can supply false info when you apply for one and still get the card. its all pretty silly and insignificant. or very serious and ominous. who knows?FMEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06829632906445535928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-53454154702017731462018-01-27T09:54:24.654-06:002018-01-27T09:54:24.654-06:00Really beautiful photo. If I tried to capture the...Really beautiful photo. If I tried to capture the charm of this Mayan (?) site, it would come out looking like a pile of rocks in my backyard.<br /><br />johntatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10088632798195131329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-15205498358101658532018-01-27T09:15:12.193-06:002018-01-27T09:15:12.193-06:00When our local Dominicks closed the building staye...When our local Dominicks closed the building stayed empty until last summer, which I thought odd because it sits in a large cluster of multi-family homes and the old store always seemed to be busy. Now we have a new Jewel there. Very nice. Bananas at 39 cents a pound.<br /><br />Regarding the acquisition of our personal data, John Maynard Keynes once famously said about the notion of market equilibrium, "In the long run we are all dead." Were he alive today he might well have commented "In the long run we are all data."<br /><br />Tom<br />Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09641357239788323783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-19829786389398606902018-01-27T07:58:12.707-06:002018-01-27T07:58:12.707-06:00Sure, Mr. Cooper & co. could track and share y...Sure, Mr. Cooper & co. could track and share your shopping history, but not at the scale nor with the detail and persistence that today's automation allows. He could also have hired Pinkertons to keep an eye on those minimum wage teens, but probably couldn't cost-justify it; nowadays, employee surveillance can be done for cheap. These rapid advances in technology that we're living through are transformative, so it's risky to assume that minor concerns of the past will stay minor in the future.<br /><br />And when Mariano's updated their discount card system a year or so back, it insisted on a verified phone number. It saddened me that I could no longer stick it to the man by punching in 3128675309 or 3125882300.kganderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11005895232135682751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-49571748103586469962018-01-27T06:07:40.890-06:002018-01-27T06:07:40.890-06:00This "Mr. Cooper" you conjured up remind...This "Mr. Cooper" you conjured up reminds me of Sam Drucker in Hooterville.<br /><br />"Our Town Books" in Jacksonville Il. was still wrapping your purchase in brown paper a couple of years ago, when I was last there. Nice little store. Mostly used, but some new books. Tony Galatihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11944671504245191140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-15532417536690901552018-01-27T01:26:36.119-06:002018-01-27T01:26:36.119-06:00You do know they never checked whether the info yo...You do know they never checked whether the info you gave them was correct.<br />I always lied on those applications & thus completely screwed up their marketing follies.Clark St.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09634234069783123180noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-37464389570519896732018-01-27T00:50:00.025-06:002018-01-27T00:50:00.025-06:00In 1997, that same Dominick's was *our* local ...In 1997, that same Dominick's was *our* local supermarket, too. If we had to give them our social security number and driver's license number, I'd forgotten about that. I would never do that today, but we certainly had a Fresh Values card. Gotta say, we saved a helluva lot more than 4 1/2% on our usual outing by using it. (Which I have to imagine your wife did on her visits, as well, NS!) I never particularly cared about some computer analyzing our purchasing profile.<br /><br />One of the several things that was appealing to me about Mariano's when it started opening stores in the city was that they *didn't* have such a card, though, and you could get the bargain prices on things without one. Woo-hoo! I felt like it was some kind of bait-and-switch when Mr. Mariano decided to sell the chain to freaking Kroger, which then promptly instituted a card. D'oh! I give Jewel credit for discontinuing theirs, though they lost points by taking out the self-checkouts at the store we go to... Jakashnoreply@blogger.com