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I was alerted to two stories regarding grocery stores, data mining, and apps from Franz Dill at The Eponymous Pickle. First, Kroger acquired "customer science" company dunnhumbyUSA last week with the goal of boosting their "Customer 1st" strategy:
Continuing dunnhumbyUSA's work, [new subsidiary] 84.51° mines mountains of customer transactions via Kroger's loyalty card program to figure out what shoppers want.
84.51° helps Kroger to thoughtfully evaluate what products to stock, expand or discontinue. The firm's insights are also used to send coupons relevant to shoppers' habits, such as issuing pet food offers to customers who actually buy pet food.
Aitken says noted 95 percent of Kroger's growth in the last decade has come from winning more business from existing customers – which is a smarter, most cost-effective way to do business. He notes too many industries – from mobile carriers to cable TV providers – chase after new customers with one-time incentives that ultimately encourage switching, not customer loyalty.
Also, Winn-Dixie is releasing a mobile app that features:
..."personalized" digital coupons, all stored on your smartphone or other electronic device. Winn-Dixie, a subsidiary of Bi-Lo Holdings, partnered with Coupons.com for this new savings system, which sends you cyber coupons based on your own shopping preferences.
The Winn-Dixie app also features a virtual shopping list and fuelperks rewards.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2015, @08:14AM
<sarcasm>What shocking news!</sarcasm>Seriously, do there really still exist people who don't get that the whole purpose of customer card systems is to collect data about the customers?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2015, @08:37AM
It should be illegal, really. Poor people need food, and huge stores offering 'discounts' to people who allow their privacy to be violated is hardly voluntary.
(Score: 2) by The Archon V2.0 on Monday May 04 2015, @04:27PM
> It should be illegal, really.
Making any form of corporate data collection illegal is rare. And I'm not even talking about lobbyists pushing against it. I'm talking about the fact that the government likes having data it can subpoena when it needs it. Why pay for surveillance when you can get a free ride from someone else doing the same thing?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday May 04 2015, @09:16PM
Furthermore, making it illegal would be counter productive.
If you buy at a store, you probably would be interested in having those things you buy in stock the next time you visit. If the store can look to purchases and notice larger numbers of product X being bought every friday afternoon, they can make sure there is more there on friday than any other day.
I've gotten notifications from Krogers and Costco about food recalls on purchases I've made. They never send me any other spam, so I'm fine.
If you open a loyalty card with a business you do it for the benefits. Making it illegal would just stupid.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by http on Tuesday May 05 2015, @04:06AM
No store needs to ID you to know their inventory.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 05 2015, @04:23PM
Not to mention that pesky laws and constitutions can prevent government from being able to do surveillance in the first place, yet no such protections for the public exist against corporations. Yet another way capitalism subverts democracy.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Monday May 04 2015, @04:52PM
How is this any worse from a local mom-n-pop shop that knows its customers, what they like and don't like, and if they have a pet at home? Just because it is computerized doesn't make knowing your customers bad. The business gets to make more money by being more responsive to its customers needs and wants. How is that so wrong as to be illegal?
In New England the cheapest supermarket, Market Basket, does not do a loyalty program nor even have a website. I've heard their average weekly per-store sales are a million dollars. The stores are almost always packed.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Monday May 04 2015, @05:58PM
This. I was hoping those who'd prefer to shop at "save-n-pack" type places would chime in whether something like this would be worth the convenience. Place an order on your cell phone, p/u the order later in the day (that's where all this is headed). Coupons automatically included. Swipe your phone to pay and the bag boy pushes a cart out to your waiting vehicle, no need to even get out. Delivery available if you can't get to the store. Hell they could probably work in a "delivery perks" program like they do w/ fuel.
I spend about $70-$100/week at various grocery stores. This includes items like paper towels and dog food too. I buy produce, fish and cheese where it's freshest, other stuff I p/u where it's cheapest. None of these places are Kroger. The only things I buy there are stuff I can't get at the local "pack-n-save," like cashew butter and canned artichokes. I'd have to do a comparison shop at Kroger but if the extra I'll have to pay is less than a couple hours of my time, it might be worth it (in dollars, but I'd also sacrifice food freshness/quality).
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday May 04 2015, @09:27PM
Don't bet on having to sacrifice either quality or freshness to shop at a bigger store.
Small stores that cater to low income don't stock the best quality.
Big chains have programs and staff to watch expiration dates closely. Small chains often don't.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Tuesday May 05 2015, @01:52AM
Not true where I shop, the local produce store always has fresh everything, including sprigs. Local if it's in season, too. They have a $1 table in the front that has stuff that's about to go bad, maybe 2 days if you're lucky. The Pack-n-Save has a butcher shop in it (well, everything except chicken). Every morning they rewrap meat from the day before and set it out, sometimes for as low as 1/2 price.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2015, @11:44PM
>> In New England the cheapest supermarket, Market Basket, does not do a loyalty program nor even have a website.
>
> This. I was hoping those who'd prefer to shop at "save-n-pack" type places would chime in
Market Basket is nothing like that. They are on the same level as the best of Albertsons, etc. One step down from Wholefoods. In some ways they are better than wholefoods, like their sushi is the best super-market sushi I've ever had, better than many actual sushi bars. And I've lived in LA as well as Boston.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday May 05 2015, @02:06PM
Stop 'n Shop in the New England area already does exactly that. Place an order from your smartphone, pick it up at the store, or have it delivered to your home. I dunno the details though because I've never used either. But a friend of mine used to use the delivery thing occasionally. Apparently it kinda sucks for produce -- the employees picking it don't usually care of course, so you'll often end up with the ones left sitting around at the bottom of the bin that nobody else wanted. I don't think they do it intentionally, but it certainly could be used as a way to unload crap that was about to expire or bruised and disfigured or whatever.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2015, @11:50PM
> How is this any worse from a local mom-n-pop shop that knows its customers,
Because mom-and-pop stores don't out-source that to a company which resells to everybody, including facebook. [eff.org]
This is the way it is with all databases. What was once a private interaction between the customer and the seller on the other side of the counter is now semi-public information made available to anyone with a dollar and ulterior motives.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Monday May 18 2015, @11:52PM
How is this any worse from a local mom-n-pop shop that knows its customers, what they like and don't like, and if they have a pet at home?
Scale. Human memory isn't perfect. All of the data goes to a central location which can be sold to multiple other companies. And, of course, the government can get all the data easily, about many, many more people.
If you needed to ask this question, you didn't think it through.