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11/01/2006 Store CardsRetailers have been latching on to another marketing gimmick that riles me. The store card. Whether it is a free “discount” (yea right) card or the store’s flavor of credit card —— they all use these to track you and your purchases. Or worse, you are inundated with spam and telemarketers. My 1st experience with this was the Kroger card. I eventually got one of the stupid things but I never got over the feeling that I wasn’t really getting a discount, but that I was being extorted into giving them personal information to get a normal price for goods. I eventually quit Kroger over their lousy meat department and terrible service. I still refuse to check out my own groceries —— I figure they’ll have their customers paying for the privilege of stocking shelves next. I know I shouldn’t take it out on the cashier, but the constant litany of, “Do you have your card?” grates on my nerves almost as much as, “Do you want fries with that?”. Every time I get snippy with them they say, “But I have to ask!” to which I reply, “No you don’t —— next time pretend you did and don’t!”. I think I have the clerks at Staples finally convinced I am NOT going to buy their Rewards card or whatever they call it. That’s the other part that confuses them. I tell them I don’t want to buy one and they say it is free. So I say —— “OK, give me a free one.” And they push the form at me and I push it back and say —— “No, I want the FREE one —— the one I don’t have to pay for with my personal information. I want to be free from spam email and phone calls from telemarketers.” Some get the point, most don’t. There’s no such thing as a free lunch —— or a free store card. |