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Databases Programming Software Businesses IT

Can a Customer Loyalty Database Change a Society? 270

Posted by Zonk from the now-that's-power dept.
Retrospeak writes "'Organisations that continue to put the brand at their epicentre and pay only lip service to the notion that the customer is king, will fail. It's just a matter of time.' So says business strategist Clive Humby. His marketing company, Dunnhumby handles the loyalty scheme database for Tesco, the third-largest retailer in world and the biggest retailer in Britain. This fact combined with a strong customer loyalty program means they may have one of the largest databases in the world. The Economist goes on to state that Britain itself is being changed by the secondary effects of Tesco's massive customer-driven database." From the article: "Some of these changes are small. The dust jacket of a book that was to be sold in-store was recently altered because a Tesco buyer did not like it. Others are more fundamental. Before the Clubcard came along, the largest panels that suppliers could use consisted of around 20,000 people. But suppliers can now pay for access to the database and many just rely on Tesco."
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Can a Customer Loyalty Database Change a Society? More

Can a Customer Loyalty Database Change a Society?

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  • I am NaN (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 06, 2005 @08:47AM (#13257467)
    As long as customer databases are mistaken for customer service, it'll certainly not change anything for the better.

    • Re:I am NaN (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Smallpond ( 221300 )
      Most businesses are moving away from interpersonal service to self-serve backed by monitoring. Look at self-serve gas, supermarket checkout, ATMs. I think ATMs are a win, since they reduce lines. In supermarkets I find a human if I'm in a hurry, tho. Databases are replacing the "Mr. Whipple" model of the manager who knows his customers. Now its the database miners who know their clients. Its just automation moving higher up the chain.

      Obligatory OS quote
      "I have people skills! I am good at dealing with p

      • Re:I am NaN (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Jeff DeMaagd ( 2015 )
        I am usually OK with self serve gas, but pumping gas is a very small number of operations. I am not happy with self-serve checkout because the machines are designed to work with dumb, inexperienced people and in my experience, a poorly calibrated scanner. Even with good scanner, my experience is better with using actual check-out people is that they ring through a stack of items without the hinderance of the unresponsive and demanding computer, maybe at twice the speed. What it tells me is that stores ar

        • Re:I am NaN (Score:3, Insightful)

          by cdrguru ( 88047 )
          Well, those minimum-wage clerks in stores are getting harder and harder to come by. What you would like it a motivated, English-speaking person that is nice to the customers. What they have settled for in the past as a unmotivated, English-as-an-afterthought, person that feels they just aren't paid enough to be nice.

          Increasing wages doesn't help - often the only people that seem to be hired are immigrant labor that aren't all that interested in higher wages - they will do the same low-quality work for min

          • Re:I am NaN (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Fulcrum of Evil ( 560260 )

            Increasing wages doesn't help - often the only people that seem to be hired are immigrant labor that aren't all that interested in higher wages - they will do the same low-quality work for minimum wage or below.

            You gotta be shitting me. Of course the immigrants want more money. If they have enough English to work checkout and do their job well, then you should pay them more. It does help retention. Most of the people I've seen working checkout are citizens that've been here a while (with the exception of

  • Wegmans v. General Motors (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bgfay ( 5362 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @08:50AM (#13257475) Homepage
    I live in Central New York where we have the pleasure of shopping at Wegmans Supermarkets. Wegmans uses a shopping card, is very receptive to even the smallest suggestions from customers, and goes out of their way to satisfy all customers. They track purchases carefully and have a giant database from which they mark trends and make changes. To put it simply, they rely less on the brand name and more on continuously improving and changing. For this reason, they have sent at least three different supermarket chains in the area scrambling or out of business. Wal-Mart hasn't even made much headway because Wegmans is so good.

    Then there's GM. This dinosaur doesn't give people what they want--a well-built car that lasts a long time and sells for a reasonable price. Simply put, they don't get it. They believe that they have always been and that they have always done things the one true way.

    Which company will grow?
    • When I lived in Los Angeles, we had a great grocery chain called Gelson's that was impeccably run, had no lines, and had beautiful stores. There were cheaper ways to get food, of course, but none more pleasant, and the price premium to shop there was low and getting lower all the time, as the big chains raised their prices and Gelson's didn't.

      In Pittsburgh, where I am now, the local grocery market is such a depressing place that I'm shifting my grocery shopping to Wal-Mart. It's cheaper and service is act
      • I lived in Tallahassee for a year, and I can say from personal experience that Publix rocks. Now that I'm back in the midwest I really miss it. They had amazing prices, really friendly employees, and just outstanding service. Sure it was cheaper to go to Walmart, but Walmart didn't have the selection or quality of food that Publix did.
      • in Los Angeles, we had a great grocery chain called Gelson's that was impeccably run, had no lines, and had beautiful stores

        Yeah, because it costs an arm and a leg to shop there. At least at the bakery and deli, you can spend nearly double what you would at a typical supermarket (like $12 for a pound of turkey?!) Of course, the quality at Gelson's can't be beat, so I guess you get what you pay for. I only did full grocery shopping there once, during the supermarket strikes, and I will say I enjoyed my $10
        • Compare Gelson's with Whole Foods, though, and it looks downright cheap.

          I did control for quality when I mentioned price, though. Their boneless chicken breasts were the best, at $7.99 a pound. Ralph's was a lot cheaper but didn't look nearly as good. They put a lot of care into deboning and deskinning the chicken at Gelson's, and you could really see a difference.

          D

      • Publix also is entirely employee-owned and doesn't deal with this "loyalty card" crap to begin with. Translation - they don't charge you a penalty for not providing them with data on your purchases.

        I think Publix is probably about the best supermarket chain I've shopped in, but I will say that Sainsbury's in England has by far the best store-brand potato chips. :-)
      • In Pittsburgh, where I am now, the local grocery market is such a depressing place that I'm shifting my grocery shopping to Wal-Mart. It's cheaper and service is actually friendlier.

        At least a few years ago, the Giant Eagle in Squirrel Hill was pretty good . Of course, nothing beats going down to the strip district if you have the time.

    • Re:Wegmans v. General Motors (Score:4, Informative)

      by coflow ( 519578 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @10:01AM (#13257688)
      Wegman's recently moved into my old neighborhood, and I can attest it is one of the most well-run companies I've seen. The stores are huge, the selection is tremendous, and the focus on building a positive customer experience is intense.

      Wegman's seems to be a little more serious about their customer database and the quality of data it contains. My mother-in-law tried to use my wife's Wegman's loyalty card, and they checked her ID and wouldn't let her use it. I would really like to see the type of things they're doing with their DW.
    • I shop at Wegmans quite often but I actually stopped using my shoppng card. I assumed you needed it to get "regular prices" (ala price chopper) but on an average $40 worth of groceries I usually save about 24 cents. If they'd like to collect all of this data, they should at least give us an incentive for us giving it to them.

    • Re:Wegmans v. General Motors (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Profane MuthaFucka ( 574406 ) <busheatskok@gmail.com> on Saturday August 06, 2005 @12:28PM (#13258359) Homepage Journal
      Obviously you don't know what people want in a car either. The biggest factor you forgot is *style*. GM makes ugly and inoffensive cars, but no beautiful cars.

      The fact that the Toyota absolutely NAILED the American hip-hop submarket with their boxy Scion while sitting in their offices 10,000 miles away ought to scare the living shit out of GM. They've managed to figure out how to sell 10 year old styling to old people (and not in Korea either) but that's about it.
    • I was just noticing the difference between some stores -- I notice a lot of cashiers these days ask you "did you find everything you were looking for?" I used to auto-answer "yes" (like "have a nice day") but now I answer honestly. I have discovered that approximately half the people just sort of smile and say "oh sorry" or ignore me when I say I didn't find some particular thing; the other half actually have had people go back and double-check, or take down the info as a suggestion, etc. It varies but it'

  • swap your loyalty cards... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by t0mhannen ( 719829 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @08:54AM (#13257484)
    I seem to remember a hackers conference where it was suggested that everyone should bring along their loyalty cards, and then do a swap.

    If enough people did this, the databases would suddenly start to pick up on unexpected trends - customers whose profile suggested eating tofu and lettuce would suddenly be buying cigarettes and crisps etc.

    It seemed like rather an interesting idea to me...

    • Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by brunes69 ( 86786 ) <`gro.daetsriek' `ta' `todhsals'> on Saturday August 06, 2005 @09:49AM (#13257646)
      What is the point of this? All it would do is screw up all the marketing research, resulting in them shoving more crap you don't care about down your throat whenever you go to buy groceries.

      Personally, I hope to hell they learn everything they can about me so that my shopping experience will go smoother and faster.

       
      • If they want my grocery store trips to go smoother and faster, all they have to do is hire more fucking cashiers. They don't need to track what I buy. They already know whats being sold by how their supply changes, without trying to track what I buy across visits. So why should they invade my privacy? Shit like that shouldn't be legal- they shouldn't be allowed to record personal information like that, and definitely not allowed to alter prices based on it.

        • Re:Why? (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Ravatar ( 891374 )
          Who says shopping should be anonymous? If they can service me better without a noticeable negative effect on my daily life, then more power to them.

          • Re:Why? (Score:2, Insightful)

            by gowen ( 141411 )
            Shopping must be anonymous. That's why I always go into my local store with a balaclava over my head. Anyone who doesn't is a slave to the corporate society, and insufficiently l33t.

      • Re:Why? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by wasted time ( 891410 )
        Personally, I hope to hell they learn everything they can about me so that my shopping experience will go smoother and faster.

        Let's hope what they learn about you is true.
        http://www.nocards.org/news/index.shtml#fire [nocards.org]

        Charges dismissed!
        Arson charges against firefighter dropped after another confesses

        We previously reported that a fireman in Everett, Washington had been arrested for setting a fire in his own home. The fire was reported to have been started using a "firestarter" which, although charre

    • I'm always surprised that more people don't just lie on their card forms. Sure, you miss out on the mailed coupons, but the amusement factor of having a clerk try to address you by name when it says "Bozo T. Clown" on their screen is worth it.

      • The problem with lying is that, once you use a credit or debit card, your true identity is known exactly.

        • The problem with lying is that, once you use a credit or debit card, your true identity is known exactly.

          Yeah, but there's this wonderfull new solution - a prepaid card that doesn't have your face on it, but some dead presidents ! You can buy them from ATM's or banks, and best of all, you can even know how much money these cards have since it reads on cards surface ! And they're even made of paper, so they won't harm the environment as much as plastic cards !

          I think this invention is called "cash". Go

    • Tesco give you back 1% of what you spend - so there's a very strong incentive to make sure that all your cards are registered to your home address.

      They don't pull much of this "card member discount" crap that stores here in the US do. When i lived in the UK I would probably use half of all the coupons that tesco mailed to me - they were THAT effective.

    • I always thought it would be fun to hack the code that prints out savings coupons based on your purchases.

      You buy a box of cakes and a tub of ice-cream? Get 10% off a Slim-Kwik[TM] diet plan.

      Buy veggie-burgers? Special offer on veal cutlets!
    • ...or, you happen to move from one area where one chain of stores is owned by the same parent corporation as a different chain where you're moving to.

      I make it a point to use my Dominick's card whenif I happen to shop at a Safeway. I don't care one bit that it's linked to my old address in Illinois, same with my Jewel/Osco card when buying chocochip cookies at Albertson's.

      I guess I try to keep my shopping rather local if I can, even if it costs more and the service seems to be worse (yeah, right) than the b

  • No tracking necessary (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SlashEdsDoYourJobs ( 905360 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @09:00AM (#13257498) Homepage

    ...at least in some instances. For example:

    Second, Tesco can adjust its shelves to suit the profile of the local area, or even the time of day. Tesco in Brixton, an area of south London settled by immigrants from the Caribbean, sells plantains, a kind of savoury banana that can also be found for sale on market stalls outside. Tesco stores in central London do not, but are instead designed around selling sandwiches to office workers at lunchtime and then ready-meals to them in the evening.

    A database isn't needed for this. If the two Tescos were instead simply two unrelated corner shops, they'd still be selling different things. Local shops tend to do that - sell things that are in demand instead of things that are not in demand. No special database needed.

    It's useful for other stuff though, like the article says, customer profiles means you can send a specific set of discount vouchers to each customer based on their preferences. You could get a similar effect by shipping all vouchers to all customers, but I suspect this would be less effective as most people are more likely to use a couple of vouchers that they find interesting rather than look through a booklet of dozens of vouchers to find ones that are interesting to them.

    The dust jacket of a book that was to be sold in-store was recently altered because a Tesco buyer did not like it.

    That's a bit silly, really. It leads to bland stuff that has been toned down to not offend anybody. Sure, if it offends a whole bunch of people, it might make sense to alter it, but one person?

    • Re:No tracking necessary (Score:5, Insightful)

      by djmurdoch ( 306849 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @09:06AM (#13257520)
      The dust jacket of a book that was to be sold in-store was recently altered because a Tesco buyer did not like it.

      That's a bit silly, really. It leads to bland stuff that has been toned down to not offend anybody. Sure, if it offends a whole bunch of people, it might make sense to alter it, but one person?

      I think you misread the article. The Tesco buyer is a Tesco employee who buys for Tesco. It wasn't a customer buying from Tesco who complained.
      • >>>The dust jacket of a book that was to be sold in-store was recently altered because a Tesco buyer did not like it.

        >>That's a bit silly, really. It leads to bland stuff that has been toned down to not offend anybody. Sure, if it offends a whole bunch of people, it might make sense to alter it, but one person?

        >I think you misread the article. The Tesco buyer is a Tesco employee who buys for Tesco. It wasn't a customer buying from Tesco who complained.

        Even if he did misinterpret what a "Te
    • By "Tesco buyer", they don't mean a normal retailer customer, but one of the Tesco employees who is responsible for buying stock to put on Tesco shelves. If they don't like the book cover, then it's not going to go on Tesco shelves.
    • The interesting point of a database would be to give other shops ideas about what products they should introduce, based on the success of similar introductions in shops with similar buyer patterns. In addition, one could hope that this would not be ridden by prejudice, but what actually sells well. They may not always coincide.
    • A database isn't needed for this.

      No, but it is needed to be able to sell it out to other companies.

      I just don't get what's so different about Telco, or what is to make customers loyal to it. Telco:
      • Tracks customer details and then sells it
      • Stocks more of what sells well in the store and stocks less of what doesn't sell as well
      • Mails customers discounts (I wonder if they ask permission before sending the spam?)
      • Listen's to its employees
      • Is trying to avoid legal action
      • Has some "philanthropy" in an att
    • It's useful for other stuff though, like the article says, customer profiles means you can send a specific set of discount vouchers to each customer based on their preferences.

      On a recent TV programme about Tesco they covered this scheme. When they send out their vouchers on a 3 month basis they get a sales boom equivalent to Christmas!

      And by using the loyalty card scheme, their store profiles match the UK consumer profiles (By income) almost exactly.

  • Tesco has changed Britain, but for the bettter? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by fruey ( 563914 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @09:03AM (#13257509) Homepage Journal

    The local Tesco store near where my parents live has killed most local commerce and the next town (5 miles away) suffered greatly until a supermarket was given permission to build a large store on a town centre site there.

    It is more correct to say that the hypermarket has changed Britain, but Tesco happens to be by far the most successful example. IIRC the statistic is that 1 out of every 3 GBP spent in the UK is spent at Tesco.

    In their defense they say "Tesco tries to see off criticism by arguing that it gives customers what they want and keeps staff happy." You could easily turn that around any say that they reinforce customer habits by offering them offers on their usually consumed high value items. You rarely see offers on bread, milk and sugar. Rather more on your favourite desserts and higher margin goods. By suggesting that others purchased Turkey Twizzlers with Claret and then offering other Turkey Twizzlers offers on Claret rather sounds like moving everyone towards a common denominator to me. But one thing is for sure, it sure sells product! So if your goal is to survive in the continual drive to make consumers consume more and more (and at credit too - with the Tesco credit card, Tesco loans and with a Tesco banking service) then you're onto a winner by being just like Tesco.

    • Re:Tesco has changed Britain, but for the bettter? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by s7uar7 ( 746699 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @09:14AM (#13257544) Homepage
      The village where I live is about 3 miles from the nearest Tesco and, one by one, the small family-run shops are closing. But they themselves are partly to blame - apart from Saturday mornings, they're closed when I'm at home. I would buy my meat fresh the butchers, fruit and veg from the greengrocer, and fresh bread from the bakers, but they don't give me that choice. If they stayed open late, just by a couple of hours, one day a week they'd get my business. At the moment the only people able to shop there are pensioners, the unemployed, housewives and shift workers.
      • This is merely a reflection on how society has changed ... small local shops apparently haven't been in demand because everyone now wants to sit in an office all day and only go out in their cars.

        It used to be that people got married, and stayed married, one of the couple went out to work and the other stayed closer to home. This freed one of the couple to do perhaps the most important work: child rearing, social cohesion and re-provisioning.

        Now get this. In towns and cities, people would walk to local shop
    • There are other reasons to be wary of the rise of the big supermarkets. in the UK channel 4 recently had a 2 part expose of supermarket food, and the conditions under which it is produced, together with some alarming statistics at how they have (through all sorts of chemicals in the feed etc) pushed the milk output of cows up and up and up, way beyond what might be considered normal. The cows dont graze normally, they are stood inside all day on concrete floors eating from piles of freshly mown grass. As a
    • From Tesco's own investor site [http://www.tescocorporate.com/ [tescocorporate.com] the gross sales was 37,070 million GBP [about $65.8 B USD].

      The British GDP is about 1 Trillion [1.7 T USD]

      That seems a far cry from 1 out of every 3 GBP. Unless you mean, maybe, actual currency passing thru the stores, at some point.

    • "keeps staff happy". Umm. Tesco's staff - the bottom ranks - are amongst the lowest in the UK. I've talked to a few of their checkout people and they didn't seem that happy working for Tescos. It's a buyers market and Tesco's seem to know it. Of course, areas will differ.

  • So where's the problem? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ZPO ( 465615 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @09:04AM (#13257515)
    This seems like the perfect implementation of an affinity program. I find the closing parapgraphs regarding the OFTs interest troubling.

    Tesco is a public company listening to customers, providing them with the goods and services they desire, and doing so for a fair price. Somehow to a group of people (and the OFT) that is improper. Since when did the "small shops" receive some type of right to exist and operate? If Tesco provided a better value for customers then that is where the customers will go.

    I did the majority of my grocery shopping in Tesco while living in the UK. The stores were good, and I could even get home delivery. There were a couple small corner shops on the way home from the tube station as well. If I needed a loaf of bread, carton of OJ, or a pack of smokes they were a good quick stop. If stocking up my pantry/fridge for the week I'd go to Tesco. The small shops didn't have the products I wanted to buy.

    • I used to use the Tesco internet shopping service. I stopped because, despite placing the order 2 or 3 days in advance*, there were too many 'substitutions' where the items I had ordered were 'out of stock' and often the substitutes sent in their place were very poorly chosen. So now I use Sainsburys and Ocado (Waitrose) who are much better.

      Maybe Tesco have improved since I switched, but for me they had their chance and they 'blew it'.

      * Thus giving sufficient time for them to obtain any goods which were out
      • I had the same problem (substitutions). I started hitting the NoSubstitutes button (or whatever it was called) and waited until the next order to see if they had it yet.

    • "Since when did the "small shops" receive some type of right to exist and operate? If Tesco provided a better value for customers then that is where the customers will go."

      The "small shops" never received "some kind of right to exist". But it is important to keep in mind that it may be some kind of tragedy of the commons [wikipedia.org], where the people will be better with the small shops, but see more value (individualy) at the big ones.

  • retail marketeer's wet dream (Score:4, Funny)

    by ch-chuck ( 9622 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @09:06AM (#13257518) Homepage
    a loyalty card with rfid and customers with remote control implants.

    "Smedley, there's a customer in aisle 7 with a weakness for cream filled donuts - jerk him over to aisle 3 quick!"

  • Tesco = Advanced Commercial Democracy (Score:3, Interesting)

    by G4from128k ( 686170 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @09:09AM (#13257527)
    In essence, isn't the Tesco loyalty card system like a sophisticated representative democratic process? People "register to vote" using a loyalty card, vote by buying goods, and Tesco watches the results of the "election." Tesco knows who buys what and can thus go to suppliers and argue for changes that are more likely to satisfy customers.

    Although non-loyalty card users still count at Tesco (all retail is a type of democracy in that people vote with their pocketbooks), I'm sure that the product choices of loyalty card users are far more influential with Tesco and thus with suppliers. In that regard not having a loyalty card is like not having a voter registration card.

    Some might argue that voting should be anonymous, like political democratic elections, and perhaps it should. Yet non-anonymous voting provides valuable information -- e.g., Tesco might notice that, for example, people who buy lots of hot soups in the winter don't buy high-sugar fizzy drinks in the summer or some other correlation that is only observable if you can know that shopping basket A and basket B (6 months later) represent the same voter. These long-term correlations aid in both store assortment planning and forecasting.
    • Tesco might notice that, for example, people who buy lots of hot soups in the winter don't buy high-sugar fizzy drinks in the summer or some other correlation that is only observable if you can know that shopping basket A and basket B (6 months later) represent the same voter.

      There is a large assumption here, which is that only the customer who was issued the card is the person that ever uses the card, which is not true. Especially when said cards have incentives like "points" that can
      • There is a large assumption here, which is that only the customer who was issued the card is the person that ever uses the card, which is not true. Especially when said cards have incentives like "points" that can be accumulated to obtain free items, or a straight discount for using the card. Such card "borrowing" will skew the data in the database, since the computer assumes that the card equals the person, which is not necessarily true.

        Card borrowing does skew the data, but how high is the actual frequ
    • ...between a well informed market and a democracy, is that the democracy is zero-sum while the market tries to serve all profitable niches. That's why Tesco carries both regular pasta and low-carb Atkins stuff (and no-gluten stuff, and rice pasta, and etc). It's not an election between the carb and anti-carb parties, where the winner takes all and the rarer minorities get stiffed.
    • Tesco loyalty card system like a sophisticated representative democratic process

      I think its more like having your own KGB agent to track your movements.

      I shop in Tesco. I do not have a loyalty card. I pay cash. I also shop in Asda (Walmart), Netto and Safeways/Morrisons.

      Since my local Safeways became Morrisons, the prices have crashed, but the choice has become very "northern" (Mushy peas and black pudding are easy to find, while plantains and Greek bread have gone). I complained that they no longer sto

  • After reading the article about Tesco, you have to wonder does a place with paid annual memberships like Costco do the same thing (not that hard to do given that every time you check out of Costco you have to swipe the membership card anyway) in terms of tracking customer trends.
  • The article doesn't say if the database has it's entry linked to people or store and that is the information I wanted. If they contain people name and infos I'm against it, their suppliers can buy an access to the database and that alone scares me about it. If their database simply is linked to a store then it becomes a really good idea with a lot of practical uses and none of the big brother scare.

    However the important point in the article isn't the database, it's the fact that a company is becomming big N
  • Can a Customer Loyalty Database Change a Society? Probably.

    Can a Database Customer Loyalty Change a Society? Certainly [google.com].

  • By driving me crazy? yes (Score:4, Funny)

    by t_allardyce ( 48447 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @10:04AM (#13257702) Journal
    Every time i go to Tesco, without fail, they ask me the same question "do you have a tesco clubcard?"! Do i have a fucking tesco club card? do i?? if i had a tesco club card would i be standing there holding out my money without it? would i actually forget to take it out? I know they are trained to do this, they have no choice and i know by the tone of their voice they are fucking fed up of saying it more than im fed up of hearing it, in fact i feel sorry for them - to have to say the same phrase 100's of times a day while listening to people saying it all around you must be hell. Theres hardly any other talking going on at the check-out, the only thing you hear is the total and do you have a mother fucking tesco club card. Sometimes I wonder, should i just get a tesco club card to make them shut up? even having to pull an extra thing out of my wallet every time would make up for it! If getting a card ment just being handed one and not having to fill anything in then i probably would, but it probably takes a form a mile long. If tesco want me to use a card then its going to have to be anonymous and not require me doing anything.
    • Sometimes I wonder, should i just get a tesco club card to make them shut up? even having to pull an extra thing out of my wallet every time would make up for it!

            Fight it! Fight it! If you do THAT then they win! You can be strong! I know you can! Just take it one day at a time!
    • I feel exactly the same about them. I want a t-shirt saying, "NO, I don't have a fucking clubcard". These days, I tend to avoid shopping at Tesco, except when necessary, as it's such a horrible experience, with crowded stores and long queues. I've mostly switched to shopping at Waitrose, which is far more pleasant or, occasionally, Asda which is even worse.

  • Anyone here ever read Jennifer Govenment [maxbarry.com] by Max Barry?

    It's a crime drama/thriller set in a future where People take the name of the company they work for as their surname (John Nike, Ken Wal-Mart, etc.); and customer loyalty cards and brand recognition inpsire riots, war and murder.

    I read it the same month I read Farenheit 451, (which might be the single best book I ever read.)

    *THAT* was a fun month for paranoia, I can tell you.

    All y'all that haven't read those two books need to go out and do so IMMEDIATELY. Thank you, Public Library for having them on the shelves.

    • Anyone here ever read Jennifer Govenment by Max Barry?

      Yeah, it seemed somewhat contrived - slaughtering customers to increase product demand? And anyway, how many people named John work for Nike?

  • Max Barry anyone (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Kevertje ( 681938 )
    This story reminds me of a book written by Max Barry [maxbarry.com], titled Jennifer Government [maxbarry.com]...
    In that book, there are 2 major customer loyalty programs with all big brands participating in one of them. The world is run by the corporations, employees take on the name of their employer and the police is now a publicly owned security firm (participating in one of said programs) which only investigates crimes if they can bill the investigation (on the victim of course)
  • This is still branding. Instead of branding individual products, and incurring the cost of promotion for each product, one brands a retail outlet, and reduce the advertising cost as a percentage of revenue. This is what Walmart does, without any hassles of cards.

    Affinity cards are part of this branding. They exist to remind the customer of the shop, and may limit the customer choices due the inconvince of carrying multiple cards. For the purpose of data collection such cards are hardly neccesary, as m

  • Not Saving Any Money (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Blackbird_Highway ( 756085 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @11:56AM (#13258172)
    Stores that use these tracking card systems always charge more than stores that don't. There have been many studies that have proven it. Check the Wall Street Journal. You can prove it yourself, I did. Just check the prices of items in the store, before and after they go on sale with a card discount. One week the frozen fish is 2.99. The next week, it's 3.79, but you get .80 off if you use your card! You're saving .80! What a bargain! As long as the sheep who shop there think they are saving money, the store is more profitable, so it's all good, right?
  • Organisations that continue to put the brand at their epicentre and pay only lip service to the notion that the customer is king, will fail. It's just a matter of time.

    (glancing at watch) I'm still waiting...

    --Rob

  • Some of you may be interested in reading a bit about these so called loyalty card programs here. http://www.nocards.org/ [nocards.org]

    I am not usually the tinfoil hat type, and these people tend to go a little overboard with some of their logic (especially on the RFID side) but most of their information about the loyalty card programs I have found to be true.

    Having worked for a grocery chain for 8 years and most recently a pharmacy chain for 12 years, I am very familiar with the pricing and promotion models used in both

  • Ask to use the store card. (Score:3, Informative)

    by cyclobotomy ( 681303 ) on Saturday August 06, 2005 @06:58PM (#13260469) Homepage
    Ask to use the store card. I have been doing this for years and have never been turned down by the register oprtator.

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