Like why does Kroger want me to get a Kroger’s card so bad
Idk maybe I’m just being too paranoid But why do they want to give me free stuff
They can gather a lot of information about you that way. Information is $$$
They’re gathering info from my shopping habits, but I have no idea who they’re associating it with xD
I’ve used the same Kroger card since 2002. It’s one I found in the Kroger parking lot near my college dorm and have used since.
They don’t really need to associate it with a specific person (although I’m sure they’d love to)- they can get plenty of data just within the context of what a single person buys in their store.
Like if you’re pregnant.
They’re associating it with your debit/credit card, unless you’re buying with cash only. Also, the “identity” isn’t so much the target as the “profile”. Don’t get me wrong, if they are able to personally identify you, the communication will be much more… personalized… (good english) - mailings, texts, emails and coupons for stuff either you’ve bought or adjacent to your stuff (with better margins for the store) addressing you by name, grouped with other purchase-history items. But back to the profile: building a profile of your likes, dislikes, brands and such is valuable data that gets more $ for corporate as the fidelity gets higher. And as it does, the messaging to you gets more targeted.
They can match it to you phones location and your credit card number.
It’s also generally not about you in particular. They mostly just want to lump you in with similar lifestyles groupings. Then they target you and your cohorts with targeted sales, advertising, or sell that data on the open market.
I don’t use the app (or any for that matter), but yeah I guess they can track via my debit card.
Even still, it only takes a few data points to presume exactly who you are. They are all buying and selling data. The phone company says this credit card pays for that phone number. And that credit card is used with this store perks card… The data is all there.
This is why I always try “Jenny’s Number” for loyalty programs when I can enter an phone number (Local area code +8675309). A Safeway near me used to offer fuel points with grocery purchases up to $1 discount per gallon. I saved a lot of money in gas for a while, then it seemed Safeway got wise and deactivated those numbers.
Smart.
Haven’t had this happen for a while, but cashiers used to ask for a zipcode when checking out. Always gave them 90210 .
It also encourages you to shop at, say, Kroger rather than Safeway.
To get you to shop there more
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Because if you have a Kroger’s card you’re going to want to shop there more often to get the free stuff. You’re not paranoid, it is a psychological tactic to get you to spend more money. Casinos do similar things.
Also, throwing in occasional free stuff makes it harder for customers to comparison shop: they’ll assume the free items balance out higher costs on other items without actually doing the math. (It also exploits the sunk cost fallacy.)
They get even more detailed information about your buying and spending habits. They can use this information to better manage their stock and sales to maximize profit, and probably more importantly, they can sell your contact information and buying habits to other companies who are in the very lucrative business of aggregating consumer data and monetizing it.
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First, more business. (If you get “rewards” like discounts or whatever, you’re psychologically more likely to return more often. Or at least some customers are and it’s not like they can really offer rewards only to the ones who are more likely to return.)
Second, and probably more significantly, data about you that they can use to do targeted advertising at you or sell to others (for a profit) who want to do targeted advertising to you.
If the rewards program involves a phone app or web app, that can get access to a lot of information on your phone or information about your browsing habits. And that can also be directly used or sold to someone else who wants data on you.
You’re definitely justified in being paranoid. It’s very much the kind of thing where if you stop buying Oreos regularly, Facebook will start sending you Oreo advertisements. (Oreos are just an example. It could be any company/brand that they advertise to you this way. But you know what I mean.)
Fuck, now I really want Oreos.
Anyone who says I’m a Nestle spam bot is a dirty liar.
I’m actually a Nabisco spam bot.
Free stuff gets you in the door where you’ll be likely to spend money on other stuff.
Building ‘points’ or whatever to get free stuff gives you an incentive to buy things from Kroger you might get elsewhere. Ton of benefits to ‘gamification’ of damn near anything.
And giving free stuff creates a positive experience attributed to Kroger so you’ll be more likely to think positively about Kroger in the future.
Plus all that if they have your email\address they can send you more coupons or whatever to get you back in the door. And a more sophisticated system may track your spending to more effectively influence you through the first three mechanisms. But those are pretty classic ‘customer loyalty’ ideas from before big data was even a thing.
Here, let Bill Burr tell you
They’re trying to capture the consumer surplus. Normally, a seller can have either high margins and low volume, or low margins and high volume. The retailers wet dream is to get the benefits of both. If the reward program profiles you as someone who buys coffee at $4.00, but not at $6.00, you’ll get coupons for coffee that the people who buy coffee every week regardless of price won’t get.
FWIW, I’ve found stores that don’t even have rewards cards frequently have lower prices than their competitors’ reward card sale prices.
This is the import fact to get from this thread
FWIW, I’ve found stores that don’t even have rewards cards frequently have lower prices than their competitors’ reward card sale prices.
I’ve especially seen this with groceries. There are several choices, meaningful competition, and I find the stores that don’t push rewards cards tend to have better prices, even after counting the rewards
I’ve worked at Safeway for a few years and one night my friend who counts the tills showed me what type of info they collect.
I scanned my own safeway card into the system and holy shit they have data on everything I’ve ever purchased using that card.
The answer is nearly going to always be ‘your data’ and loyalty
There are lots of reasons. Some off of the top of my head:
- People are more likely to shop there because they get “deals”.
- People feel better about shopping there because they get “deals”.
- More and better data for the business. (Associated with individuals over time rather than “anonymous” purchases, the also get extra info like a phone number that they can cross-reference)
- If you carry the card or app you will see it frequently and think about the store (free advertising).
- Often times you agree to some sort of marketing communication when you sign up.
- You usually get “points” which you need to come back again to use.
To add to point #3, they can also sell on the customer data they collect to marketing companies for added revenue.
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used to be it would make you a happier customer that was more likely to patronize them over a competitor. Nowadays though its all about harvesting your information which is why they really have a hard on for you using their app usually.
I guess if they have a closer relationship to you as a customer you’re more likely to buy more of their products in the future.
You sign up for the card because you already shop there enough for you to justify having the card. You wouldn’t sign up for the card of a store you never go to unless there is some financial incentive, like sale price for members.
They want your data for marketing a resale.
