Xkcd: Customer Rewards | Hacker News Reader

Xkcd: Customer Rewards

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48 pointsdenzil_correa12 comments

I find the personal data fad frightening. Not because of privacy, but because it seems that business may have reached the point where they can only grab breadcrumbs to 'improve' this way.

In Japan, now we have a service which pay you 10 yen for every photo of receipt paper you have.

The reality is even weirder than comics.

The phone number is an easy one. You never give them your real phone number. I use an old number to which I add 1 to each of the last 4 digits. That way when I don't have the card I can still remember what phone number to punch in.

I once heard that Jenny's number (8675309) in your local area code is almost always in these rewards card databases. I've tried it on occasion, never had it fail, and it always makes the checkout person smile.

Going to try this!

Hey! Stop giving them my phone number! I don't want their calls either.

To that I say I'm doing you a favor: adding noise to your profile to throw off their big-data algos. :)

I'm always surprised that this isn't more widely known. Why else would stores have rewards programs?

I just assumed it was because people would rather pay $20 and be told that they saved $3.26 on their $23.26 bill than be told that their bill came out to $20.

I'm really not sure what information I'm giving up by scanning a barcode on a card that the store gave me. Obviously they can use that to record my purchasing history, but they can do that anyway through a myriad of other techniques.

Once upon a time purchases were cash, so no transaction history.

>Why else would stores have rewards programs?

I'm not naive enough to believe they don't sell consumer data - but one reason would be to ensure you keep shopping at their store instead of a competitor's store. After all - that nearby store might have milk but they don't have milk with a $1.50 "club discount"!

The barrier to joining is a small hassle but it does exist. There is a Ralphs and an Albertsons near my mother but because she's part of the Albertsons Membership Club (or whatever it is called) she almost never shops at Ralphs as a result because the slight barrier to also joining the Ralph's Club is too high.

I'm surprised they took this long to poke at rewards cards.

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