Kroger's Shopper Profiles: Why You May Be Paying More Than Your Neighbors | Hacker News Reader

Kroger's Shopper Profiles: Why You May Be Paying More Than Your Neighbors

consumerreports.org

12 pointsjohnshades9 comments

>As a result of being deemed “non-loyal” to Kroger in his 62-page shopping profile, which CR obtained after Salem filed a formal request with Kroger through Oregon’s new data and privacy law, Salem is also likely to get fewer of Kroger’s best discounts.

The limitation seems to be on discounts offered. This seems logical to me.

Even where I work we offer some of our better customers some discounts on some things, because we know they make up for it in other ways.

> seems logical to me.

Yep. Kroger selling my purchasing history far and wide does feel creepy & obnoxious. Vs. Pete Penny-Pincher expecting the same discount deals as the big-time spenders get? That just sounds greedy & entitled.

Why would this be the assumption? Grocery stores are in the business of converting non-loyal shoppers into loyal shoppers. If anything, they would want to bombard shoppers with offers that increased their frequency.

> But many Kroger shoppers we spoke to don’t know that this information is even collected by the grocery chain.

This boggles my mind. What do you think a loyalty card is even for?!?

> “The way this data is being used is very clearly widening the gap between upper, middle, and low-income households, and unless regulators take action, it will only get worse,” says David Friedman

This seems like a pretty wild assertion - the article itself presents the data collected as little more than a wild stab. The idea that different people get marketed different coupons is as old as the coupon itself.

> For most of their food, the family opts for the lower-priced WinCo Foods, which is farther away.

Shout out to WinCo foods. They are employee-owned, they don't do any coupons or loyalty cards, and all their prices are cheap cheap.

The loyalty card doesn't matter as much as folks think. Places will just profile you by credit card all the same.

I think the only way to even attempt to not be data mined is to pay cash and not use loyalty. And wear flip flops, to throw off those peaky gait tracking cameras.

> the only way to even attempt to not be data mined is to pay cash and not use loyalty.

This is exactly what I do. I wish it were possible to also avoid video surveillance, but it's increasingly not. You can reduce it (and the risk of being accused of theft) by avoiding the use of self-checkout, though.

I had to laugh out loud, having rewatched Mission: Impossible up through Rogue Nation because picking up a dozen eggs these days is equivalent to downloading the NOC List

Or the Ryan George experience https://youtu.be/kAveQ7fc2oo?si=QrRnLY-McPyQI7IR

Remember when they were trying to buy Albertsons? Glad they were able to demonstrate through actions that this was not going to lower prices for consumers.

Also remember how Kroger spent a decade waddling their thumbs and not accepting Apple Pay?

Kroger sucks. Boycott Kroger.

> Kroger sucks. Boycott Kroger.

I agree, but that's getting really hard to do. Kroger seems to own almost everybody.

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