Another Tesco thread - big brother is watching!

[OverWyreGrower]

We very rarely shop at Tesco, although it is our nearest large supermarket at nearly an hours drive away!

We do have a clubcard (OH gets points on petrol on way to and from his work) and he sometimes uses it for his lunch, as there is one near his work.

We didn't manage to get into the village this weekend for our shopping, so I decided to do an online shop for the essentials (loo roll, washing powder, tinned stuff etc)

I remembered my login and brought up "my favourites" in the shopping basket. Usually this is just the stuff you have always bought online, so you can replicate a shopping list without any faff.

But this time, loads of different stuff came up, and I realised that it was stuff OH had bought when a friend asked us to get some "emergency" food for a BBQ (lots more people turned up than thought, and OH went on his way home from work and got some burgers, sausages, crisps, cream cakes etc). Obviously he used the clubcard inside the Tesco's.

As I checked down the list, all sorts of stuff was on it, that we hadn't ordered online before, that we had (over the last 3 months) bought from Tesco - stuff that my OH had for lunch, things that he'd picked up on the way home etc.

I was actually quite shocked (although probably shouldn't be) that these products had been scanned at a till, and had appeared on my online shopping list; as the 2 used to be totally seperate things....

[zazen999]

Oh yeah - they are buggers for that. Like the way the vouchers are for things you already buy - or things that other people that buy those things also buy.

Marketing and media. I've studied both as part of my Degree and my Management Diploma - and all it did was to make so even more cynical and unhappy than i was already.

When Media studies came out as a degree, everyone was giving it so much abuse about being a soft degree and no good for anything [degree about eastenders etc], but it's really about showing how the companies are taking over the world. Strange that the MEDIA are the ones that decry such qualifications. Mine was a joint degree in media, psychology and english - so I've got quite an insight into how it all operates; it's seriously scarey stuff.

[HeyWayne]

Unfortunately "loyalty cards" are only thinly disguised customer behavioural study devices for want of a better description.

They are a marketers dream. They allow almost at the flick of a switch, any marketining department to see what is being bought, where, at what time and how often. Campaigns, price promotions etc can then be adapted and moulded around buying patterns.

Marketing's greatest victory was convincing consumers they were designed for their benefit.

[Mikey]

There's is another reason why I shop in Asda.

[OverWyreGrower]

There's is another reason why I shop in Asda.

I'd love a choice of where to shop!! We have a little Co-op and Spar in the village (plus greengrocers, butchers etc), there is also a Booths, which is a local family owned chain - they have lovely local food, but it's really pricey.

Supermarket-wise there is Tesco's, which is the nearest, at about 50mins to 1 hour away, and then over 1 hour away there is a Morrisons and about 90 mins away I think there's an Asda....

There isn't a hope in h*ll of me driving 90 minutes each way to a supermarket!

[SarzWix]

Booths is great isn't it? We have one in Ilkley and I'd love to be able to afford to shop there more often, as it is, it's usually only around Christmas that I go in.

[OverWyreGrower]

Booths is great isn't it? We have one in Ilkley and I'd love to be able to afford to shop there more often, as it is, it's usually only around Christmas that I go in.

It is fab! I think of it as a "special occasion" shop cos it's so pricey!

I used to work for them actually, good company to work for

[SarzWix]

OH loves them as they have a shelf full of unusual cider
I have one of their re-usable shopping bags, a lovely burgundy one, which I use all the time as it's great for bottles and heavy stuff.

As for Tesco, I only have a 'virtual' clubcard, so it only gets used when I shop online. And that's not so often now my back doesn't play up so much. Morrisons don't have a loyalty card at all & that's where I go most often. Our local chemist has just been taken over by Boots, and they pester you every time you go through the door to have one of their cards and ask all sorts of questions whenever you want to buy anything over the counter. So I go to the independent one in the next village now, where they assume you have a few brain cells and only ask the questions required by law!

[SlugLobber]

Oh heck. I have a clubcard that I've never actually registered. It's over 3 years old and still the little paper card form. They laugh when I produce it at the till.

I bet that somewhere, in a small darkened room, there's an incredibly frustrated geek wondering who the hell this mystery shopper is! Tee hee hee!

[Madasafish]

We are promiscuous and shop around.

:-)

[Stacey Steve]

Living in Milton Keynes, where it is a large fast growing new town, we are "served" by a variety of the large supermarkets, all vieing for business. As each new chain opened a store, we were offered special offers tokens.

Had a great time about a year ago when they were all offering to honour each others specials tokens. Did the rounds just out of spite.

[Kristen]

"I was actually quite shocked (although probably shouldn't be) that these products had been scanned at a till, and had appeared on my online shopping list;"

Its supposed to be a convenience for you - although in this case I don't suppose you are going to buy any of those items online

Tescos publicise the suggestion that before you shop online for the first time you use your clubcard and buy all your regulars in the store so that your online favourites will be pre-populated when you first shop online.

Of course it would be pretty scary if they told everyone else what you were buying ...

... and I do have Nicoretts patches and Mates when I print me favourites, which I have never bought and don't appear in the favourites list that I see when shopping online (and thus I cannot delete them)

Somewhat embarrassing as the printed favourites list is in the kitchen for the lass that keeps the house ticking over to mark up. I have no idea WHAT she thinks ...

[Snadger]

I've heard a rumour that the council are building some allotments on waste ground behind Tesco's hypermarket, which isn't too far from where I live!

If I can get one of those, I can say to the OH with pleasure "I'm away to Tesco's to get some fresh veg"

[Starchild]

Stuff the clubcard, I'd be more worried about this... (from 2003) Tesco using RFID tags to track shoppers; MP wants regulation | OUT-LAW.COM

Retail giant Tesco is using RFID technology in its Cambridge store. The electronic tags are being tested on Gillette razor blades and send a message to a CCTV camera whenever a customer picks up a packet. But a Labour MP fears for our privacy and wants new regulations for the technology.

A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag comprises a microchip and a tiny antenna that transmits the data from the chip to a reader. The reader is activated whenever the antenna comes into range and the data can be used to ring up a purchase or trigger an event, such as opening a door. Usually the range is no more than a few feet.

The Guardian newspaper reports that in the Tesco trial a CCTV camera will take a picture at the time the packet is taken off the shelf, and that a further picture is taken at the checkout "“ again triggered by the tags inserted in the razor blade packaging.

A spokesman for Tesco told the Guardian that, "Customers know that there are CCTV cameras in the store". He told the newspaper that the RFID trial was intended to assist with supply chain management, not security, but the Guardian reports that Alan Robinson, who manages the store, has already provided police with photos of a shoplifter stealing blades.

[Kristen]

I think its more scary than that even ...

... imagine walking down an aisle in M & S and a computer voice saying "This scarf will go really well with that Next blouse you are wearing"

assuming you have not been able to see/find, let alone remove, the RFID tag from the blouse you bought ...