A Shoppers Card Rant

At the inception of the “shopper’s club” card I told a friend that it really wasn’t for the consumer but, rather the store. I added that stores would track what you and others purchase and eliminate slow selling products and manipulate prices far easier. Stores now know when and how many of a certain item you and others purchase. They can now predict to expert certainty what day and what time of day a certain item will be purchased. They know how much you will pay and can push that envelope as far as we will let them. (I even read that online merchants now adjust prices hourly based on data they have collected.) Because they have all of this information that is updated every second that their doors are opened, they can now sell you what they want to sell you rather than what you might need or want. This all sounds a little like one of my Port-laden conspiracy theories but, it really isn’t. We are being manipulated big time.

I imagine that it has been at least ten or twelve years since my first card. I believe that it was with Wegman’s supermarkets. This is only important in that they helped set a trend. I now have a separate wallet for my shoppers/club cards.

My rant today is about how in the past two or three months every time I go to the grocery store, drug store or anywhere else I cannot find what I am looking for. I recently went to the local Price Chopper supermarket for my favorite tea that only they sold here. After about 20 minutes searching on my own and another 20 with a customer service person; we discovered that the store was no longer carrying the tea. Yesterday, I went to Kenney’s Drugs for my usual deodorant and shower gel and neither were on the shelves. The store is no longer carrying them.

Why are they discontinuing all of the products that I like? Well, I guess I should not take it personally… it’s only business. Right? On one level it certainly is a very wise business practice/move to quickly get rid of slow sellers and replace them with stuff that’s going to make the business a lot of money. The problem is one of choice. For instance, I would purchase and drink that tea that I searched in vain for because I have IBS and it greatly helped to maintain a balance in my system. As well, I used that particular deodorant because I found through much trial and error that it worked best for me. Do you see where I’m going here? There is a great clash between the retailers profit motive and the products that I (we) believe are good for me (us). Products that specifically work for me or are good for my health and well being are not of particular interest to a profit driven shopper’s card. I am almost forced to do what I did yesterday, which is to go to three different stores only to arrive home sweaty and pissed with a product that is over-priced that I did not want. Also, after I got home I discovered that they charged me the regular and not the sale price on the shower gel.

So, what’s a consumer to do? Well, this is a rant and not an advice column. BTW, I wouldn’t suggest “Occupy” the grocery and drug stores… you’ll just end up buying the stuff they want you to purchase.