[silisili]

I don't get them, honestly.

Kroger for example. Jacks prices wayyy up without 'Plus.'

Being clever, I decided to 'sign up' manually but never filled out the form or sent it in. Still gave me discounts.

Tell others about my newfound secret, and they laugh and tell me they're doing the same tracking and more via my credit card. Doh.

What was the point of the loyalty card then?

[autoexec]

> What was the point of the loyalty card then?

the main point of loyalty cards was (and still is) data collection (which you've managed to work around) but they are also being used to help condition the public into accepting the idea that some people get (or even "deserve" to get) different prices than other people for the exact same items because of who or what they are.

For example:

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/supermarkets-introduce-perso...

https://risnews.com/safeway-offers-personalized-pricing-prog...

Businesses always try to frame this as allowing them to offer "deals" to you, but honestly what they want is to raise prices just for you. They stand to make a killing on personalized dynamic pricing. It could massively inflate their profits (entirely at your expense) but what has been standing in their way so far is that consumers find personalized pricing to be invasive, unfair, and discriminatory. Businesses are working very hard to get the public to accept personalized pricing though and loyalty cards/programs are seen as a way to help that.

Unless you like being ripped off and being taken advantage of, try to resist and push back against personalized pricing when you see it.

See: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41272-019-00224-3

[atty]

As someone who worked at Kroger ~10 years ago, even then credit cards were probably only 60-70% of payments. A lot of cash and checks. The loyalty programs had their start when it wasn’t quite so easy to track purely via payment. Also helps to connect a person with a definite address to mail brochures/coupons to, and to link accounts when someone changes credit card numbers, etc.

[silisili]

> credit cards were probably only 60-70% of payments

Do you think it's still that way today? I really have no idea. I worked grocery 20 years ago and remember being amazed how many people pay cash. I can't remember the last time I've seen someone pay with a check at the grocery. I see cash here and there, but mostly credit or tap. But I have no idea what the breakdown would be.

[bombcar]

I saw a check written recently but it has to be the first I’ve seen in years.

I think the loyalty programs are mainly about price segmentation and co-marketing now.

[myroon5]

Price discrimination based on who cares enough to jump through hoops, similar to coupons