Tesco is monitoring my menstral cycle!

[larks35]

I'm grateful for clubcard vouchers and any little extras but I've realised recently that when I shop at Tesco 2 or 3 days before my period, I get a till voucher for £1 off tampax. I initially thought it was a coincidence but it has happened for the last 3 cycles now. I got one the other day and it prompted me to think - oh shit yeah, I'm due on.

Like I say £1 off tampax is great, but AIBU to feel a bit weirded out by the fact that Tesco have a closer handle on my menstral cycle than I do?

Apart from central government Tesco Clubcard is the UK's single biggest database. You should be very frightened indeed.

Your own fault for having a 'loyalty' card......they are stalkers for your money...

I think the Nectar card is probably worse: if you used all the services that were part of that consortium (last time I checked) they'd know:

-your name
-your address (in itself, this information is enough to give a fairly accurate socio-economic portrait)
-your DOB
-your bank details and salary, plus your cc details
-your friends: who you speak to, when and how long for
-your precise outgoings, ie every penny you spend that is not in cash (and even some of your cash spending, in all likelihood), and thereby your hobbies (down to which films you rent) and preoccupations
-your health issues, including your prescriptions
-etc etc, in exact detail.

They could draw up a profile of you (as could Tesco, for that matter) that was so accurate you'd think they knew you personally. Effectively they do - they monitor this information about us much more closely than many of us do. It's absolutely no surprise that they're predicting the OP's menstrual cycle.

Leaving aside the fact that I'd like the administrator of my personal information to be me, not hundreds of anonymous database admins, the main reason I do not have a loyalty card of this kind is that, having worked in strategic marketing, I know that this information is worth FAR more to the companies who harvest it than the rewards they pass on to their consumers. I just don't think it's a reasonable swap. So I take great pleasure in offering the points accumulated in my supermarket trolley to the person behind me in the queue.

I don't like the fact that Tescos know exactly when I bought pregnancy tests. No other products, just those. And condoms I guess. I would love to have an insight into how they would categorise me, probably "occasional shopper mum with 2 small children."

Sainsbury don't seem clever enough to realise that the reason I have stopped buying cat food is because both my cats died. I still get money off vouchers every week.

DuelingFanjo - same thing here with Sainsburys & Tesco's re cats. (also sorry to here yours have died too .

DuellingFanjo and joby1970 - so sad you've both had cats die. I have three cats and adore them all. The thought ofliving without them is horrible. It's a shame Sainsburys don't predict when i'm going to go shopping and spend more than £120 on food etc. Cos the next bloody day the voucher arrives on the door mat saying "Spend £90 and we'll give you £18 off" GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!! It happens all the time. And unsuprisingly by the time i need to buy another £90 worth of shopping I realise the voucher expired (usually one day previously). These companies are evil.

AIBU that my husband took down the wall between the kitchen and the lounge without consulting me first?

KC, YANBU!!!

I am confused by KC

KC, please start another thread and tell us more! This sounds like a good one!

There is a simple way to make sure Tesco dont track your purchases.
Dont use the clubcard when shopping there! Simples!

KC please please start a thread I want to know more
Didnt he neeed planning permission? From the concilas well as you?

Larks - I work for them and am 18wks pg with no 2 and I am still getting Tampax and Always vouchers
Twats!! lol

this guardian article makes for interesting reading. I remember reading a long article about the "database" in DH's FT magazine a while back but can't seem to find it on google.

pmsl defo should be moved to classics

Either, they're not as good as they think, or they are rather otherwise.

I have a friend who's a rabbi (and obviously eats kosher). They keep on recommending pork products to him. He just thinks it's very funny.

What a bizarre bunch of conspiracy theory obsessed loons you are.

It's a simple computer programme that marks goods as weekly, monthly or one-off purchases.

Bread, milk, baked beans - weekly

Champagne - unless you are Jilly Cooper one off or special occasion

Tampax - monthly

It's probably two lines of code to say that if someone has bought something designated as a monthly purchase then a voucher would come in handy about a month later.

Or it could be that a little bloke is parked in a Tesco van outside your house with binoculars and if you slam your door too hard he knows you've got PMT and will be on the rag in three days.

If sainsbury's know all about me from my nectar card I am really suprised they still allow me in.

I am much more of the Morrisons type

Dancinghippo See my thread on Talk - am i being unreasonable? Didn't really expect many people to answer. some comments have really helped.

I really need to get DH to listen to me.

Do you think Sainsbury's know i've defected to Tesco as the travelling time is shorter?

I used to work for Sainsbury's a long time ago so I feel like a deserter. Does anyone remember the pale orange a line polyester dresses with beige check panels? Circa 1990?

Off to have a look at your thread now KC

@Balloonslayer!

I am now thinking of a great Jeffrey Deaver novel (forgot title), where the "perp" hacked into one of these centralised databases and got enough info to frame innocent people for his crimes.....Mwaa Haa Haa.....Lincoln Rhyme kicked HIS ass though.....

Seeing as I'm late and worried as hell, awfully sorry now not to have signed up for a loyalty cards with them.
maybe they could have told me when ..

LOL. Love the thread title.

This is why I've never owned a club card or any other loyalty card for that matter.

Thank you Mardybra, interesting article.

Eat your hearts out Hitler and Stalin! Just think what fun they would have had with all the wonderful information their secret services could have had access to if they had lived nowadays.

Thank goodness that could never happen again.

Cor!! Didn't expect this thread to last overnight! FWIW, I am fully aware of what having a loyalty means and use them to get those money off vouchers that often help a lot.

What freaked me out a bit was the fact that my £1 off tampon offer is offered to me 1 or 2 days before my period and does now prompt me to remember that I am due on (possibly my fault for being too busy to remember my menstral cycle). It just seems too personal and although I know the whole thing is computer led, someone has programmed in a query to ensure that once every four weeks I (and no doubt other tesco clubcard holders of the female gender, within a certain age bracket) get a voucher for tampons!

Why can't they just give me free wine nappies?