To think personalised pricing is unethical?

[Issummeroveralready]

I already thought that using a club card to get reduced prices on food items was a little close to the mark, but tonight on TV I saw advertised that a certain supermarket is now offering personalised prices on food items when a loyalty card is used (nectar card). AIBU to think this is neoliberalism gone mad. Surely food costs what it costs. Fancy Mary getting lurpack for 5 quid and John getting it for 2 because of some known algorithm. Bonkers.

Is it just Tescos you are mad at?

There was an uproar on this site when Waitrose stopped their free coffee. But they still do vouchers don't they? It's just the same, apart from it's tasteful innit?

paying the higher price

it is the standard price. If there was no clubcard at all, that is the price everyone would be paying.

Apologies, it was Target it's a long but interesting article.
www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html

Personalised pricing/offers would be great. I'm fed up getting vouchers/deals on products I won't buy. Being gluten-free it's not very useful being offered a deal on croissants or crusty bread.

Btw, the history of the Tesco club card is interesting.

I was in my local petrol station tesco a year or so ago and a young boy was buying something. The cashier went round the store asking if anyone had a club card so the boy could buy the item/s at the reduced rate.

I have nectar card and use the smart shop scanner while going round to skip the checkout bit. Every week you get about 10 items that you regularly buy which are discounted as long as you use the smart shop thing.

In addition if your shop would have been cheaper elsewhere they credit you with a voucher that you can use against your next shop.

Kids can use them - mine has a key fob version of the card

I have completely stopped shopping in Tesco since they introduced this new scheme of discounting solely for Clubcard members. They are undoubtedly selling the data on to third parties. I'd be interested to know how many customers they have lost over recent months. Loyalty schemes should be optional. I don't want my personal data known to all and sundry. But why would I shop in a supermarket that's not offering me any discounts when there are plenty of others that will?

Clubcard is still optional

Also Tesco have reported higher shopper numbers over the past couple of months

Loyalty schemes are optional. I don't know of any that aren't.

It's marketing. It's no different really to some stores giving discounts to NHS workers or students. Stores are free to target specific demographics or individuals as they wish, and we are free to decide where to shop.

And the claim that you pay more for flights if you don't clear cookies is nonsense. It's simply not true, although many believe it is.

It is true that deleting cookies helps with airline ticket pricing, or at least it still was a couple of years ago.

I used to book travel when I was working. We had subsidiaries in Paris and Frankfurt and my boss used to go there regularly. I would check prices with all the airlines to see who was cheapest at that time. Very often I would go back to say BA, for example, as they were cheapest on the day and the price would have gone up since I checked half an hour before. If I went in and deleted cookies and then went back on the BA site the price would have returned to the first one I saw. This happened many, many times.

Wait..what? I don't get any personalised vouchers!

Agreed. I have sat on the sofa with my DH comparing Easyjet pricing and his would show up as less because he hadn’t done the endless searching I had

I cancelled all my loyalty cards because when I signed up, it was mandatory to provide a home address etc. I didn't like the idea of a retailer having so much detailed info on me including address/date of birth plus a comprehensive understanding of my shopping habits. However, I've just signed up for the Asda loyalty scheme as it's totally digital and only requires an email address. The rewards are obviously designed to make me shop more but they are surprisingly quite good.

My view is that if I don't have to hand over big chunks of personal data and it gives me worthwhile discounts, then I'm happy to do it.

But last week I noticed Superdrug have brought in the same system. Because - for me anyway - the nice hair products I was looking at were a luxury rather than essential like food shopping this had the result of me buying nothing as I couldn't bring myself to pay the higher price for what I wanted. I know it's irrational as had the cheaper pink price not been listed below I probably wouldn't have minded the real price. Lost a sale there Superdrug.

This is it for me, too.
I am aware, in my subconscious, that the other people in my train carriage might have a better deal on their ticket price than me, but they don't have a big label on to say so, so it isn't "in your face". It is because it is so blatant and, at the moment I might be going to buy something, that it is offputting. At any shop purchase, you might think you might be able to get it online cheaper or buy it in bulk cheaper, but you accept you are paying for the convenience of it being there in front of you and you can use/eat it straight away. But seeing it in front of you next to another bag being sold at a difference price "feels" wrong, even if people who only use non emotional reasoning can't see it.

Thing is, mumsnet know v little about me, and what they do know, I consider a fair payment for the service. I’m probably one of the few people that doesn’t just accept cookie pop ups, always declines targeted stuff, etc. For me, it’s a case of reading the privacy policy, seeing how my data (and WHAT data!) will be used, and making a decision. A lot of people don’t do this, and don’t like their info being used. Both approaches are fine.

They're just online vouchers, saves you having to hand over bits of paper at the till. You get the nectar ones when you use smart shop, so you do all your own scanning and check out and you get a discount for it.

Its personal choice to sell your data or not. You don't have to do it, I never used to, but this past year I managed to accumulate about £700 of nectar points with my credit card plus shopping & petrol, so for me that was well worth it.

Nearly right.

What they really want is to look at price sensitivity, so if you will buy a product regardless of the price, then they want to charge you more, if you tend to buy stuff only when it is a good price, then they will tempt you with vouchers.

They also sell all your data to other companies based on your interests and purchases. General Motors make more money selling their customers's data than they do selling cars.

Those surveys which pop up say it's because they want to improve your choices, but they just want to make your data more valuable to them.

This book is a bit chewy, but a good account

Data Surveillance

i really try to avoid tescos now. Their pricing is complicated, I just want to go in pick up my stuff and know what I’m paying. Not realise I was looking at the club card price for something.

They also sell all your data to other companies based on your interests and purchases. General Motors make more money selling their customers's data than they do selling cars.

autotrader is another that makes more money selling and analysing data & trends

The "higher value" a customer you are the better the deals they send you also. So it's another poor tax really.

Yes it feels very divisive and tip of the iceberg. What next? Cheaper pints at the pub if you look pretty and they want you there more often to "sell" the establishment for them? Outlandish but not too many steps away!

I thought it was you give them marketing info And they give u a discount for u giving them that info

I notice my mum gets sent vouchers and I don't. Perhaps shes a higher value customer than I. I am a lidl girl at heart!

Indeed
I did have a couple of loyalty cards but got rid of them.

really hope Aldi don't start this!

so basically you want something for nothing?