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.

Oh for goodness sakes do none of you read the Ts and Cs of Tesco and similar companies? It's all written out how they use your data! They aren't hiding anything!
It's naive in the extreme not to think just about any social media or internet based or credit card use does not involve data collection. Even Mumsnet targets ads to you depending on the data you provide (ads you click on, subject searches you make). They use Google Analytics. They even keep a record of your PMs.
It's up to you to review these conditions and agree, or not.
Tesco aren't bumping up the price for those not using a Clubcard, but they discount some prices for those that do. I use it primarily for air miles, and I'm happy with them knowing I prefer Diet Coke over Pepsi.

Hate to tell you petal, but Finland has supermarket loyalty cards too.

Just because not many people seem to know this, did you know that boots sell appliances like washing machines, all fulfilled through AO but you get advantage points on your purchase which add up real quick when you're spend several hundred pounds on a new fridge (or whatever).

www.bootskitchenappliances.com/

Once they have signed up enough people to reduce/eradicate the manned tills then the offers will most probably dwindle away

This

Thing about the target example, isn't personal information a lot less protected in the States than here?

I am an immigrant. I believe my data are safet eith Tesco than with Home Office 😂
freemovement.org.uk/personal-data-breaches-by-the-home-office-soar-to-over-4000-last-year/

Why? Why shouldn't loyalty be rewarded?

Yeah! That one there, she buys total yogurt every week, off with her head

Yes it is.

You get a mortgage, you spend the next 6 months answering spam calls from people who want to sell you a mortgage.

Unless you live in California where you get specific exemptions but it's still not as good.

Well yes this. I assume it’s “if someone frequently buys x, they are also likely to buy y” or “will switch between brands and happily buy the cheapest available on x, but is loyal to one brand for y”.. or even “will buy x every time regardless of whether the price moves up or down until the price hits £3”.. and then all that data is gathered together and they know what items to place near other ones and what prices they can ask for…?

This isn’t data I’m worried about people having plus I didn’t think it’s about me - they want to add my data to everyone else’s… I can see it’s fairly valuable data so I just want paying for it. I’m now better at utilising these offers and this is one of a few reasons why I’m not spending more on my shopping than a year ago, so I’m satisfied with that.

I can see the point about checkout staff and see that some people want to not use self scanners out of principle. I don’t happen to feel like that and I don’t think my job is to retain staff in jobs that maybe aren’t needed in the future - much in the same way that I use internet banking rather than visit my local bank branch which as a result of people like me, has now shut…

Surely it's worth it just to access the cheaper prices. Although the points will add up over time and you found still save a few extra quid. It's not like you need to carry any extra - just the app in your phone

Ok so they might know that security is one the sketchy side but what can anyone really do with the information? Names and addresses are easy to search up. Aside from credit cards how useful is the weekly shop to anyone?

Well it's useful to someone as I have an app that pays me for uploading my receipts every time I shop. It's useful for market research I assume

@liveforsummer that was a reply to someone else about using data for nefarious purposes.
Of course the data is useful for sales and marketing.

To the person that said the pre Clubcard price was artificially high, I disagree. On the things I buy it was always the same as other local stores. However it’s impossible to tell now. Things seem to go up by 10p every week or so

Tesco aren't bumping up the price for those not using a Clubcard, but they discount some prices for those that do.

Quick look at Tesco's current branded clubcard offers.

Pringles, £2 reduced to £1.65 with a clubcard. £1.65 Asda.
Diet Coke £9, reduced to £7 clubcard. £7.50 Sainsburys.
Gordon's Gin 1litre, £21 reduced to £17. £17 Sainsburys.
Fridge Raiders Slow Roasted Chicken Bites 6. £2.80 reduced to £2.25. £2.00 Sainsburys.

and so on.

This is not a discount for clubcard users, who are paying the same prices they would in another store up the road. This is an excess charge for non clubcard users.

Tesco was akways more expensive than asda though..the discount is basically price match, like they would do in most shops with aldi.

To be fair, you'd need to check whether other items not on the clubcard offer are generally more expensive than eg Asda to see if it's inflating the non-clubcard prices, or if it's just that Tesco is more expensive.

So don’t purchase items in the shops you’re so offended by 🤷‍♀️ Life’s life and you need to get off your high horse and understand that.

Life’s life and you need to get off your high horse and understand that.

Yoi can't see past the end of your nose
We are in a cost of living crisis. Messing around with people's access to food is not just "life".

Posts like this always make me laugh, the poster climbed on top of their high horse to judge the OP for her concern. And they don't even see it....😀

If life is life .... then let people post what they want without interfering.

People are not being denied access to food. It costs nothing to join the loyalty scheme, it's absolutely normal thing around the world even in the "but look at this great country here" countries. As long as the membership to basic shops is not paid, it's non issue. If they started charging then it would be messing with people's access to food

So I had a look at the Salisbury scheme because of this very interesting discussion. There’s no doubt it is a lot more personalised than Clubcard, because the Clubcard offers are shelf wobblers and open to everyone, whereas ‘only’ the Nectar card holders who have previously shopped at Sainsbury are going to get the specific offers. So it is open to accusations of favouritism in the way that the other card is not.

if I shopped at Sainsbury, my main concern would be that there would be even more people barging into me with their trolleys because they were inspecting their phone rather than watching were they are going. Having worked with them some years ago, I would say that their data processing is not….the most efficient, so I suspect there are going to be some ‘teething’ problems. 🤭

Of course it's unethical. But people like to get all these 'discounts', when really they've sold themselves... And ultimately it probably will cost them more in the long run because they are targeted by advertisers more as a result.

I really don't get why people have such an issue in Tesco or whoever knowing that they buy oxtail soup and angel cake.... to the extent they're willing to forego but discounts!

It's not unethical. It's a simple trade - freely entered into by both sides - you let us know your shopping, we'll give you discounts.

What is arguably unethical is constraining people from being able to enter into such arrangements.

I got into the habit of using the Nectar scanner at Sainsbury's to avoid the till/self service queues. I've noticed, when using the Nectar scanner, that sometimes a "Nectar Price" will be charged that is in fact higher than the shelf price. I've then had to queue up anyway to pay for these items separately. Always check!