Note: The news sites linked from these stories are constantly being updated. As a result, some links may no longer be valid.

CASPIAN Staffer Whitney Kelley featured on NBC News

The Dallas NBC affiliate, Channel 5, recently ran a story on supermarket 'loyalty' cards featuring CASPIAN's own Whitney Kelley. Whitney did a great job of driving home points about privacy and pricing, and was backed up by other irate consumers and a study conducted by the television station. Albertsons, on the other hand, insisted its program is a success and denies they raised prices when the card program started. (This despite that fact that CASPIAN members observed the stores changing prices the night before their program started.) Not surprisingly, the lowest price among stores compared in the DFW Metroplex came from a store without a surveillance card. ("Supermarket cards: Bonus or Bust?" NBC5 Dallas/Fort Worth 2/7/02)

WorldNetDaily Takes on Supermarket Cards   

WorldNetDaily, a leading Internet news site with nearly 2 million unique visitors a month, featured CASPIAN's take on supermarket surveillance cards in two recent articles. The first article focused on privacy invasions posed by cards, while the follow up article addressed why using a fake identity is not the solution to the problem. CASPIAN founder Katherine Albrecht is quoted extensively in both articles, which are an eye opener for anyone who considers cards to be benevolent "reward" programs. Be sure to check out WND's online poll, where the majority of those who responded thought the cards were an invasion of privacy.
Supermarket cards threat to privacy? Experts concerned about use, abuse of personal information 2/2/02
Data collection lucrative for supermarkets: Stores with shopper cards can make money selling information 2/6/02
(WorldNetDaily 2/2/01; 2/6/02)

Snooping Shopping Carts Receive National Coverage

Associated Press reporter Jennifer Hoyt took a hard look at supermarket 'loyalty' cards and shopping carts that track your every move in a story sent to AP wire subscribers in late January. The story was picked up by dozens of newspapers and online news outlets around the country, appearing everywhere from CNN, ABC News, and USA Today to papers as far flung as Anchorage, Alaska and San Luis Obispo, California. CASPIAN volunteer staffer John Vanderlippe was quoted in the article and his photograph (at left) was included with the story. The article ends with a quote by CASPIAN founder Katherine Albrecht who questions the so-called savings available through card surveillance programs. (She later went on to debate the president of KleverMarketing, Rick Trout, on live radio KTSA in San Antonio.) If you missed the AP story in your local paper, you can view it online at USA TODAY:http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/01/28/supermarket-privacy.htm

Shoppers protest Albertsons in Dallas/Fort Worth

Disgruntled shoppers in Dallas/Fort Worth took to the streets to protest Albertson's new "Preferred Card" on January 26th. Nearly 50 demonstrators turned out to carry signs and distribute flyers in front of an Albertsons store in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas. Film crews from all the major local television stations (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox) covered the event , and CASPIAN founder Katherine Albrecht was interviewed by the three major Dallas talk radio stations (KRLD, KLIF, and WBAP). We have gotten an extremely positive response from Dallas shoppers who saw the protest and/or viewed the coverage on TV. As a result of our work in Texas, hundreds of people have written in to join CASPIAN and to volunteer for future activities, and even more are signing up as I write. (Click here for a photo gallery of the protest.)

Identico

A supermarket company in the Northwest has gone beyond asking for ID to cash checks -- they have actually created a database of shoppers' drivers' license information in order to to store the information and image from drivers' licenses Brown & Cole, parent company of Cost Cutter, Food Pavilion, Food Depot and Save-on-Foods in Oregon and Washington, has begun storing True ID is the first identity verification service designed to improve check management and internal verification systems by ``putting a face'' on every transaction. With a customer's permission, the photo and information from a valid photo ID is collected and electronically stored in a database. The next time the consumer initiates a transaction, the consumer's image is securely and instantly sent to the point of service, where the employee matches the face in the photo to that of the consumer and decides whether to proceed with the transaction.

Supermarket Monitoring Companies to Merge

According to a December 19, 2001 announcement, ShopperTrak and RCT, two companies that monitor the activities of shoppers in the nation's stores, intend to merge. ShopperTrak uses two products, Orbit II™ and Executive Sandbox™, to gather and report the movement of shoppers in retail environments, e.g., the travel path of customers through a store, how long people linger at given counter etc. RCT provides reporting on shopping trends for retail establishments, such as the traffic in malls nationwide for a given day or weekend. Much of this information is gathered via unobtrusive video surveillance cameras and devices. What happens when these tools are employed by a retailer and combined with credit card or loyalty card purchase information? Should we be concerned that a corporation could track our individual movements so closely? Funny, I thought 1984 was seven years ago. (Business Wire via Yahoo Supermarket News 12/19/01) News item contributed by Ryan Yuhas, CASPIAN volunteer.

Albertson's Loyalty Card Creates Consumer Backlash

CASPIAN has been inundated with complaints from shoppers in the greater Dallas/Ft. Worth area since Albertson's "Preferred Savings Card" was introduced on November 7th. Most express concern over the invasive nature of the cards, which collect detailed demographic and purchase information about shoppers. Even more upsetting to many long-time Albertson's shoppers is the sense of betrayal they feel now that Albertson's has reneged on its "No Cards" promise. In a press release issued today, CASPIAN publicly condemns the card and calls on Albertson's to discontinue the program. (CASPIAN Press Release 12/17/01) http://www.nocards.org/press/pressrelease.shtml

Dallas Radio Station Deluged with Complaints about Albertson's Card

When Katherine Albrecht appeared on a Dallas talk radio show recently to discuss Albertson's "Preferred Customer Card" the listener response was so overwhelming that the segment expanded from a planned 15 minutes to nearly six hours of air time over several days. "It was one of the highest volume of calls we've ever gotten from any topic," said Kimyla Stegall, executive producer of KRLD NewsRadio's Marty Griffin show. "I'd say that 95% of the calls that we received were negative, meaning that they did not want the card. We heard shoppers' voices loud and clear and they definitely have a bad taste for it."

John Moritz, an Albertson's marketing executive, shied away from an invitation to discuss the card program and address listener concerns on the air during the second night of coverage. This confirmed our suspicions that Albertson's already knows how we feel. If Albertson's executives really believed that "shoppers love the card" they should have jumped at the chance to set us straight and get some free publicity in the process. They know their position is indefensible. (The Marty Griffin Show, KRLD News Radio, Dallas AM 1080; December 3-4, 2001)

Flashback: Get Ready For The Privacy Backlash

What's the answer to the erosion of our privacy? A few good sized protests! Here's an excerpt from an article warning retail executives that consumers are getting fed up. Let's prove it.
Experts say that consumers are the sleeping giant of the privacy movement. [One privacy advocate] blames the current apathy on the fact that many advocates have been talking to the wrong audience. "Privacy advocates have only been speaking to a finite audience within the technology community and the public policy world," he says. "They need to rip a page out of other consumer advocacy initiatives like the environmental movement." You'll know that the privacy message has struck home with consumers, he says, when we see the kinds of mass demonstrations that plagued the World Trade Organization gathering in Seattle last year. ("Get ready for the privacy backlash." Darwin Magazine, August, 2001)

Supermarket Monitoring Companies to Merge

According to a December 19, 2001 announcement, ShopperTrak and RCT, two companies that monitor the activities of shoppers in the nation's stores, intend to merge. ShopperTrak uses two products, Orbit II™ and Executive Sandbox™, to gather and report the movement of shoppers in retail environments, e.g., the travel path of customers through a store, how long people linger at given counter etc. RCT provides reporting on shopping trends for retail establishments, such as the traffic in malls nationwide for a given day or weekend. Much of this information is gathered via unobtrusive video surveillance cameras and devices. What happens when these tools are employed by a retailer and combined with credit card or loyalty card purchase information? Should we be concerned that a corporation could track our individual movements so closely? Funny, I thought 1984 was seven years ago. (Business Wire via Yahoo Supermarket News 12/19/01) News item contributed by Ryan Yuhas, CASPIAN volunteer.

Albrecht Appears on Local PBS Program

This was one of our nicest media appearances to date. New Hampshire Outlook, a half-hour, statewide public television program, took on the subject of shopper cards and invited Katherine Albrecht, CASPIAN's founder, to make the anti-card case. Albrecht was given plenty of on-camera opportunities to explain the problems associated with shopper cards and dispute the claims of a Shaw's spokesman who also appeared. (NHPTV's "New Hampshire Outlook," 10:00 PM 11/19/01)

==> VIEW THE NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK PROGRAM ONLINE The shopper card segment runs approximately 6 minutes, from 10:22 to 16:25 on the program. To view the segment, click on the link below and move the counter to 10:00 or so. You will need a current version of RealPlayer or AOL Media Player. http://132.177.204.7:8080/ramgen/outlook/nho11192001.rm (Thanks to Tom Wujek for this information)

Albrecht Interviewed on KTSA Radio

I felt like I had come full circle last week when I went back on Brad Messer's radio program in San Antonio, Texas. Brad was the first person to ever interview me back in 1999 -- before I was media-seasoned at doing interviews for newspapers, magazines, radio, television, etc. -- and he lived up to his promise to make it an enjoyable, low-stress experience. The last time I went on his program I warned shoppers that cards were headed their way. This time I had the unpleasant task of alerting them that with Albertson's new program there may soon be few card-free alternatives left. (KTSA Radio, San Antonio, Texas 11/14/01)

Has Your Grocer Bought your "Penetration Profile"?

"I'm not worried about surveillance cards. My supermarket only knows what groceries I buy." But is that really true any longer?

As if recording an individual's grocery purchases in a permanent database weren't bad enough, now supermarkets can purchase detailed information on other aspects of consumers' lives and link it to their shopper card records. A Florida company called AccuData helps supermarkets obtain far more detailed customer profiles than shopper card records alone could provide. They create a "penetration profile" which "involves analyzing...trends in geodemographic, psychographic and purchasing characteristics" and then help supermarkets attach this detailed outside data to each customer's club card record. Now there's no telling how much they know about you. (Accudata Press Release via Yahoo Supermarket Industry News 10/31/01)

CASPIAN featured in Kiplinger's magazine

"Ticked off by Bonus Cards?" asked the cover of the October 2001 issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. (Yep, that Kiplinger's -- the one with the circulation of over a million readers!) Turn to page 124 and you'll find a delightful article penned by Kristin Davis, Kiplinger's senior associate editor, titled "Loyalty has its price: What you really pay by knuckling under to those Bonus Card Bullies." The article does a great job of bashing bonus cards and features a few choice quotes by yours truly. It also has a great plug for CASPIAN at the end. Click the link above to read it on-line. (Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine 10/01)

New Privacy Book Excerpts CASPIAN Essay

Michael Hyatt's new book, Invasion of Privacy is a must-read for anyone interested in protecting him or herself and personal data in this digital age. And you can't write a book about privacy these days without mentioning shopper cards. Michael underscores the importance of avoiding frequent shopper programs with a chilling example of shopper card data misused in a divorce case. To help readers boycott surveillance markets, he sends them to the CASPIAN supermarket list and privacy ranking, and his "Practical Privacy Tip #12: Don't use a Fake Discount Shopping Card" (p.135) is excerpted from the CASPIAN essay 10 Reasons Not to Use a Fake Card.

Redner's Joins the CASPIAN Winner's Circle!

We are excited to announce that Redner's Warehouse Markets, a 31-store supermarket chain in eastern Pennsylvania and eastern New York, is the latest market to publicly renounce shopper surveillance cards and join the CASPIAN Triple Ribbon of Privacy winner's circle. Company spokesman Eric White writes, "We do not have a loyalty card, nor do we have plans to enact the use of one...We feel that the customer loyalty we have is earned through our low prices, excellent service, and the quality of the products we offer." This is great news, since Redner's provides a privacy-friendly alternative to Giant Food Stores and Edwards (see story above) for tens of thousands of shoppers in the PA and NY market areas. Is there a Redner's near you? Give them your business, and drop them an e-mail of thanks. Bravo Redner's!! (8/18/00)

A Sad Farewell to Genuardi's

Another family-owned supermarket chain is no more. Genuardi's Family Markets, a privately owned no-cards supermarket chain based in Norristown, Pennsylvania that has been serving customers for more than 80 years, entered an agreement to sell their 36 Genuardi's stores and three wholly owned Zagara's stores to Safeway. Safeway, of course, is one of the nation's largest supermarket chains and an aggressive promotor of the Safeway "club card." Safeway will now operate over 1,700 stores in 21 states in the U.S. and Western Canada, with annual sales of approximately $33 billion. The company will employ more than 200,000 people. (Safeway press release via Yahoo Supermarket Industry News 12/5/00)

Stores Now Scanning Driver's Licenses

Our friends at Amador Publishers' No-Cards Shoppers tell us that 7-Eleven and Allsup's convenience stores in Albuquerque, New Mexico have begun scanning the magnetic strips on the back of driver's licenses for alcohol and cigarette purchases. According to one shopper, Allsup's won't sell these items to shoppers who refuse to comply with the license scanning policy. Of course, once scanned, license information could be stored in the companys' computers and then sold, traded, or worse. And with all the recent coziness between 7-Eleven and law enforcement (see below), would it be far-fetched for the stores to provide up-to-the-minute liquor purchase information, complete with driver's license info, to the highway patrol "just in case" a purchaser might drive drunk? Since New Mexico is often used as a test-market, these license scanning policies may headed for a convenience store near you. (No-Cards Shoppers 11/6/00)

7-Eleven Collects Funds for Police

A while back I reported that 7-Eleven has given more than four million Slurpee coupons to law enforcement agencies so police can reward kids for "good behavior" (8/31/00). Now 7-Eleven is collecting money to "support law enforcement agencies, organizations and communities with efforts to reduce crime and promote safety." Called "Drop a Quarter for Law and Order," the program encourages shoppers to deposit their spare change into a special law and order canister (photo) through January 2001. (7-Eleven press release via Yahoo Supermarket Industry News 10/19/00)

Smile, You're on Supermarket Camera

Surveillance cameras should give us all the creeps, but unfortunately, shoppers grow numb to even the most invasive technologies once they've become commonplace. This week ASDA, a UK-based supermarket chain, joined the ranks of Kroger, Winn-Dixie, Food Lion, Fred Meyer, Tesco and Pao de Acucar as the latest major food retailer to install Sensormatic high-tech surveillance cameras in its stores. These cameras collect detailed images of market aisles and store the footage in digital format on a computer hard drive, (rather than on old-fashioned VHS tape). The company bills their product as "the smallest, full-featured, high-speed programmable dome camera, offering the sharpest, most detailed video image available with the power of a 48 times zoom lens." 48x? Geez, at that magnification they could see the roots of your hair. George Orwell would be proud! (Sensormatic Press Release 11/6/00)

Vons Pushes to Register Latino Voters

What was California Secretary of State, Bill Jones, doing mugging for the cameras at a supermarket press conference recently? Vons/Pavilions, a 327-store supermarket chain in Southern California and Nevada (owned by Safeway), wanted to increase voter participation among its Latino shoppers, so it provided Spanish-language voter registration forms and made announcements in stores encouraging shoppers to "get out the vote.'' Vons had already provided over 250,000 registration forms during the California primary in hopes of registering half a million California voters this year. "We want to try and make voter registration as easy as buying a loaf of bread,'' said Vons President, Tom Keller. Personally, I'd like to see a "separation of corporation and state" amendment. (Vons press release via Yahoo Supermarket Industry News 10/3/00)

Pantry Convenience Stores Expanding

The Pantry, Inc. is the second largest independently operated convenience store chain in the country. Like most large food retailers, it seems determined to swallow up as many of its competetitors as possible so it can become as bloated, bureaucratic, and unresponsive as the other guys. This month the Pantry swallowed 18 Amoco and Chevron convenience stores in Jackson, Mississippi, then consumed 5 more in North and South Carolina, and finally washed them down with 26 Fast Lane stores in Mississippi and Louisiana. Pantry President and CEO, Peter J. Sodini, explains, "...our expansion strategy remains on track and we have met our current acquisition target of 140 stores for fiscal 2000." Sodini later assures us that the Pantry will continue growing: "We are excited that we are already making solid progress on our growth and expansion plans for fiscal 2001." There are now more than 1,300 Pantry stores in FL, NC, SC, GA, KY, VA, IN, TN, MI, and LA. (The Pantry, Inc. press releases via Yahoo Supermarket News 9/18/00 (linked above) and 9/22/00)

Global Supermarket Promotion Arrives

Ever worry that a giant, foreign, and impersonal multinational corporation might someday control your family's food supply? Perhaps it's time to start worrying in earnest. Royal Ahold (the Netherlands-based behemoth) is making no efforts to hide how big it's grown lately. Ahold is targeting 30 million customers in 23 countries (just ponder that for a moment) in what it has called the supermarket industry's first ever "worldwide promotion." The promotion, titled "Best in Your Home," is slated to run over a two-week period ending in October and includes product discounts, cruises, free soda, and, for Guatemala shoppers, even free houses. In the U.S., Ahold's promotion will affect more than 1,100 Stop & Shop, Giant Carlisle, Giant Landover, BI-LO and Tops stores. In Europe, the promotion includes Hypernova hypermarkets, Albert Heijn in The Netherlands, ICA in Sweden/Norway, Albert supermarkets in the Czech Republic, and Ahold-owned stores in Poland and Spain. In South and Central America, participating chains include Disco in Argentina, La Fragua in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and Santa Isabel stores in Paraguay, Peru, and Chile. In Asia, the promo will hit TOPS stores in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. (Ahold press release via Yahoo Supermarket News 9/13/00)

Update on Winn-Dixie's Purchase of Gooding's

Winn-Dixie has announced that it will complete the acquisition of 9 Gooding's Supermarkets in Florida by the end of September. Since Winn-Dixie has never had a surveillance card program and Gooding's does, I asked Mickey Clerc, Winn-Dixie's VP of Public Relations, what impact the acquisition would have on each store's policy. He assured me that Winn-Dixie has no current plants to introduce a card (thus upgrading Winn-Dixie's CASPIAN status to a double-ribbon) because in the company's view, Winn-Dixie shoppers do not want such a program. On the other hand, they have no immediate plans to dismantle Gooding's program in the belief that Gooding's shoppers like things the way they are. If you are a Gooding's shopper (or, better still, boycotting Gooding's because you oppose their card), you can express your views on the subject to Winn-Dixie at this web form. If you are a satisfied Winn-Dixie shopper, you can use the same form to applaud Winn-Dixie for their stand against cards. (Winn-Dixie press release via Yahoo Supermarket News 9/7/00)

7-Eleven and Police "Reward Good Behavior"

In the latest partnership between the government and a retail food outlet, the 7-Eleven convenience stores' "Operation Chill" program lets law enforcement officers reward kids for positive behavior by issuing "tickets'' that kids can exchange for free Slurpee beverages. (See Photo) The news release explains that "wearing bicycle helmets, doing good deeds, participating in community activities, picking up trash or observing school crossing rules" would all qualify. Since 1995, Operation Chill has distributed nearly four million coupons to more than 300 law enforcement agencies across the U.S. as well as to 15 agencies in Canada. (7-Eleven press release 8/31/00)

Ahold Imposes Cards on nearly 400 Supermarkets in 6 States!

Ahold USA began distributing frequent shopper cards to customers of Giant Food Stores, Inc. (based in PA) and its affiliates on Sunday, August 13th. The cards are now required to receive the sale prices and discounts that had always been available without cards before. This change affects hundreds of thousands of shoppers at 161 Giant-controlled stores in six states: Giant Food Stores in PA; Edwards Super Food Stores in NY and NJ; and Martin's Food Markets in MD, VA, WV, and PA.

Then, Ahold introduced cards to their other affiliate, Giant Foods, Inc (headquartered in MD). This change, which goes into effect on September 10, will affect shoppers at 176 Giant and Super G stores in DC, DE, NJ, PA, MD, and VA.

Though research has repeatedly shown that consumers do not want these programs, Giant's VP of Advertising and Sales Development, Dennis Hopkins, had this to say in an earlier press release: "The BONUSCARD is definately [sic] the most comprehensive and beneficial program we have offered our customers. It enables our shoppers to receive tremendous discounts and incentives both in our stores and with outside business partners." (Giant Food, Inc. Press Release Via PR Newswire 8/31/00)

- - - - - Action Alert! - - - - -

Card Introduced August 2000	Card Introduced September 2000
Dennis Hopkins VP of Advertising and Sales Development Giant Foods, Inc. 1149 Harrisburg Pike Carlisle, PA 17013 Office: 717-249-4000 FAX: 717-240-1546 Email: DHopkins@ahold.usa.com	Frank Gallagher Director of Bonus Card Giant Food, Inc. P.O. Box 1804 Washington, D.C. 20013 Office: 301-341-4722 FAX: unknown Email: Mr. Gallagher refused to give me his email address. Instead he referred me to Giant's generic "customer service web form"

If you live in the shopping area of any of these stores, contact Giant Foods to protest !

Ontario Gov't Funds GMO Produce Project

You can pick up a sackful of genetically modified sweet corn or potatoes at this innocent-looking roadside stand in Ontario, thanks to a project funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs and the Crop Protection Institute. The "Model Farm" project website explains that "both conventional and genetically engineered crops will be tested for consumer preference... in small farm markets and large supermarkets in both rural and urban areas." The moral? Unless it says organic on the label you may well be eating "experimental" food, regardless of how cute the package it comes in. (Canada Newswire 8/30/00)

Ahold Acquires Dutch Drugstores

Yes, Ahold is at it again. The Ahold subsidiary, Etos, which already owns 420 stores in the Netherlands, is buying 17 Dutch outlets of the British drugstore chain Boots. Boots has annual sales in the Netherlands of around Euro 18 million. Ahold acquired the Etos chain in 1974, and since 1996 has more than doubled the number of Etos stores. By the end of 2001, Etos expects to have up to 500 stores with sales of approximately Euro 450 million. Boots stores will be remodeled into the Etos format by the end of this year. (Ahold Press Release via Yahoo Supermarket News 8/17/00)

Ahold Expands its U.S. Food Service Empire

Less than a month after announcing the acquisition of GFG Foodservice (see article below dated 7/20/00) Ahold has announced that it will now acquire PYA/Monarch, a major food service distributor in the American southeast currently owned by Sara Lee Corporation. In a deal expected to close by the end of this year, the recently acquired Ahold subsidiary, U.S. Foodservice, will pay $1.57 billion to acquire PYA/Monarch. PYA/Monarch supplies 38,000 food and non-food items to almost 40,000 customers and has annual sales of nearly $3 billion. Customers include national restaurant chains including Ryans, Applebees, and Subway, as well as healthcare institutions, universities and hotels. Bob Tobin, Chairman Ahold USA explains, "We are... anxious to increase our involvement in the American foodservice industry." We noticed, Bob. (Ahold Press Release via Yahoo Supermarket News 8/16/00)

Home Barcode Scanners Distributed in Ohio

How hard is making a shopping list? When most of us run out of something we grab a pencil and write it on a piece of paper -- and we don't need an engineering degree to figure out what to do next. But a company called "BeeLine Shopper" wants to change all that. Fulmer Supermarkets, an Ohio chain with no surveillance card, is the test market for the new BeeLine home barcode shopping system. Participating shoppers pass a hand-held, battery-operated barcode scanner over items in their pantry and refrigerator as they run out. Then they insert the device into a cradle attached to their home computer where it communicates their preferences to BeeLine via the Internet. BeeLine scrounges up savings coupons (on competitive products, never on the ones the shopper scanned, it seems), and finally, all this technology results in a shopping list, complete with rather patronizing "alternative suggestions" paid for by manufacturers. To get the discounts, shoppers present their BeeLine printouts at the register where the cashier scans yet another barcode at the bottom. The cost for all this obsessive-compulsiveness? A $30 deposit and $24.95 per year. This is a prime example of applying technology to a problem that doesn't exist. (BeeLine Shopper press release via Yahoo Supermarket News 8/11/00)

Shopping Carts to Track Customer Movements

A Sacramento-based company called Kart Saver has come up with the following awful idea: It's the "K-Trac" shopper monitoring system which uses hidden infrared devices to "track the traffic patterns and shopping habits of the consumer." Here's a verbatim quote from the company's own press release (emphasis added):

"In an age where consumers' shopping habits are tracked through ATM and credit card purchases, and one's Internet research patterns can be picked up through computer technology, it was only a matter of time before a shopper's actual traffic patterns inside of a retail store could be monitored and recorded for marketing purposes.

A new system, K-Trac...is operated by attaching a tracking device to individual shopping carts that communicates by way of infra red signals to similar devices mounted in the store's ceiling. As the customer makes his way through the store, the devices track the traffic patterns and shopping habits of the consumer. As the cart travels toward certain products, the shelves actually "call out" to the customer with a customized audio advertisement ...

While the K-Trac system will obviously benefit retailers, most consumers will never even know that the product is being employed, with the exception of the talking advertisements.... The K-Trac system is to be test marketed in a store in Sacramento this summer."

If this is what's in store for us at the supermarket of the future, I'd rather plant a garden. (Kart Saver press release via Yahoo Supermarket News 8/8/00)

P&C Foods Handgun Buyback Nets 316 Guns

For a minute I thought I was reading mail from the wrong window (I try to keep my supermarket news and my civil liberties news separate). But after the double take, it turns out that the twain have indeed met. Yes, the P&C supermarket chain (a no-cards market owned by the usually reasonable Penn Traffic Co.) is boasting that between July 24 and August 4 it helped purchase and destroy over 300 handguns owned by private citizens of Syracuse, NY. Citizens were asked to turn over their firearms to the city Public Safety Building in exchange for $50 P&C grocery gift certificates. In a self-congratulatory city press release, Syracuse mayor Roy Bernardi explained that without P&C's sponsorship, federal guidelines would have "forced" the City to spend "much needed drug education funds" on a HUD (Housing and Urban Development) gun buyback program instead. This is ludicrous, of course, since the federal government cannot force any city to participate in a gun buyback program -- at least not yet. (P&C Foods press release via PR Newswire 8/7/00)

Are you in favor of supermarket-sponsored gun control? Please read the following before writing me:

Letter to my Anti-Gun Friends by Angel Shimaya
Myths About Gun Control from the National Center for Policy Analysis
The Downside to Gun Control is Genocide Item #2 on this JPFO fact sheet

Safeway and Biomerica Screen Shoppers for Cancer

More than 15,000 Baltimore-area shoppers recently participated in a free colorectal cancer screening program through Safeway Pharmacies. Safeway handed out BIOMERICA's EZ Detect Stool Blood Tests that detect hidden blood in the stool. The Greater Baltimore Medical Center then mailed shoppers their test results and "provided physician referrals as needed." While an annual colorectal cancer screening is a good idea for anyone over 50 (it is the nation's second leading cause of cancer death and has a 90% cure rate when detected early) I question the wisdom of giving Safeway and other strangers access to this information. Sensitive medical tests with serious health implications should be conducted within the confidentiality of the patient-doctor relationship, not with mega-corporations with a known penchant for collecting private data for marketing purposes.

I wonder if Safeway, Biomerica, Baltimore Channel 11, the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, and "Professional Health Care Associates" (all of whom participated in the campaign) provided Safeway shoppers with any assurance that their test results would not be marketed to health insurers -- or anyone else willing to pay for them. (Biomerica press release via Yahoo Supermarket News 8/7/00)

ExxonMobil Speedpass Provides Chilling View of "How Consumers Will Shop in the Future"

Of all the developments to cross my desk in the past year, this is perhaps the most disturbing. By the end of the summer, more than 3,500 Mobil convenience stores will begin to offer "Speedpass" for purchases inside the store. "Easy-to-use" indoor Speedpass reader units will be located on the checkout counter next to cash registers. A store customer simply waves a Speedpass key tag (containing a tiny plastic transponder with the customer's encoded ID number) over the "Place Speedpass Here" box on the counter-top reader. The Pegasus symbol (the Mobil brand's flying red horse icon) lights, recognizing the customer and approving the transaction. A receipt is automatically issued and the customer is ready to go. There is no need for cash or cards - just the shopper's number as contained in the plastic chip.

"This is the first expansion of Speedpass technology for purchases beyond the fuel pumps," said an ExxonMobil spokesman. "Its introduction provides a glimpse of how consumers will shop in the future, and we're proud that we are the first to make this innovative payment technology available to our customers." The national rollout follows a 69-store trial in St. Louis where customers reported that they valued the increased convenience and simplicity of using Speedpass inside. "St. Louis customers have been using their Speedpass tags increasingly and our research indicates that they appreciate the faster payment method and freedom from paying with cash," Carter noted. To date, over 4 million Americans have signed up to receive Speedpass devices.

If you've been keeping up with recent developments, you know that the grocery and convenience market industries have begun consolidating lately. It may not be long before Speedpass-like technology begins to appear in supermarkets. If it replaces cash, we can say goodbye to any hope of anonymity and privacy in our monetary transactions, and hello to enforced numbering to buy food. (Exxon Mobil press release via Business Wire 8/3/00)

Nash Finch Signs up with Catalina Marketing

Nash Finch Company, one of the largest food distribution companies in the United States with $4.1 billion in annual sales, has announced that it will begin utilizing the services of Catalina Marketing, one of the worst offenders in the loyalty marketing arena. Nash Finch owns and operates 127 supermarkets, principally under the Econofoods, Sun Mart and Family Thrift Center trade names. Most, if not all of these stores already monitor their customers with "loyalty" cards. Nash Finch also supplies food to independent grocery stores and military commissaries in approximately 30 states. (Nash Finch press release via Yahoo Supermarket News 7/27/00)

Weis Markets Issues ID for Kids

Weis Markets offers a powerful tool in the ongoing battle to indoctrinate our kids into the ID culture. Weis, a surveillance card supermarket chain with over 160 stores, will be providing free photo ID cards for children at locations throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and New Jersey on Saturday, July 29. During this time, parents can obtain free standardized, instant photographs of their children for their passport size "KidCare ID Booklets" which contain identification facts such as height, hair and eye color. The service will be offered to the first 250 children under six at each store. (Weis press release via Yahoo Supermarket News 7/26/00)

Hannaford Shoppers will soon get Cards

Delhaize America, Inc. has finally received FTC approval to acquire Hannaford Bros. Co. The companies expect to close the transaction on Saturday, July 29, 2000, making Delhaize the nation's 5th largest grocery chain. Delhaize already owns Food Lion and Kash n' Karry Supermarkets, which have long imposed surveillance cards on shoppers. Hannaford Bros, with 150+ stores on the eastern seaboard, has never had a card program, but no doubt that's about to change. (Delhaize press release via Yahoo Supermarket News 7/25/00)

A Little Humor at Kroger's Expense

The Kroger Plus Card is the subject of a hilarious lampoon by K Composite Magazine (http://www.kcomposite.com). The magazine has a regular feature called "Cult of the Month" designed to "alert our readers to new and growing organizations whose followers are religiously dedicated...make sacrifices to be a part of the group, and will fight in defense of its honor." Kroger Plus Card holders have the dubious honor of being this month's featured Cult.

"As part of a massive campaign to grow enlistment for their army, the grocery store chain has accosted their followers with a barrage of advertising as they return the Temple of Kroger each week. Kroger collects the names and addresses of each of their faithful, and in return offer their membership the promise of lower priced groceries than the rest of the uninitiated masses...Most Kroger Plus Shopper’s Club members are willing participants, blinded by the guise of discounts, proudly displaying the Kroger keychain tag to identify themselves to other members. The organization has faced little opposition and the keychain tags have succeeded in putting the Kroger name into everyday experiences that were previously devoid of advertising."

The story goes on to feature an interview with a "cult member." Very funny stuff!

Convenience Stores Joining Card Bandwagon

I just learned through a radio ad that AM/PM, the Southwestern convenience store chain, has introduced a loyalty card (with keychain accessory) called the AM/PM Goodstuff Card. Their website also features Club AM/PM where the first thing you are asked is "Can I see some ID please?" Below this is a button labeled "Card Me." (I kid you not.) Check it out, it's awful. There are over 1,000 AM/PM stores in California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington and Oregon.

Ahold to Acquire GFG Foodservice

Royal Ahold has announced that it will acquire the North Dakota-based food distributor GFG Foodservice and incorporate it into its recent acquisition, U.S. Foodservice (the second-largest food distributor in the United States, acquired by Ahold in April, 2000). GFG provides food to over 4,300 restaurants, schools, universities and health care institutions in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. For more on Ahold, the world's 6th largest supermarket company and the 3rd largest owner of supermarkets in the U.S. please review the Supermarket News archive at left. (Ahold press release via Yahoo Supermarket News 7/20/00)

Ahold Expands into Slovakia

Is anywhere on the globe safe from Royal Ahold's ravenous appetite? You would have thought that maybe Slovakia, a tiny country in Central Europe where less than 10% of food is purchased through supermarkets, would not be flashy enough to capture Ahold's interest. But Ahold has announced that it will soon begin imposing its "hypermarkets, megamarkets and supermarkets" on this tiny corner of the globe, too. (Ahold press release via Yahoo Supermarket News 7/19/00)

Introducing the "Klever-Kart"

The latest marketing gimmick due to hit stores is the "Klever Kart" -- a shopping cart that bombards consumers with a constant stream of advertising as they walk through the supermarket. Billed as a "personal shopping assistant," the Klever-Kart incorporates an LED screen mounted to the handle of a shopping cart that interacts with displays throughout the store. Klever Marketing, its manufacturer, will finish installation of their first phase roll out into a major southern California retailer within the next few weeks. Amazingly, 85% of shoppers on whom the system was test marketed stated that the device "added to their favorable shopping experience" and that they want to use it again. [source] For a Multimedia Flash demo of the system, visit http://www.kleverkart.com/flashdemo.htm.(Klever Marketing press release 7/12/00)

The "KleverKard" Scheduled to Arrive in 2001

You knew there had to be more to it than that. Yes, the Klever Kart will soon be interacting with shopper's surveillance cards. Here's how the company's website explains it:

"Information from individual consumer cards will enable the Klever-Kart® unit to display customer messages containing promotions and advertising specific to an individual...The consumer simply swipes her frequent shopper card in the display unit to display personalized messages. Klever-Kard offers true one-to-one marketing during the shopping trip and, more importantly, at the Point-of-Selection where the consumer makes the product choice. "

Hmm, targeting to an individual. But how will that work? The company offers the following example to make it all clear:

"The marketing department wants to implement a targeted promotional offer with varying coupon values for their new line of fat-free potato chips. They choose to use Klever-Kard to distribute a $.20 coupon to customers who have a history of purchasing low-fat or fat-free products. The goal is to generate trial, reward current users, and encourage pantry loading. They offer competitive brand users a $.40 value to encourage trial and brand switching. Non-users of diet-conscious products receive a $.50 value to stimulate quality trial and increase category consumption. Klever-Kard enables a cost-effective approach to individualized promotional inducements. "

This truly is discriminatory pricing taken to new lows.

Albertson's Launches Cardless E-Marketing

Albertson's, the nation's second largest supermarket chain and an avowed no-cards store, has announced that it has partnered up with InterAct Electronic Marketing to offer shoppers "customized purchase incentives and information before they shop utilizing in-store web portals." Though we are assured that no frequent shopper card will be required to use the system, it is unclear how offers can be customized without requiring identifying information from shoppers. (Interact press release via Yahoo Supermarket News 7/12/00)

More on InterAct Electronic Marketing Inc.

Despite claims that Albertson's partnership with InterAct (above) will not require frequent shopper cards, InterAct's website boasts that their network "captures the purchase history of each frequent card user and creates an individual profile." They go on to exclaim that "A full 65 weeks of item-level purchase history is retained for each individual shopper!" An image below this claim implies that data on 75% of U.S. households is available through their system.

An understanding of InterAct would not be complete without looking at the artwork the company uses to market its omniscient shopper surveillance system. In a disconcerting twist on Michelangelo's famous painting, The Creation of Adam (where the hands of God and Adam touch), InterAct has replaced one of the hands with that of a metallic cyborg. This odd misuse of religious imagery makes me wonder how InterAct views its role in human affairs.

Shopper Perks: InterAct's Web Coupons

One way InterAct interacts with shopper's private information is through their website at http://www.ShopperPerks.com. Here shoppers are prompted to enter their "loyalty" card numbers in order to root around their local stores for a few pennies' worth of discounts. When they get to the store and scan their surveillance cards the discounts are automatically taken at the register. Of course, this adds one more layer of surveillance to the buying process, since InterAct will maintain detailed purchase records in addition to those kept by the store. So far the number of participating supermarket chains in the Shopper Perks system is low.

Genetically Altered Tomatoes Defy Death

Coming soon to a supermarket near you:

Unless you've begun buying organic produce, the next tomato you eat may be a death-resistant laboratory creation. Senesco, a New Jersey-based bioengineering firm whose "mission is to enhance crop quality and productivity through the genetic control of...programmed cell death" has patented a genetic modification to prevent tomatoes from spoiling. Though the company admits that produce decay "is part of a natural development process," they are undeterred by ethical concerns over tampering with the natural order of things. In fact, they hope to extend their artificial life extension technology to a wide variety of produce in the near future. (Senesco press release via Yahoo Supermarket News 7/05/00)

In response, I've taken my produce business to a local natural food store where the veggies are organic. It's a single, family-owned store, and yes, the prices are higher there than elsewhere. Every time I pay a few extra dollars on a grocery order there I view it as my monetary contribution to ensuring the survival of small stores everywhere (not to mention the health and well being of my family). I urge you to do the same.

CASPIAN Welcomes Claiborne's to the Winner's Circle

We are pleased to welcome Claiborne's Supermarket, a family-owned market in Lamesa, Texas, as the latest winner of the CASPIAN Triple Ribbon of Privacy for renouncing shopper surveillance cards. Company spokesperson Jessica Blount tells us, "We do not monitor our customers and do not have any future plans for discount cards or any other such device. We protect our customers and promise them the lowest prices we can offer. To each and everyone!" Bravo Claiborne's! Do you know of a market that will commit to a no-cards future? Tell them about CASPIAN and have them drop us a line! (6/14/00)

McDonald's Tests Cashless Payment System

McDonald's (the fast food restaurant) is exploring the type of drive-through payment scheme popularized by the Mobil Speedpass and EZ Pass toll-collection systems. In July, a Houston-area McDonald's franchise will test a system called "CarCash." Created by Keycash, the system deducts payments from a prepaid account linked to a decal on the car's windshield. The restaurant emits a radio signal that reads a chip on the decal, which contains the customer's account number and then debits his account. Some have proposed installing similar chips in shopper "loyalty" cards so that they'll have your number as soon as you walk through the door. More ancient sources have predicted that such devices will one day wind up in shoppers' right hands. (Source: Smart Card News 5/19/00)

Major Supermarkets Positioning for Online Sales

Shopping for groceries online has not caught on as fast as some dotcom investors had hoped. But now that big supermarket chains are getting in on the action, that may change. Instead of worrying about whether online grocery shopping services might someday eat into their market share, the big guys have decided to buy out or partner up with the dotcoms. ("Instead of worrying about 'em, buy 'em!") Examples: Ahold now owns 51% of Peapod [story], Kroger has partnered with Priceline WebHouse Club [story], and Safeway has agreed to invest $30 million in GroceryWorks.com in return for 50% of their stock [story].

FTC Notices a Kroger Acquisition!

Maybe the Federal Trade Commision has merely been in a coma for the last few years. The regulatory agency, charged with preventing monopolies in key industries, registered a faint pulse earlier this month with the news that it intends to block Kroger from buying 74 Winn-Dixie stores in in Texas and Oklahoma. Kroger, the nation's largest supermarket chain and an avid promoter of its privacy-invading shopper card, has been buying up family-owned grocers all over America at an alarming pace. (See the Supermarket news archive for examples.) Kroger has bought out the last privacy-friendly stores in many areas, leaving shoppers with no recourse. FTC, where were you when we needed you? [For full text of FTC complaint click here, Kroger's response here, more on increasing anti-trust activity here.] (Yahoo Supermarket News 6/02/00)

Winn-Dixie to Purchase Gooding's

Winn-Dixie, a Florida-based supermarket chain with over 1,200 stores in 14 states, has announced that it will purchase 9 family-owned Gooding's Supermarkets in Central Florida. (Gooding's will retain three other stores.) The good news? Winn-Dixie is a privacy-respecting no-cards store, which means Gooding's shoppers will soon be saying goodbye to the Gooding's "value card" and its creepy "baby club." The bad news? The loss of another family-owned chain to consolidation mania. (Winn-Dixie press release via Yahoo Supermarket News 6/02/00)

Safeway Implanting Subdermal ID Microchips

...into pets, not people. At least for now. Safeway (the nation's second largest grocery chain) has enlisted veterinarians to inject microchips into the bodies of Safeway shoppers' pets. In a process similar to vaccination, a syringe is used to insert a chip the size of a grain of rice under the animal's skin. The idea is to identify the pet should it be lost. Each microchip contains a unique identification number that is recorded in a national database and can be read by a scanner. That sounds awfully similar to shopper surveillance cards, though so far they've only offered shoppers the keychain option for keeping their number with them at all times.

When they came for the pets, I didn't object, because I wasn't a pet. [ref.]

More Biometric ATM's Arrive at H-E-B

H-E-B, the nation's 12th largest retail supermarket chain, is increasing the number of biometric bank machines in its stores in the Houston, Texas area from 14 to 35. The bank machines, made by InnoVentry Corp incorporate a biometric face-recognition system to allow customers to cash checks without a picture ID, bank card or PIN. Aimed at those who chose not to have a bank account, the system will soon serve as a platform for the sale of money orders and bill-payment services, as well. Imagine the following dialog: "We can't have those bankless customers remaining anonymous, we've got to get them into the database somehow. Hmm... I've got it! Biometric ATM's!" (Yahoo Supermarket News 5/11/00)

Ahold Calls Itself "Acquisitive"

Hold onto your hats! Ahold President & CEO Cees van der Hoeven made the following earth-shatteringly obvious admission today: "Our company is sometimes described as acquisitive, and we are certainly that..." Um, yep.

For examples of Netherland-based Royal Ahold's "continued expansion" and strategy of "growth by acquiring new [sic] companies" all over the world (especially in the United States), just read the stories below. (Ahold Company Press Release, via Yahoo Supermarket News 5/9/00)

"Loyalty" Cards to Contain Banking Data

The Food Marketing Institute, a leading trade organization, has announced that it will help "promote the acceptance" of pre-authorized debit cards in the supermarket industry. The plastic cards, made by Concord EFS, Inc, will be issued by supermarkets so they can debit food purchases directly from shoppers' bank accounts. (The swiped cards are designed to replace paper checks.) The promoters boast that these cards can be combined with frequent shopper programs, creating a single card for payments, store discounts, and rewards. If you sign up, your "loyalty" card record will contain your bank account information, too. I've warned of a time when you won't be able to get a "loyalty" card without supplying banking information -- could this be far off? (Concord EFS Company Press Release, available via Yahoo Supermarket News 5/9/00)

CASPIAN Appears on "Extra" TV Program

The CASPIAN website and its creator, Katherine Albrecht, had a brief appearance on NBC's "Extra" television program on Tuesday, May 9th. The show devoted a segment to privacy issues and shopper cards. In addition to an interview with Albrecht, Extra spoke with Robert Rivera, the California resident who claimed lawyers threatened to use his alcohol purchase records against him in court, as well as a spokesperson from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and a California lawmaker who helped outlaw the collection and sale of some shopper card information. We hope to post the segment on this site at some point in the future.

Albrecht Appears on KTSA Talk Radio

When it rains it pours! On Monday, May 8th Katherine was interviewed by popular talk show host Brad Messer of KTSA radio in San Antonio, Texas. KTSA's listening audience extends over 99 Texas counties. This was a great opportunity to warn Texans of the impending dangers of supermarket "loyalty" schemes which have yet to hit some areas of the privacy-loving Lone Star State.

Microprocessors Begin to Appear in Shopper Cards

Furr's Supermarkets plans to issue more than 100,000 microprocessor-equipped "smart cards" to shoppers at 10 New Mexico stores this summer. Customers will collect digital coupons by inserting their cards into small readers on shelves, then present the cards to cashiers when they check out to receive discounts. The program creator, SoftCARD Systems Inc., says the microprocessors on the cards (which Furr's conveniently neglects to mention to shoppers) will enable supermarkets to add "more sophisticated rewards programs and to cross-sell with other merchants." SoftCARD is currently negotiating with the 1,650-store Safeway chain to put microprocessors in their cards, too. (From Smart Card News 4/13)

Ahold to Acquire Tennessee's Golden Gallon Chain

In its second takeover of a U.S. convenience store chain in less than a month, acquisition-hungry Royal Ahold today announced that it will buy 134 Golden Gallon convenience stores in Tennessee. Golden Gallon was founded in 1959 and had sales of $300 million last year. Two-thirds of these stores' income results from gasoline sales; the rest comes from the sale of tobacco, milk and beverages. Ahold will fold the stores into its Bi-Lo division, and yes, Bi-Lo supermarkets register and monitor their patrons. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval (cough, cough) and is expected to close by the end of May. (Ahold Press Release, via Yahoo Supermarket News 4/19/00)

Carrefour to Acquire Italian Chain Gruppo

The EU Commission announced Friday its approval of French group Carrefour's full control over Italian food retailer Gruppo. For more on Carrefour, see the supermarket news archive by clicking the link at left. Please drop me a line if you know more about Gruppo or have information on this merger. (Bridge News via Individual.com 4/7/00)

Albertson's Ends Card Program at 3 Memphis Markets

Three former Jitney Jungle holdings in Memphis, Tennessee (two Memphis MegaMarkets and one Jitney Premier store that were sold due to Jitney's Chapter 11 status) have been purchased by Albertson's and will be added to the "Seessel's by Albertson's" chain. Albertson's, the nation's 4th largest grocery chain (as of 1999), heavily advertises the fact that it does not require a card. It acquired the 10-store Seessel's chain in 1998 and now operates 16 Seesel's markets in Tennessee. Customers at the new Seessel's can turn in their Jitney Jungle gold cards and Albertson's will donate money to breast cancer research based on the number of cards received. Albertson's ran a similar program earlier this year when it acquired over 400 Lucky food stores in California and Nevada. (Albertson's Press Release 4/4/00)

Pao de Acucar, a Brazillian supermarket chain with 285 stores, is negotiating to buy Reimberg, a chain with nine supermarkets in the South of Sao Paulo. Earlier this year, Pao de Acucar bought nine stores from Mercadinhos Sao Luiz in the Brazilian state of Ceara. (Individual.com 4/4/00)

Ahold's Appetite Extends to Convenience Stores

Royal Ahold (the enormous Dutch company that is gobbling up U.S. supermarkets and food distributors at an astonishing pace) has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Topp's Market, is acquiring 87 Sugar Creek convenience and gas stores in New York state. Sugar Creek had sales of $142 million in 1999. By May 2000, most Sugar Creek stores will be renamed Wilson Farms and be transformed into "neighborhood stores" bringing the total number of Wilson Farms markets to 200. For more on Ahold's stranglehold on the American food market, read on. (Yahoo Supermarket News 3/31/00)

Kroger: "One of America's 100 Best Corporate Citizens." They're Kidding, Right?

It pains me to even write this, so I'll just quote from the Kroger press release:

"The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) today announced that it has been named one of America's "100 Best Corporate Citizens" by Business Ethics, a national publication that highlights corporate social responsibility. Kroger ranked 15th on the list, which honors companies that best serve four groups: stockholders, employees, customers and the community. Kroger was the highest-rated retailer on the list. The magazine analyzed a variety of data, including volunteer and community activities, philanthropy, workforce diversity, and employee benefits and safety issues. Rankings were assigned by researchers at Boston College's Carroll School of Management, using social rankings compiled by Kinder, Lyndenberg, Domini & Co. (KLD), a social research firm."

If you find this preposterous beyond belief, please visit the Business Ethics Magazine website (which you'll find to be three years out of date) and drop them an e-mail. While you're at it, take a look at the "Social Rating Criteria" used by KLD -- you'll see no mention of privacy practices as a factor in ranking companies. Drop KLD an e-mail too -- these folks need a wakeup call. (Kroger Press Release 3/17/00)

Ukrop's Unveils "the Shopper"

Ukrop's, a 27-store Virginia chain, has come out with a dubiously valuable new technology called "the Shopper." "Loyal" shoppers can now scan their Ukrop's Valued Customer Card into a freestanding Shopper kiosk to receive "personalized messages and relevant offers." The personalized message might consist of a note letting a customer know the brand of juice they normally buy is on sale; the offer might be a $1 deli coupon. It's a shame Ukrop's isn't making this technology available to all shoppers, but to be honest, I don't think we're missing much. (Yahoo Supermarket News 3/16/00)

Hello, Self-Scanners. Goodbye, Privacy.

Self-serve checkout systems -- you scan it, you bag it, you pay for it -- are erupting like boils at supermarkets nationwide. Kroger has installed U-Scan Express machines in more than 200 of its stores, and A&P, Meijer, Harris Teeter, Winn-Dixie, Wal-Mart and smaller grocery chains are experimenting with the system. The problem? These machines don't take cash. Once they replace the traditional cashier altogether, supermarkets will no longer need a "loyalty card" to track your purchases, since your every purchase will be linked to you through your credit or ATM card. (Source: Yahoo Supermarket News 3/14/00)

Update 3/20: A kind reader set me straight on the cash issue as follows: "The U-Scan self-service checkout machines do accept cash (both bills and coins), along with credit cards. I know because I've used the machines a few times."

United Airlines to Reward "Loyal" Safeway/Vons Shoppers

Egads, yet another "reward" for the herd of sheep who have given up their privacy through registration and monitoring cards -- and another way for stores to discriminate against their privacy-conscious patrons. Safeway shoppers (and shoppers at Safeway-owned Vons and Pavilions stores) can now earn 125 United Airlines frequent flyer miles for every $250 they spend on groceries. I think it's time to add United to our boycott list. (United Airlines Press Release 3/14/00)

Seaway and Spartan in Merger Negotiations

The Midwest's Seaway Food Town, Inc. is currently in negotiations to merge with (read: be swallowed up by) Spartan Stores, Inc. Food Town requires a driver's license number, date of birth, and SSN to acquire a "Food Town Plus Card" at its 47 stores in Ohio and Michigan. Spartan is a wholesaler which supplies groceries as well as "sourcing for card/key tag manufacturing [and] support of third party programs such as Catalina Marketing programs" to 450 Midwestern markets. Spartan also owns and operates Ashcraft's Markets, Family Fare, Great Day Foods and Glen's Markets in Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. This merger between the privacy brain-dead sounds like a marriage made in hell. (Yahoo Supermarket News 3/13/00)

2nd Largest US Food Distributor Bought by Ahold

In a deal so massive it defies comprehension, Royal Ahold, the world's largest food provider with thousands of supermarkets on 4 continents, is all set to acquire U.S. Foodservice, the second largest food distributor in the United States. Netherlands-based Ahold already owns Stop & Shop, Giant Foods, Wilson Foods, and Tops, among others, making it the third largest owner of supermarkets in the U.S. The acquisition of U.S. Foodservice, which has annual sales of $7 billion, has been called an "additional growth vehicle for Ahold in USA." The deal is expected to close in May, 2000. Can Ahold be stopped before it takes over the world? (CBS Marketwatch 3/7/00)
3/27 followup: Deal clears antitrust regulatory hurdle

Colombia's Two Largest Markets Consider Merger

There appears to be no place on the globe safe from competition-threatening supermarket mergers. Now Colombia's two largest supermarkets, Carulla and El Vivero, are discussing a plan to merge. Both companies are 25% owned by a foreign investment fund, the Newbridge Andean Partner. (Source: El Espectador, via Bridge News, via Individual.Com 2/1/00)

Kroger and IRS too Cozy for Comfort

Income tax filing at your local supermarket? The IRS has partnered up with Kroger stores in several Southern states to offer the latest Big Brother development: the "Tax Payer program." While shopping at Kroger, Georgia taxpayers can now pick up tax forms, get filing assistance, and even drop off their federal and state tax returns "directly to the IRS - no postage necessary - instead of waiting in line at the post office." With all this "cooperation," how long before the IRS starts peeking into Kroger's surveillance database to aid in "tax investigations?" (Yahoo Supermarket News 1/31/00)

More Government/Supermarket Shenanigans

First income tax filing, now voter registration. During the month of February every California Vons and Pavilions store (owned by Safeway) will set up tables to register voters for the March 7th primary elections. The California Secretary of State's office, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), AARP, NALEO and the League of Women Voters will all send volunteers to staff tables and register voters at select Vons and Pavilions locations. ``We want to try and make voter registration as easy as buying a loaf of bread,'' said Vons President Tom Keller. ``Through these efforts, our hope is that customers will consider adding voter registration to their shopping list next time they're at Vons or Pavilions.'' (Yahoo Supermarket News 2/01/00)

Dutch Ahold Takes Ahold of Spain

Dutch Ahold, the world's 6th largest supermarket company with 3,600 stores on 4 continents, has reached an agreement to acquire all outstanding shares in Spain's Kampio supermarkets. The acquisition of all 39 Kampio stores is an "excellent new step in becoming a truly national player in Spain," said an Ahold board member, and a spokesman assures us that Ahold will acquire a "substantial number of stores in new locations over the next few years and this year." Royal Ahold was already Spain's top 4 grocery retailer. And they're the 3rd largest owner of supermarkets in the U.S. (Bridge News via Individual.com 1/24/00)

Hinky Dinky Supermarkets Bought by Nash Finch

Nebraska's Hinky Dinky supermarket chain of twelve stores has been acquired by the Nash Finch Company, one of the nation's largest grocery wholesalers and operator of 114 retail supermarkets. "This is another exciting acquisition for Nash Finch Company as we continue...our strategic plan..." said Ron Marshall, Nash Finch president and CEO. To get a sense of what is lost when small town markets get homogenized by the behemoths, take a look at the Hinky Dinky page on the Seward, Nebraska Chamber of Commerce website. Then ponder the fact that Nash Finch has annual revenue of $4.2 billion. Hinky Dinky shoppers: you used to be the most important consideration in that store's business. Now you've become aggregate statistics for corporate paper pushers in another state. (Nash Finch press release on Yahoo News 1/18/00)

Yet Another Family-Owned Market Swallowed by Kroger

Hey, didn't you just read this same news story last week? No, that was the Contos family (see below). This time it's the Kessel family (owners of 20 Kessel markets in Michigan) who is making the "difficult" decision to turn over their life's work to Kroger after several generations of family ownership. Kroger must be writing these guy's speeches since all the patriarchs say the same thing -- how even though it's hard and painful to turn their stores over to Kroger they're forcing themselves to do it for the good of employees and shoppers. As with Pay Less, Kroger will not change the Kessel Market name, so shoppers will remain blissfully unaware that Kroger is spreading like a cancer across the nation. (Kroger press release 12/15/99)

Another Family-Owned Market Swallowed by Kroger

After more than 50 years in the Contos family, Pay Less Super Markets, an 8-store Indiana chain, has been acquired by Kroger for "an undisclosed amount of cash." Since Kroger is not changing the stores' names, shoppers won't notice the ownership switch until Kroger begins pestering them for personal data. Pay Less was founded in 1947 by H.J. "Bud" Contos and has been run by his son, Larry, since 1961. Larry describes his decision to sell as "difficult" and "emotional," but explains that, ``it is evident to me and my family that now is the right time to place our life's work into [Kroger's] hands." Come on, Larry, did you really say that? Yikes! (Kroger press release 12/1/99)

Acquisitiveness not Helping Supermarket Stock Prices

Both Albertson's and Kroger stock values have fallen sharply in recent months due to their Hungry Hippo expansion strategies. Retail analyst Andrew Wolf calls the problem "acquisition indigestion." He reports that the supermarket stock index he tracks is down 38.5% this year. "They're digesting the acquisition and getting the companies in the fold and getting used to each other and executing systems conversions....Just the various risks associated with mergers also cause [investors] to become disinterested in supermarkets." (CBS Marketwatch 12/1/99)

FTC Delays Ahold-Pathmark Acquisition

Netherlands-based Ahold, the 3rd largest supermarket company in the U.S. and the 6th largest in the world, has still not received FTC approval to acquire Pathmark, the nation's 19th largest grocery company. The $1.75 billion purchase was announced in March and was expected to be finalized by the end of 1999, but the FTC has slowed it down a bit. Ahold seems to be doing fine anyhow -- it recently reported a 43% increase in its third quarter net profit. (Reuters via individual.com, 11/24/99)

Goodbye and Good Riddance to Lucky "Rewards Card"

California and Nevada shoppers can bid adieu to the invasive Lucky card program that has been tracking them for the last few years. 471 Lucky stores reopened today as Albertson's, which is discontinuing the offensive Lucky "Rewards" program. Albertson's came to own Lucky in June, when they merged with Lucky's parent company, American Stores. It remains to be seen what Albertson's plans to do with the other card programs it inherited in that deal. (Sacramento Bee 11/2/99)

Safeway Backpedals on Card Program

Safeway has made a major shift in its "discount" strategy. Instead of giving special discounts only to its club-card members, the supermarket chain has reinstated its coupon book program. Let's hope they've finally figured out that many shoppers hate the Safeway Club Card. "Congratulations, consumers, to those of you who stood your ground and refused to surrender privacy for pennies in this promotion." (Seattle Times 11/3/99)

Catalina's Tentacles Extend Again

Shoppers at Brookshire Grocery, Nash Finch, SuperValu Southeast Region, and K-VA-T Food will soon fall prey to a host of Catalina Marketing schemes. The addition of these chains brings Catalina's total contractees to 14,300 supermarkets across the country. Says Catalina, "We have reached almost complete saturation of the western market, and will continue in our efforts to develop partnerships with key retailers." Maybe we should write letters to the "key retailers" they haven't yet succumbed to let them know how consumers feel about being "targeted" by surveillance schemes. (Catalina Marketing press release 11/3/99)

74 Card-Free Stores will soon be "Krogerized"

Kroger announced it will purchase 74 Winn-Dixie grocery stores in Texas and Oklahoma to add to the 169 Krogers already it already has there. Readers tell me that some Kroger stores in Texas are not inflicting the Kroger card on shoppers (Texans are notoriously privacy-conscious) so it remains to be seen whether these new acquisitions will remain card-free or not. In any event, Kroger, already the nation's largest grocery monster, appears to be growing by leaps and bounds. (Kroger press release 11/2/99)

Vons/Pavilions Announce New Charity Incentive

Vons and Pavilions (owned by Safeway) announced that their 238 California and Nevada markets have partnered with Electronic Scrip Incorporated (ESI) to offer "eScrip," a privacy-invading twist on an old theme (donating a portion of grocery purchases to worthy causes). Shoppers can now link their surveillance cards with schools and other charities. Now the national database will not only know what you buy, they'll know where your kids go to school or where you worship, too. (Vons/Pavillions press release via Yahoo 11/1/99)

Another Grocery Wholesaler Gone

Nash Finch has agreed to purchase Fairway Foods of Michigan, Inc., a wholesale division of Fairway Foods, Inc., which is owned by Holiday Companies, Bloomington, Minn. Fairway Foods/Michigan supplies independent retail stores in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and northeastern Wisconsin. Its 1998 revenues exceeded $160 million. (Nash Finch press release via Yahoo 11/1/99)

Wild Oats Now Bigger than Whole Foods

With the acquisition of 13 competitors' stores, including nine Sun Harvest Farms stores in Texas and four Wild Harvest stores in the Boston area, Wild Oats becomes the new 800-pound gorilla in the natural food market. Wild Oats acquired 37 stores in 1999, bringing it to a total of 105 stores. Roughly two-thirds of these were obtained through mergers or buyouts. If there is any upside to this loss of locally owned competition, it is that Wild Oats is a confirmed no-cards store. (CBS Marketwatch 10/31/99)

Catalina's Latest Prey

Catalina Marketing has added another 350 stores to its "Network." Two Safeway divisions: Vons, a Southern California market leader, and Carr-Gottstein, the market leader in Alaska, have both signed contracts to "begin installation of the Catalina Marketing Network." Vons and Carr-Gottstein shoppers will now join the ranks of millions of shoppers around the world who are daily "influenced" by the experts at Catalina, who, in their own words, "strive to influence purchase behavior of consumers wherever and whenever they make purchase decisions." (Catalina Marketing press release 10/27/99)

Shoppers Choose Privacy over Discounts

Consumers are thinking twice about shopper surveillance cards. Privacy experts say there's nothing to keep loyalty card data secret from a subpoena if someone is being sought in a criminal case or involved in a child-custody fight. "You may innocently buy junk food, a pregnancy kit or over-the-counter sleeping aids, but how would it look if you decided to run for the school board or mayor 10 years from now?" (Denver Rocky Mountain News 10/17/99)

California Lawmakers Respond!

The state of California has passed a law making it illegal for supermarkets to collect driver's license or Social Security numbers on "loyalty" card applications starting July 2000. It also makes it illegal for stores to share or sell customer information. The law, thought to be the first of its kind in the nation, still leaves food retailers free to track customer purchases, however. This is an important piece of legislation, but Californians are not out of the woods yet. (Sacramento Bee 10/2/99)

Supermarket Responds to Customer Pressure

Alabama supermarket chain, Bruno's, has been forced to negotiate a settlement with striking workers because of shopper pressure. Bruno's CEO said, "We are pleased that the strike has ended, and our first goal will be to win back all of our customers who shopped elsewhere this past week." The lesson here? "Shopping elsewhere" is a very effective weapon. (Newspage 10/99)

Safeway Swallows up Randall's

Consolidation-hungry supermarket giant, Safeway Inc., has completed a merger with Randall's Food Markets Inc. Safeway was anxious to add Randall's 116 Tom Thumb and Simon David stores (with $2.6 billion in annuals sales) to its existing 1,534 stores and $27 billion sales. (Newspage 9/14/99)

Registration and Monitoring from Your Keychain

Shoppers are lining their key rings with bar code tags for everything from supermarkets and fitness clubs to pet food stores. As one grocery store operator explains, "What we are doing is taking the technology of scanning and instead of tracking product movement we are tracking customer movement.'' Sounds creepy to me. (Newspage 9/99)

Merger forms Europe's Largest Supermarket Chain

Two of Europe's largest retailers, Promodes and Carrefour, have merged in a $16.5 billion deal. The new company, called Carrefour, will have nearly 9,000 stores in 26 countries in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East.

French law prohibits the construction of vast stores which stifle competition. Carrefour, which according to a company spokesman, sees "a clear need for globalization," has gotten around such restrictions by buying up foreign chains and wiping out national competition in deals such as this merger with former competitor, Promodes.

A spokesman for the National Federation of Farmers Unions warned, "Suddenly there is one group with the power to buy approximately one third of France's food production. If a producer can't sell to that group, it could mark the end of his business." As consumers, we cannot rely on independent farmers to provide alternative food sources if the multinational giants get out of line, since the farmers, too, will be at their mercy. (Newsweek 8/99)

The New Carrefour will be World's Second Largest Retailer

In 1998 Carrefour and Promodes had combined revenues of $52.9 billion, second only to Wal-Mart's $123.2 billion. The merger adds Carrefour/Promodes to "a select group of European retailers positioned for truly global operations, such as Netherlands-based Royal Ahold and [Germany's] Metro." (Retail Systems 8/99)

Food Lion buys another competitor, Hannaford

Food Lion Supermarket Chain (which has a club card program) has acquired Hannaford (which did not) to become the nation's 6th largest supermarket retailer. The article notes that the "acquisition comes at a time when the pressure for consolidation in the supermarket industry is increasing....This year, the three biggest grocery chains have all made acquisitions. Industry leader Kroger bought Fred Meyer; Albertson's merged with American Stores; and Safeway added Randall's Food Markets Inc." (Charlotte Observer 8/99)

H-E-B Signs up with "The Network"

H.E.Butt, 12th largest food retailer in the U.S. and former hold-out against registration and monitoring schemes, has agreed to test market schemes designed by Catalina Marketing. (PR Newswire 8/99)

Another U.S. Wholesale Food Supplier Gone

"With the recent announcement of SUPERVALU's purchase of Richfood, we lost another venerable institution with a great history."

Industry consultant Frank Dell observes that the wholesale grocery industry has shrunk from 300+ companies to just 62 in recent years and predicts that within three years only 22 wholesale suppliers will remain. Given the article's title, "And Then There was One," the implications are obvious. (Idea Beat 6/99)

Genetically Modified Food Threat used as Justification for Ignoring "Loyalty" Card Privacy Policies

It was only a matter of time before the "public interest" was cited as a reason for supermarkets to ignore promises made to shoppers that their purchase records would be kept private. With very little prompting, three British supermarket chains agreed to release shoppers' records to the government for "research purposes." The bottom line? Supermarket privacy policies are not worth the paper they are printed on. (Friends of the Earth, Scotland 1/25/99)

Update: Plan Scrapped due to Privacy Concerns

Good news, they've decided not to use "loyalty" records to track GM foods after all --- but no thanks to the supermarkets (which would have been happy to hand the data over). British shoppers got to hang onto their privacy a little longer because the government committee investigating GM foods believed the supermarkets' privacy policy had some meaning --- even if the markets themselves didn't. (New Scientist, 9/99)

Wild Oats Discontinues Card Program

What a refreshing rarity -- a market that cares what its customers think. After hearing from shoppers who disliked the "Wild Shopper Card," Wild Oats natural markets decided to eliminate the registration and monitoring program and get back to old fashioned savings. Thank you, Wild Oats! (Wild Oats Website 3/99)

"The Network" Invades Japan

Catalina Marketing signed a contract with Seiyu Co., Ltd., one of the top five general merchandise chains in Japan, to roll-out the Catalina Marketing Network in all their stores. This expansion allows the Catalina Marketing Network to reach an additional 3 million shoppers each week (in addition to the 150 million shoppers they already monitor in the United States). (PR Newswire1/99)

Albertson's Buys American Stores

"Our prediction is that [eventually] there will be five to seven super regional chains... Ahold, Safeway, Kroger and Albertson's all would be classified as super regional chains."

Frank Dell discusses the merger and consolidation trend. (Idea Beat 8/98)

 Safeway Increases Loyalty Card Discounts in UK

Safeway has been "forced" to increase the discounts associated with its monitoring and registration card to stay competitive. The problem, according to the article's author, is that "the UK market is too small to support 4 supermarket chains." How long before it is claimed that the world is too small to support more than a few supermarket chains? (Retail Systems 6/98)

Catalina Marketing Grows Again (go to 3rd article)

400 more stores enlist Catalina's services to invade customers' privacy (Progressive Grocer 5/98)

British Supermarket Chain, Tesco, Links Utilities to "Loyalty" Program

Tesco, not content merely to monitor shoppers' food purchases has linked its "loyalty" card to the natural gas supplied to their homes. The move was described as "an important milestone" by gas industry officials. An important milestone on the road to what, we might ask? (BBC 2/98)

A Clue to the Cost of Registration and Monitoring

Sainsbury's spent 3.7 Million British pounds to acquire a "32-processor Aviion AV 2000" computer (which was claimed to be the largest such server in the world), to keep track of customers. Who do you think is paying for this? (11/97)

Not enough Supermarkets Employing Loyalty Schemes!

This 1997 article reports the "disappointing" finding that only 19% of U.S. supermarkets had so far implemented registration and monitoring programs. The problem? "Too many supermarkets still rely on their traditional strengths - product availability and pricing." It's a shame that so few are doing so today. (9/97)

CASPIAN
Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering
An information clearinghouse and resource for community and national action

© 1999-2005 Katherine Albrecht. All rights reserved.