I never thought about those "saver club" cards. I don't have a lot of
them -- but I have one to Border's. Good thing I only buy car
magazines with it.!!

So, you're saying that based on your purchases -- that is what
determines what coupons you are issued. I had never thought of that.
What an interesting marketing ploy. Wish there was some way to track
that kind of thing for recruiting for non-profits.!!!


Eric F. Richards wrote:
" wrote:

[...] but if Wal-Mart is tracking my
purchases, then we are all in trouble.

If you think Wal-Mart is *not* tracking your purchases, you are very
naive.

IIRC, it's illegal to use credit card info for that kind of tracking,
which is why all those "savers club" cards are offered by everyone --
to help them track your purchases. The volumes of analysis that goes
on with those records is somewhere between frightening and terrifying,
and using multiple cards (as I found out) won't help at all. They
will carry tracking information between multiple cards as you exchange
them and change them out, especially when stores are pushing a new
product and print a coupon for you to get that product instead of its
competitor that you bought that day.

When you start out on a new "savers club" card and it prints coupons
related to past purchases but not included in your current purchase,
then you start feeling like making a tinfoil hat.


--
Eric F. Richards

"Nature abhors a vacuum tube." -- Myron Glass,
often attributed to J. R. Pierce, Bell Labs, c. 1940