Store Cards

My husband and I decided we would shop at a new (to us) grocery store
called Bi Lo. We had seen several Big-rig trucks with their logo on
and wondered whether they were any cheaper than other grocery stores.
We did find some bulk meat which we bought and thought this was a
good bargain and with our other items in the cart went up to the
check out.

I asked the cashier at the time of him scanning if they had a store
card, he seemed to ignore me or not heard so I waited and when he
finished I asked again and his packing assistant (young woman) said
I was to go down the back and I could get one.

Strange to me as other grocery store had their applications under
the counter and would scan the card right there and then. You did
not even have to fill it out if you did not want to.

I followed the young woman to the desk and she pulled out the
application and asked me my name. I gave her my first name, she
wanted my surname, address, phone number and other information..??

What!!? Or no you don't. I asked was Bi Lo a membership store
whereby I had to pay a membership fee? No it wasn't, it was free
to get, but their store policy was to get all information on their
application before they gave their customers a store card to receive
the discounts.. How can they do that?

I informed her, that the reason applications were filled out, were
not to get discounts but to sell our name, address, phone number
information purely to sell to Marketers, email, phone lists etc
so they could call us with their business ventures. How else do
you think we get these Telemarketers etc calling us out of the
blue - Our information was sold. - It is a 'sneaky' method to
hoodwink unsuspecting people into giving their information, purely
to be sold to others as a profit!! If that doesn't 'get your
dander up just a little' nothing will!

My name is worth a lot to me and I do not appreciate it being sold
to other people without my knowledge of what anyone is going to do
with it, nor get the money they sell it for in the first place!!

All the grocery stores I have purchased from regularly across the
USA who have had store cards have not expected me to fill our their
applications, it has been purely voluntarily. I declined to fill
this one out.

When one thinks about these store cards, it is purely incentive
for their customers to buy more when they see discounted items on
the price tags so they buy more than what was on their list.

Customers should be able to buy these same products whether they use
a Store Card or not, it is all Hype that the general public has been
'programed' into accepting.

I did not give her my information and said I would not be shopping
at Bi Lo again with their Card store policy - there are many other
grocery stores I can pick and choose from.

I believe we have to guard our sensitive information and be prudent
with whom we give to and for the right reasons they need it. So
many people give this information without any real forethought who
is getting the information and what it will be used for.

Amanda