Hey I’m sure you all know how sketchy club cards are for collecting your data. But I do begrudge paying slightly higher prices just for valuing my privacy. I was wondering if there was any way to sign up to these things whilst limiting the data they have access to. Would it be enough to sign up with fake details and never use their apps? Or should I just give up on this all together? Thanks!
If they let you give them a phone number, I always use (in the USA) my area code plus 867-5309. So far it has always work. Younger checkout people don’t see anything unusual and older ones get a laugh out of it.
Wikipedia article on 867-5309
Thank you for sharing internet stranger. I was slightly confused
What happens if someone else beats you to that and uses your fuel points?
That’s part of the fun. Sometimes you get someone else’s fuel points too. It’s kind of like gambling whenever you fuel up. Over the long term it probably evens out, or at least I feel like I get a fuel discount pretty often with it so I don’t worry about it. Worse case I’m helping someone else save a few bucks, it doesn’t feel like a problem.
I found a few stores that dont allow redeeming fuel with that phone number. Makes me think they set the account up for people to use, or the poor person who actually has that phone number got upset after their fuel points kept getting stolen
That’s worth what… $1-2?
Yes that’s largely the joke, although I did once get $13 off in a single fill-up. It was the early days of the pandemic so between medicine refills and stocking up on groceries we’d maxed it out to $1/off per gallon. Combined with the plunge in gas prices it was the first time I’d paid under $1/gallon since the turn of the millennium.
Guess I should switch. I always get funny looks when I say my number is “Beechwood 45789”
If you know anyone that has a card, ask them can you use it or ask in local groups. On reddit people used to share pictures of their clubcards so other people could scan it when they shop. The card holders get loads of extra points and the people that use the cards get the discount and privacy, win-win
At my old group’s monthly meetings we’d all chuck our cards into a hat, stir them around to randomize them, and take them out again.
Fake details and don’t use the app should do the job.
And pay in cash
Along with all the comments here, always use cash with the card too.
Once you use a credit/debit card with it, they’ll have an association.
standard is treat them the same way you used to treat Netflix logins – one club card number gets shared among family and friends
EDIT: no one ever used their own Netflix login and no one ever uses their own club card number
They can and do associate cards with vehicles and use facial recognition. any attempt to circumvent the data harvesting is a waste of your time more than theirs … for loyalty point cards.
People in this thread seem to have base discount cards, which are perfectly fine to swap around a group but points cards tend to have a bulk discount that accumulates over time and swapping would be a very bad idea.
My buddy used his pet pig’s name. I generally use my first name with last name being the name of the business. Emails for each also unique.
If I have more items with club price that would make a larger difference, I just quickly register a new one-use account with disposable email and random address in the app, and delete it afterwards
I wouldn’t
You could just give them fake personal information. In the end, if they really want they could identify you because you probably pay with your card?
The whole point of giving you the discount is how they pay for the data. It wouldn’t make sense for them to give you a discount without getting the data.
True but they offer clubcard prices for certain items which are made to look cheaper. In reality the clubcard price is the true value and the ‘base’ price is a mark up. So I guess we’re being charged for trying not to give our data
I was accused of stealing by a self checkout machine 3 times in 2 weeks. Discount card or not I’m shopping at the more expensive knock off whole foods instead. Fuck kroger. (I was still stealing apples. Because fuck kroger)
So you were stealing. That doesn’t seem unreasonable.
Just gave me a random memory. I used to scan stuff through as onions back when self checkout was introduced. Got away with it so many times. Wouldn’t recommend it now😅
