Walgreens and other stores condition customers to apply for trackable membership cards to earn savings

By Shepard Ambellas | December 21, 2013 | Opinion

Walgreens and other stores are conditioning the general public to become tolerant to authority while tracking you, by making you sign up for member savings

Walgreens

HILO, HI (INTELLIHUB) — Have you ever put any thought into those annoying club card member discounts that certain store chains make you sign-up for? I know on several occasions I have pondered the dangers of such cards. One of which is tracking and or profiling of each individual shopper as all of this data is a potential goldmine to the stores management.

Friday I went to Walgreens with my girlfriend to see if they had any medicine for a general earache as she had come down with a few symptoms. After babbling and wandering around the store for a few minutes we located the pharmacist who pointed us in the right direction. 

Once we located the right product for her we proceeded to the checkout like any customer would.

The cashier then asked if I had a Walgreens card. I replied, “no”,

The cashier then asked, “Would you like to sign-up for one?

I replied, “Not really, I’m in a hurry today”. 

She then stated that I would not qualify for the sale price on the item because I do not have a Walgreens card.

I then asked her rather sternly, “What is this martial law?”

She went on to ask me, “Why don’t you just sign up?”

I replied, “Sure”.

She than went on to ask me for my phone number and I replied back, offering her a fake made-up number off the top of my head. Interestingly enough a few other people must have entered the same number as 5 different individuals names popped up on her monitor.

The cashier then proceeded to read off random names to me asking, “Are you, Bob, or Bill, or […], continuing on down the line.

I told her, “Pick one”, insinuating that I was giving her false information anyways to further test her mettle.

Surprisingly she caught on quick. Once she found out what I was up to she asked me, “What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that I don’t want to be tracked by every corporation on the planet!”, I replied in a pissed off manner rather loudly so others in the store could hear.

The woman then proceeded to call over the store manager on the loudspeaker in a primal display of power in effort to prove that I am a slave.

Once the manager arrived at the cash-wrap the cashier explained how I didn’t want to be tracked and asked the manager for a special clearance granting the discount to me even though I don’t have a Walgreens card.

I then made the transaction and we were then free to go.

Your thoughts?

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