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79 Denv. U. L. Rev. 534 (2001-2002)
Supremarket Cards: The Tip of the Retail Surveillance Iceberg

handle is hein.journals/denlr79 and id is 548 raw text is: Supermarket Cards: The Tip of the RETAIL SURVEILLANCE Iceberg by Katherine Albrecht, Ed. M. CASPIAN - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering1 SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND _he good news is, marketers know so much more aboutyou that they can precisely tailor their marketing messages. The bad news is, marketers know so much more about you even when you wouldprefer your anonymity. One man's relevance is another man's intrusion. Big Brother has truly arrived, with a grin and a fist full of coupons.2 - Frequency Marketing in the 21st Century Love 'em, hate 'em, or merely tolerate them, there is no escaping the fact that supermarket cards have become a fixture of the American retail landscape. Since first appearing in the early 1990's, card-based purchase tracking programs, variously known as loyalty, frequent shopper, reward, or club cards, have spread quickly throughout the grocery industry. InJanuary 2000 it was estimated that 60% of U.S. grocers required a card to obtain discounts,3 and today eight of the top ten U.S. grocery retailers own at least one supermarket chain with a card program in place or a trial underway.4 Promoted as savings devices by the grocery industry, cards allow retailers to amass unprecedented amounts of longitudinal information on consumer purchase and eating habits. Each time a shopper scans a card at the checkout lane, a record of the items purchased, the time, the 534 I DENVER UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW store location, and the payment method are added to the shopper's profile. Along with millions of other records, this profile is stored in an enormous data warehouse (frequently a secure facility run by a marketing company under contract to several different supermarkets) where it can be analyzed in detail or simply stored until a later use is found A for it. A storm on the PrIPSS horizon ,, [ ECE ...she has resigned herself to those moments of simmering anxiety she sometimes feels when she hands over her card at the grocery store. 'It's like sitting in your beachfrontproperty watching the storm warnings, hoping the hurricane doesn't hit you, 'said Arden Schell, 58, ofArlington. 'It's the kind of thing you worry about but you don't know how toput a stop to it. ,5 - Robert O'Harrow, Jr., Washington Post Reporter, quoting Virginia Shopper Arden Schell Though the majority of American households have signed up for at least one supermarket card,6 high rates of program participation do not necessarily mean that consumers are comfortable with the programs. A growin segment of the pop~ilation has begun to express deep concerns about the privacy implications of using supermarket cards. Shoppers like Arden Schell are correct in sensing a storm on the Ahorizon. Today, not only can marketers 'IIN and product manufacturers access a dizzying array of data on supermarket shoppers through the use of cards and related technologies, but soon social agencies, health insurance companies, law enforcement, the

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