Big Brother at the supermarket...

For a few years in the early part of this century, I found myself banished to the DFW metroplex and whilst living there, I was subjected to the supermarket game of having all these "Bonus Savings" cards that each store offered. At the time I found the practice very uncomfortable and had pretty much boycotted the practice by finding a neighborhood Ole Foods that I shopped at for really well priced produce and used Walmart for everything else. After moving back to the Austin Metro, I once again had access to HEB as well as Walmart so I really stopped thinking about it... until last week.

I was at the video store when I decided that it would be just so much more convenient to run into the adjacent Randalls to pick up a 12-pack of Coke that my pregnant wife was having a craving for. Imagine my dismay when I discovered at the register that since I didn't carry a Randall's card, and I couldn't remember the phone number associated with our account from when I lived in Plano, I was to be charged an additional 33.33% or $5.99 vs $3.99 (and even more if you count the 5 "free" vitamin waters included if you bought 2 offer) for a 12-pack of 12oz cans of Coke for the "convenience" of shopping at that store. Now let me remind you that I had been out running errands for a few hours and my very pregnant wife's last words before I left were...


"Be sure you don't forget some Cokes" which actually means... "Do not come home without Cokes!"



Well heck, I might as well complain at customer service to see if they could remedy the situation but as soon as I walked up, the clerk walked off and after waiting for a couple of minutes I decided it wasn't worth my time.

Long story short... these guys have it right...



let's all rise up and say NO to this shameless invasion of our privacy. Demand that they end price gouging and call it offering a discount!



Now add to this controversy the idea of RFID and you really should start to be concerned... Check out this from CASPIAN