Personalised loyalty card discounts. Are they ethical?

msknight

I'm used to getting vouchers at the till for my next visit, but I expect that the price I'm charged at checkout will be the same as the person next to me.

Loyalty cards hit the press this year with reports that prices were being inflated so that loyalty cards looked to be like savings, but last month I had a notice from Sainsburys to say that my discounts were being personalised to me. 

We seem to have reached the point where two people can go into a supermarket, take the same items to the checkout, present their loyalty cards and be charged different prices depending on some algorythm that I believe is not declared or scrutinised.

To me, at the most basic level, this doesn't seem ethical. It feels ripe for discrimination and abuse. Especially those who are already disadvantaged... those who spend more can receive more discount. Those who can't... sorry... base loyalty card price for you (the usual price before they were hiked) ... and without any oversight, who is to say that this isn't the upshot of all this.

Trading standards don't seem to be able to handle this. It appears to be another piece of technological progress that has moved faster than legislation can keep up with. They pointed me to Citizens Advice, who are, again, not easy to get in touch with regarding subjects which are not the usual fare.

Grateful for people's thoughts.

molerat

The subject has already been done to death on several earlier threads.  Did you do a search ?

msknight

I did, but I'm not too good at keywords. Grateful for links to other threads.

35har1old

msknight said:

I'm used to getting vouchers at the till for my next visit, but I expect that the price I'm charged at checkout will be the same as the person next to me.

Loyalty cards hit the press this year with reports that prices were being inflated so that loyalty cards looked to be like savings, but last month I had a notice from Sainsburys to say that my discounts were being personalised to me. 

We seem to have reached the point where two people can go into a supermarket, take the same items to the checkout, present their loyalty cards and be charged different prices depending on some algorythm that I believe is not declared or scrutinised.

To me, at the most basic level, this doesn't seem ethical. It feels ripe for discrimination and abuse. Especially those who are already disadvantaged... those who spend more can receive more discount. Those who can't... sorry... base loyalty card price for you (the usual price before they were hiked) ... and without any oversight, who is to say that this isn't the upshot of all this.

Trading standards don't seem to be able to handle this. It appears to be another piece of technological progress that has moved faster than legislation can keep up with. They pointed me to Citizens Advice, who are, again, not easy to get in touch with regarding subjects which are not the usual fare.

Grateful for people's thoughts.

If I purchased the same goods as you and then paid by a gift card which I had purchased at a 5% discount or Chase card giving me 1% back I would be wrong to do that

sarah1972

Pmd the team to move to an appropriate board as it’s neither a code or voucher. X 

dealyboy

... I presume this is after the move ...

Here's a couple msknight ...
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6459899/sainsburys-nectar-card-prices
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6439366/sainsburys-new-nectar-prices-scheme

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cheap-supermarket-shopping/#loyaltydiscounts

msknight

Thanks very much. I'll give those a read.