Found out my grocery store was selling my shopping habits to a marketing firm

Last week I was digging through my receipt app and noticed a tiny link about data sharing. I clicked it and found out my local Giant supermarket had been selling my purchase history to a third party for the past 3 years. I got curious and called their customer service line... the lady on the phone said it was buried in their terms of service update from 2021. Nobody reads those things, right? But now I'm wondering if my weekly cereal and milk buys are being used to target me with ads. Has anyone else found this stuff in their store's fine print?

3 comments

3 Comments

allen.iris16d ago

Nobody reads those things" - that's exactly it. I remember hearing a podcast about how grocery stores are basically farming our data for pennies. Like, they know what we buy and when we buy it, and that's worth real money to ad companies. My friend works in marketing and she told me that they can predict things like if someone is pregnant or going through a breakup just from their shopping list changes. It's creepy but also not surprising since everything we do online gets tracked too. The real question is whether knowing I buy a lot of cheese and crackers is worth anything to anyone.

jamie_webb6716d ago

Man that's just straight up wrong. I feel for you, finding out like that is a gut punch honestly. It's one thing when Google does this stuff but your local grocery store feels way more personal, like a betrayal from a neighbor or something. It sucks that they hide it in the fine print and act like it's no big deal. I'm with you, nobody should have their cereal and milk purchases sold without them knowing.

john_fisher16d ago

Yeah "farming our data for pennies" hits the nail on the head. It's gross how they make a buck off us without us even knowing, like we're the product they're selling in the back room. Makes you wonder if the whole loyalty card thing is just a way to tag your purchases for someone else to buy.