My area code (Page 2): They may assume that everyone has a "customer card". Checkout people will ask if you have a "bonus card", or a phone number, which is associated with the bonus...

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

usnret wrote:

Why would a grocery store ask customers for thier phone number at checkout?....

They may assume that everyone has a "customer card".
Checkout people will ask if you have a "bonus card", or a phone number, which is associated with the bonus card.
The bonus cards at two grocery stores I frequent always ask.
They enter the phone number to see if one has a discount card.

ecblackiii Loc: Maryland

Jimmy T wrote:

There are folks that "Harvest Info" from... (show quote)

Be sure to carefully read the product details before buying. Web browsers search for any product that can match any part of your description. It can be as little as a single word in a phrase. In this case, a match with the word "pen" is close enough to offer a product. None of these pens displayed is "fraud-proof" in their descriptions. The closest that some offer is "will not faint in water," which doesn't mean "fraud-proof." Most of the pens say nothing about water at all.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

ecblackiii wrote:

Be sure to carefully read the product details befo... (show quote)

I use these for checks:
https://www.staples.com/uniball-207-impact-gel-pens-bold-point-1-0mm-black-ink-65800/product_380995
"uni-Super Ink forms a cohesive bond with paper for fraud-resistant documentation".
Makes it much harder to remove (wash).

JustJill Loc: Iowa

usnret wrote:

Why would a grocery store ask customers for thier phone number at checkout? That was the case at Natural Grocers in Davenport Iowa today. I asked the checkout clerk why she wanted that info. She said she didn't know and that she was just "supposed to ask for it".

The check out lady was uniformed. You should never tell a customer "I don't know" That drives me nuts anywhere. The correct answer is " Let me find out for you" and then do. Anyway I shop at Natural Grocers in Cedar Rapids. It is for a loyalty card. After I spend so much money, I get $2 store credit.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Longshadow wrote:

They may assume that everyone has a "customer card".
Checkout people will ask if you have a "bonus card", or a phone number, which is associated with the bonus card.
The bonus cards at two grocery stores I frequent always ask.
They enter the phone number to see if one has a discount card.

That was my guess. My pharmacy is at the same grocery store where we shop and they do the same. Our purchases would go towards discounts on gas at their gas pumps. Since we don't get gas there, we don't bother.

ELNikkor

I give my landline # so they can't be sending text promotions all the time.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

ELNikkor wrote:

I give my landline # so they can't be sending text promotions all the time.

I gave up my landline a decade ago. It only got spam calls. No point in paying for that.

RKastner Loc: Davenport, FL

DirtFarmer wrote:

Your area code is useless for marketing information. It does NOT indicate where you live, but where you lived at one point in time (when you bought a cell phone). In the old days when you moved you had to get a new phone number. Not so today.

Exactly. I have a cell phone with a Wisconsin area code. I live in Florida. Asking for my phone number is going to do nothing for marketing research.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

RKastner wrote:

Exactly. I have a cell phone with a Wisconsin area code. I live in Florida. Asking for my phone number is going to do nothing for marketing research.

Question is, does your neighbor calling your cell from a land line incur long distant charges to Wisconsin?

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

JimmyTB wrote:

Radio Shack used to ask not only for your phone number but your mailing address also. You could decline to give it but if the 3 customers ahead of you in line gave it to them you could be in line for 10 minutes. That's why they were always a store of last resort for me

I remember Radio Shack doing that. I'd say "Nope" thats why I'm paying cash. I get enough junk mail as it is" Do you remember the older days of Radio Shack when their origins as an outgrowth of Tandy Leather was still evident in that they offered leather working tools and kits?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

RodeoMan wrote:

I remember Radio Shack doing that. I'd say "Nope" thats why I'm paying cash. I get enough junk mail as it is" Do you remember the older days of Radio Shack when their origins as an outgrowth of Tandy Leather was still evident in that they offered leather working tools and kits?

I do remember!

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

usnret wrote:

Why would a grocery store ask customers for thier phone number at checkout? That was the case at Natural Grocers in Davenport Iowa today. I asked the checkout clerk why she wanted that info. She said she didn't know and that she was just "supposed to ask for it".

They want your phone number to inundate you with test message advertising. I would never give that data to a Grocery Store, unless you have the Hy-Vee Perks card, and then you need to give it when signing up. They only messages I receive from Hy-Vee are in the Hy-Vee App.

By the way, you are the only other "local" I have ever seen on this forum.

SteveFranz Loc: Durham, NC

Whenever a sales clerk asks me for my number, I say 'give me yours first.' That usually stops them.

scallihan Loc: Tigard, OR

dustie wrote:

Marketing/advertising people from the store home office, doing research on where their customer base is concentrated, so they can plan their advertising to reach areas most effectively / best likelihood of return on their advertising dollars spent.
If they want to look for expanding their customer base into areas a little outside the current most represented area(s), the guesswork is vastly reduced.

Not a spying big brother plot.....at least next to no likelihood.

So many people keep their phone numbers after moving. I've had my number for at least 25 years - So Cal area code but I've lived in Oregon since 2007.

dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

scallihan wrote:

So many people keep their phone numbers after moving. I've had my number for at least 25 years - So Cal area code but I've lived in Oregon since 2007.

Most likely, if you shop at Tigard area stores where phone numbers are used to sample customer response areas, your number is added to the bin of "not applicable", or whatever label the home office algorithm has for numbers not useful to their marketing outreach research.

I would surmise if their number crunchers are coming up with useful marketing research results, they have factored in and factored out useful and un-useful criterion into their formulae and outreach.
After all, what percentage is likely that customers who shop in a brick and mortar local store travel, oh, say, 800 - 1000 miles for their routine shopping.......or, that the majority of local shoppers have out-of-state phone numbers, if the store is not located within shouting distance of the state line?

Or.....maybe.....stores ask for customer phone numbers just because it's a diabolical plot ordered by Big Brother......and some stores ignore the order???