Something Useful, For You!

[foxgrrl]

At Safeway, they have those privacy invading Customer discount cards — Which let you pay the original price for an item, without the markup penalty for people who don't want their purchases tracked.

Anyway, if you don't have your card with you (or don't have a card at all), you can enter your phone number. I used to enter random local numbers, statistically, most of them belong to someone who shops at Safeway. Note: Hypothetically, it is possible to use Safeway to do the equivalent of a CNA lookup [reverse phone number lookup] when you have a phone number, and you want to find out who it belongs to. Not that I would advocate such a thing *cough*.

Anyway, I discovered that someone, a certain Mr. or Ms. Valued Customer, used (800)555-1212 for their phone number. I've been using this number, and paying cash, for quite a while. And it seems that many other people are as well, considering that Valued Customer has earned four free sandwiches from the Deli, and a 10¢ per Gallon discount on gas (where available), and US$2 off their next purchase of Deli Signature Soup.

Comments

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Hah, excellent. I have a card that I signed up for with a bunch of fake data, but I forget it half the time; it's hard to forget the number for 1-800 directory assistance, though. :)

[ism3c.livejournal.com]

this made me giggle . :p
-ps: do you have a screen name/ e-mail ?
::giggles again ::

[tastyeagle.livejournal.com]

You frighten me.

But in a very good way.

[ivy]

The White House comment line also works. [grin]

[hasufin.livejournal.com]

I bitched about this not too long ago

I wonder if if it would be possible to start a nice little meme - get *everyone* using the same set of info. I'm certainly goign to try 800-555-1212 when I next go to Giant.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Pretty much every grocery chain has these customer loyalty/tracking cards nowadays. I know I had like four of those cards in my wallet when I lived in CA. I'd swap mine with friends at random, now and then, just to throw a bit of randomness in their tracking. But using 800/555-1212 sounds even better. I'm gonna start trying it, and register cards in that.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Rob Cockerham, over at www.cockeyed.com, has a ruse like this going -- he scanned the barcode on a Safeway card (or something like that) and is encouraging people to print it out on little stickers to stick over their existing barcodes.

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'll do that next time I don't have my card!

[solarbird]

In the Seattle area, 425.882.8080 always works anywhere, not just Safeway. At least, that's true everywhere I've tried it. It's the Microsoft main switchboard number - a normal-looking number, even if 8080 was selected intentionally once upon a time - so attracts no attention.

[shizouka.livejournal.com]

I only did this once, have been using the same blank account for 6 years. No need to fill out the form, never got anything from them. Now if we can only find ways to stop circulars (those compulsory ads the USPS sends out)...

[l-stboy.livejournal.com]

For Safeway and Albertsons, (any area code)-123-4567 works as well; that's the code employees punch in when they make their purchases.

[ladykalessia.livejournal.com]

When I was in college, I used to buy those deli sandwiches when I was feeling shitty about the world, and then hoard the free one until one of those days when I had like $2 in the bank. And then one day, I was all ready to get my free sandwich, and found that someone else had got it before me - and my sandwich counter had been incremented up to three. :( Fuckers.

[ladykalessia.livejournal.com]

Theoretically, if you can figure out the printing company, they're required by law to have opt-out ability. I tried this already, haven't got very far with it.

[centauress.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's intentional. It's the card that they have at the manager's desk in case you've forgotten and they know you're a valued customer (or a grumpy one). They specifically don't match their mailings to the numbers or vice versa to not make their customers upset.

I try to use the same card, though we have two or three, because I want them to know that I specifically come to their store to buy certain brands and products.

[studly-tgod.livejournal.com]

I live for the 10 cents off/gallon! It wasn't your 10 cents off/gallon, mind you, but as a college student, I rather enjoy that little perk! I use my deceased grandparent's old number.

[missorangegirl.livejournal.com]

I used to enter my deceased grandmother's phone number (especially back when I was buying large quantities of tequila every week) but after several years it stopped working. Now I use the number for some gent named David Dick that inherited the previous phone # of a good friend of mine. I don't pay with cash often though, so only rarely does the checker say "Thank you, Mrs. Dick."

[katimonk.livejournal.com]

It seems that our home phone number had a previous owner. I used it for months at the Safeway, thinking that Sharkey had registered. I never looked at the registered name until the cashier said "Have a good evening Ms. Shackleford". The name was SO ridiculous I assumed (and it was a very likely thought) that Sharkey had just registered with some random name. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that he had not, and that there really is a Ms. Shackleford out there having once had my phone number. Creepy, people, just creepy!

I hate registering my info, now I'll just use the DA number with glee.

[hasufin.livejournal.com]

I used 800-555-1212 at Giant today. It was accepted and the year-to-date savings on the receipt comes to $3117.04.

Yeah, Mr. Valued Customer eats a LOT of food.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

I have a couple of Safeway cards with no user information, which they just handed to me a couple of times I shopped there. Unfortunately (?) I don't shop at Safeway anymore. Between the employee lock-out a few years ago and their absurdly high prices, I had enough. Recently I thought about giving them another chance, but I got a bad lettuce and I had to cut them loose for good.

[(Anonymous)]

I usually use Dial-A-Prayer or the phone number for the local FBI field office.