I just don't shop at stores that do that. I'd gladly pay an extra few dollars once and know to avoid a store than spend time filling out a form. In my area, I

I just don't shop at stores that do that. I'd gladly pay an extra few dollars once and know to avoid a store than spend time filling out a form. In my area, I have three close options (within 2 miles), all of which have cards, but only one requires the card to get discounts. The other two offer discounts once you rack up enough points (every X points save $Y dollars) and allow you to "attach" discounts through their online portal to your card, which are separate from the discounts in their mailers and on the shelves. I alternate cards periodically (credit card rotating bonus categories, putting spend on rarely used cards to prevent them from being closed, etc), and I alternate stores, so I doubt they're able to track me well at all. Other than that, I shop at Costco, which obviously records all of my purchases. I buy mostly staples, so my data is probably not as interesting as someone who spends more (my spending barely makes "Executive" worth it).