4 ms·

1. What could I buy at a grocery store that would make me look bad? If I'm rich enough to be around people who will look down on me for what I buy at the groce

1. What could I buy at a grocery store that would make me look bad? If I'm rich enough to be around people who will look down on me for what I buy at the grocery store I'm also rich enough to simply not care. Are there really rich or well-to-do people that actually care what cackling Karens think of them while shopping? This is a social issue not a surveillance-advertising issue. 2. Grocery stores are retail. They spend money on bulk product, mark it up, then sell it. Why would a grocery store simply not stock things it doesn't want people to buy? 3. If there is some master plan behind the scenes, who's paying the grocery store to keep product it's trying to shame people into not buying with loyalty cards?

pb7 6y ago
It's not that no one buys certain products, it's that the stores know who buys what and sends targeted advertising and coupons based on that. If they know you buy dog food, they can send you a coupon for a certain brand that isn't selling well and they're overstocked on. You're manipulated into buying things you otherwise wouldn't have just like advertising on the web.
mrec 6y ago
It's more of an idle speculation than a serious hypothesis, but... To your 1, I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised. "Value" own-brand ranges are typically packaged to look cheaper and cruder than fancier lines. The cardboard costs the same either way. To your 2 and 3, it's about capturing consumer surplus, not stopping value sales altogether. The customer who can only afford the cheapest lines will still buy the cheapest lines. The one who could afford something a bit more upscale, but wouldn't normally care enough, might be nudged. And looking further into the dystopian future: what if it becomes more than just status anxiety? What if buying the "wrong" things affects your (social?) credit score, or your health insurance premiums?

pb7 6y ago

It's not that no one buys certain products, it's that the stores know who buys what and sends targeted advertising and coupons based on that. If they know you buy dog food, they can send you a coupon for a certain brand that isn't selling well and they're overstocked on. You're manipulated into buying things you otherwise wouldn't have just like advertising on the web.

mrec 6y ago

It's more of an idle speculation than a serious hypothesis, but... To your 1, I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised. "Value" own-brand ranges are typically packaged to look cheaper and cruder than fancier lines. The cardboard costs the same either way. To your 2 and 3, it's about capturing consumer surplus, not stopping value sales altogether. The customer who can only afford the cheapest lines will still buy the cheapest lines. The one who could afford something a bit more upscale, but wouldn't normally care enough, might be nudged. And looking further into the dystopian future: what if it becomes more than just status anxiety? What if buying the "wrong" things affects your (social?) credit score, or your health insurance premiums?