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Tell HN: The Grocery Store is Watching You (and it's brilliant)

3 points by lionhearted 17y ago

I just saw this quote in an article here and wanted to highlight it. If I had a blog, I'd have written it up there but I thought it was too interesting not to comment. > It's one thing if I trade my personal sales habits to a grocery store chain in exchange for a percentage off the final sale. That's a choice I'm making, consciously and knowingly. (By this point, if you haven't figured that out, you're just deliberately hiding from the fact.) I just did some thinking on the discount cards that are common at grocery stores, at least in America and England (not sure about elsewhere). It doesn't just track your personal shopping history, it also tracks when you buy things on sale - so they can see who exactly changes goods to a more premium version at what discounts, etc. Really brilliant stuff - when you offer "premium cookies" at $2 off, do people add them that wouldn't otherwise? Do they drop the cheap, normal cookies in favor of premium? Do premium buyers stock up, then buy less next time? With some good analytics/datamining/statistically minded people, a grocery could make some intelligent guesses on how gross and net profit would change by offering sales. Maybe they'd even see that offering a certain discount on only one day of the week would do well! Wow... Quote really got me thinking, wanted to share my thoughts with the rest of us here. I know the Tell HN isn't standard operating procedure, but I was totally intrigued and felt compelled to share this.

ABrandt 17y ago
I think posting that here is perfect--I actually like these more "forum" type posts. I wonder what size grocery stores use these analytical techniques though. What you describe here is, in my opinion, a pretty sophisticated analysis, so I can only really see the large chains being capable of pulling this off. Regardless, I think this sort of practice is one that easily transfers from traditional retail to the web sphere. I've seen some pretty impressive analytic apps released recently, and thats exactly the kind of information you'd need. Maybe companies such as Clixpy could take their product to the next level with these type of statistics?
rwolf 17y ago
Forget intelligent guesses--what about the profit to be made from handing some control over to machines. Put a machine in charge of making tiny price changes (and reacting correctly to the resulting changes in demand) to blindly suck every last util of consumer surplus. We're trading some savings now for a permanent information advantage. edit: I'm sounding a bit like Art Bell here. to bed!
skwiddor 17y ago
My evil grocery store (Tesco) already sells packets of 5 and 3 so you have to buy too many or not enough. They offer price comparisons (a legal requirement) in 100g or 1kg (to make the expensive stuff look cheaper). I don't think for 1 second they would use it to the direct benefit of a customer. So, er, fuck them and btw., you :>

3 points by lionhearted 17y ago

ABrandt 17y ago

I think posting that here is perfect--I actually like these more "forum" type posts. I wonder what size grocery stores use these analytical techniques though. What you describe here is, in my opinion, a pretty sophisticated analysis, so I can only really see the large chains being capable of pulling this off. Regardless, I think this sort of practice is one that easily transfers from traditional retail to the web sphere. I've seen some pretty impressive analytic apps released recently, and thats exactly the kind of information you'd need. Maybe companies such as Clixpy could take their product to the next level with these type of statistics?

rwolf 17y ago

Forget intelligent guesses--what about the profit to be made from handing some control over to machines. Put a machine in charge of making tiny price changes (and reacting correctly to the resulting changes in demand) to blindly suck every last util of consumer surplus. We're trading some savings now for a permanent information advantage. edit: I'm sounding a bit like Art Bell here. to bed!

skwiddor 17y ago

My evil grocery store (Tesco) already sells packets of 5 and 3 so you have to buy too many or not enough. They offer price comparisons (a legal requirement) in 100g or 1kg (to make the expensive stuff look cheaper). I don't think for 1 second they would use it to the direct benefit of a customer. So, er, fuck them and btw., you :>