Updated on February 11, 2024
Loyalty cards
Loyalty cards started out simple: a card presented at checkout to get a hole punched, a stamp or a scribble; when I’d filled in all the boxes I’d get a discount. Nowadays, most are more sophisticated. I can scan them at the supermarket while the checkout chick is scanning my groceries and the discount is added on the spot. All good, right?
Well, slow down the buggy, all is not as it seems.
Years ago, I started using my VISA card to pay for all my purchases. Then I noticed that, every month when the VISA statement came in, each item was categorised. “Interesting”, I thought, “the bank is categorising my items for me. Or is it for THEM?” Then I thought, “why on earth do I need to tell the bank where I spend my money? It’s none of their business.”
Then I realised that eftpos transactions do the same thing. TMI for the bank.
Around 2006, I started using more cash.
It occurred to me that loyalty cards–the sophisticated kind–might have the capacity to do all sorts of things that I don’t know about. And I get punished by higher prices if I don’t play the game. It didn’t matter much to begin with, as the loyalty discounts were only on the rubbishy stuff I didn’t purchase anyway. Now the “savings” are on everyday items.
And I realised that loyalty cards do the same thing. TMI for the supermarket or shop.
Around 2015, I stopped using electronic loyalty cards.
Now it’s going up a notch. Today I noticed an article saying that some supermarkets are inserting fine-print: in exchange for me using their loyalty card, not only do they get to gather my information for themselves, they also get to profile my face and my car (to stop shoplifters, they say) and sell my proclivities to their mates.
Is it much of a leap to think what the next steps might be? Like, if I don’t play the game, I can’t shop there? What if Government legislates their way into becoming one of their mates? If I’m not a model citizen, then might I be limited in what I can buy? If I have too much loo paper in my trolley they will arrest my shitty arse? Too much meat for my fat, non-carbon-neutral bum?
Cash is not just privacy, it’s freedom. Cash is King.
Modern loyalty cards are a trap.
What price will you pay for privacy and freedom?
Buy local. Use cash. Cut the loyalty card. Be free.
P.S. I get around the privacy aspect at one of the local fuel stations: you know how fuel prices are so high? Last year I caved and thought “I’ll just get a card for this one station so I can get my six cents per litre discount”. I asked for a card; the attendant got one and scanned it to give me the discount before handing it over. He said that I had to go online to register it as he could no longer do it over the counter. Bingo!, there was my solution: I didn’t register the card; if it gives me fuel discounts without being registered, then I’m cool with that–I don’t purchase their daylight-robbery-priced-rubbish anyway! (I’m not sure how long this solution will work…)
Updated on January 28, 2024
Boundaries
This morning I had a chat with a lovely young woman who had identified that she had boundaries being crossed at work. When I was her age, I thought boundaries were just the fenceline around our farm which delineated where our land ended and the neighbours’ began. Technically, they were there to keep our stock in and theirs out.
Whose job is it to maintain the fence? Ours or the neighbours’? If it’s affecting us, it’s our job. If it’s affecting them, it’s theirs. We can also work on it together.
So, I finally found out, it is in our relationships. If I have a boundary of what I want to happen in a relationship (and I mean this in the general term, it can be any kind of relationship, not just the romantic kind), first I have to identify the boundary. Often I don’t know I have a boundary until it’s been crossed by someone. Then I have an uncomfortable emotion about it and I have to figure out why I am feeling that way. That helps me find the boundary in the first place. (That’s a whole other conversation!)
Next I have to articulate the boundary to others, in particular the person who might have crossed my boundary. This part is essential as the other person may have no clue that they have been walking all over my boundary. People have a tendency to wander all over the place when there’s no fence and they will just saunter on through. Children, who are still learning basic social norms, actually have to figure out the rules by seeing them modeled or by breaking them, and will often push and push and push until they find the fence. (Except when they find cliffs…fear of falling is fairly innate.)
But it doesn’t stop there, and this was the hardest bit for me to learn: I have to hold my boundary and have a clear consequence when my boundary is not respected. I made the boundary, it’s up to me to maintain it.
Many people are honourable, and when you articulate a personal boundary, they will respect it. However, some are not, so you need to know what you will do if they are not, what your natural consequence might be. When we discovered one of our neighbour’s were cutting off the ear tags of our wandering sheep and keeping them we opted not to have anything to do with them anymore. But we also continued to return their very bouncy, fence-resistant sheep. Just because someone else is dis-honourable doesn’t mean we have to be.
So, here’s what my friend jotted down in summary of our discussion (she’s less waffley than me):
