Wednesday, March 8, 2006, 7:29 pm

Why personal privacy is dying...

Because consumers are killing it! Everyone is so eager to sell their soul to save a few bucks at the grocery store!

Wait a minute...

How come i cannot get that on sale at this store anymore? Oh, you have a card now? I didn't need a card to get that on sale last week...

Just how many of these stupid plastic cards am i supposed to carry? One for this store, one for that, one for the record store, and the video rentals, and sporting goods...

Aaarrrrgh!

I just can't believe our patronage is no longer enough to satiate the companies. We are giving them our money... but that is no longer enough. They want to know where we live, how to reach us, and by putting a name and number on us, they can track our shopping habits. They'll know how many 12-packs of Wild Cherry Pepsi we buy, or if we prefer junk food to fruits and vegetables.

Yeah, supposedly our information is safe... but in this world of Big Blue putting chains out of business left and right, this information will go to the highest bidder when said chain goes out of business!

Oh, you say this will help grocery stores compete with the likes of Wal-Mart and SuperTarget? Well, then... why don't they have these stupid cards?

I'm sorry, but a several weeks ago my beloved Food 4 Less was purchased by one of those grocery conglomerates. Then a couple of weeks ago they announced all area Food 4 Less stores would be converted into Price Chopper stores.

Food 4 Less was PROUD to advertise that you could get their great low prices without any cards, any memberships, whatever. Obviously this company that devoured them doesn't get the spirit of this. Price Chopper is eager to put another piece of plastic in our wallets... deny us sale prices without the same piece of plastic... and use what we buy to "supposedly" provide us more sales on what we buy.

Um, i really did do just fine without your stupid membership card!

They believed Topeka was a good fit for Price Chopper. Well, i observed several lemmings filling out the forms... they're information doesn't mean much to save a couple bucks on groceries.

Basically they are saying... you can't save money without telling us who you are.

Yeah, Price Chopper in Topeka is perfect... perfect for the entrance of HyVee! =^)

As much as i hate Wal-Mart, at least they don't care who i am to give me great prices...

It's too bad information means so little anymore... just another sign that corporations and their money get what they want regardless of what is best for their patrons. Our money isn't good enough anymore... they want a piece of our lives!

I will miss Food 4 Less... today is a sad day.