Enumeration bug offers five-finger discount on Woolworth Australia loyalty points

The Register has been alerted that Australian retailer Woolworths' customer loyalty points can be filched thanks to a user enumeration bug. A reader alerted us to the simplest user enumeration hole imaginable: you only need to know how Woolworths Rewards numbers are put together. In other words, pick up a card at any …

[Anonymous Coward]

So complete denial?

I wonder what they even wonder...

[LaeMing]

Disloyalty.

I avoid retailers with 'loyalty card' systems. The money spent (not just on paying out the points, but on running the whole system) obviously must come from somewhere, and I doubt it is the shareholders' or managers' pockets, so it must be recovered from shelf-prices being higher than they otherwise would be.

The whole spending-pattern-tracking thing too, but mainly the above.

My only 'loyalty' is to providers of good prices and/or service.

[Ken 16]

Good for you

All the major supermarkets where I live have such systems and avoiding them would mean going to smaller ones where the volumes are lower and hence prices higher and product turnover lower. While I don't like the loyalty card model, I don't have your moral courage to avoid them while paying more for less fresh groceries.

[Nick Ryan]

Re: Good for you

As LaeMing correctly pointed out, the costs for these schemes have to paid for somewhere and this is in the markup of the goods prices. In theory this could be absorbed through such loyalty schemes driving further purchases that may either happen with a rival or just not at all, however with a healthy dose of scepticism you just know this won't be the case.

So you have three choices:

1) Shop elsewhere that doesn't have a loyalty scheme (may not be possible or make financial sense)

2) Don't take part in the scheme but still pay for it.

2) Take part in the scheme and suck up the tracking of your purchases.

On the latter point, unless you pay with cash the vendor can track you through your payment method, they just can't advertise to you so easily. Also, if all shoppers took full advantage of the offers and discounts, you can bet that the vendor would have to change them :)

[Dale 3]

Re: Good for you

You may be overthinking this. Rather than kneejerk-reacting to the possibility that loyalty scheme costs might be added to shelf prices, just look at the prices. If they're cheaper somewhere else, go somewhere else. MySupermarket.co.uk is good for comparing before you leave home.

[Electron Shepherd]

Re: Disloyalty.

"The money spent (not just on paying out the points, but on running the whole system) obviously must come from somewhere,"

Most of it comes from the retailer selling information about you.

For example, if you've been buying BrandX cereal for the last two years, and the Kellogs run a TV commercial, do you change to Kellogs? Do you switch back once the commercial stops airing? That sort of information is very valuable to Kellogs.

While you may think that the card is anonymous, it contains a huge amount of information. Most people shop locally, so the supermarket will know (roughly) your address. The supermarket can, even without you telling them, make a good guess of your age, the age and number of children and whether you have a partner or not. A twenty-something single male makes different purchases from a mother with two small children, who again makes different purchases from a retired couple, and so on.

The reason the retailer can afford to give you money back is because you are the product being sold, and you're being sold for more than you're getting back in discounts at the till.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Disloyalty.

"Kellogs run a TV commercial, do you change to Kellogs?"

If I watch anything on a commercial channel I'll fast forward through the adds so I wouldn't see it. If that wasn't the case and I did see the ad it would have no effect unless I was already buying Kellogs in which case I'd get pissed off with the ad so quickly I'd change to BrandX.

Next question.

[LaeMing]

Re: Disloyalty.

Genuine sympathies to those above who don't have a viable alternative. For now at least, there is still one supermarket franchise around this part of the world that is both independent, and even generally better priced than the big guys. (And their fresh produce hasn't been loaded onto a big diesel-spewing lorry and shipped from the local farms, up the coast 200-400km for centralised processing, then back to shops in the same towns as the originating farms, so freshness tends to be a non-argument too.).

[Anonymous Coward]

"That's why I go to Woolies"

Loyalty cards are BS.

If they want my personal details, shopping habits and loyalty they can pay $ for it.

Starting price: $10,000.