"You get totally ripped off on the prices if you don't have a card," consumer advocate Tim Duffy told me. But Duffy warns you could also get ripped off if you do have one. Just take a look at the club card applications to see what I'm talking about: They ask for your private information including, in some cases, your driver's license number and with Vons, your social security number.

Crooks can use that information to get credit cards in your name, leaving you to pay the bills. Many financial experts say never to give out your social security number unnecessarily because that is the key to your credit. Wells Fargo Bank vice president Vince Caballero told me that revealing your social security number and other personal data including your address and date of birth and driver's license number is dangerous. "It's absolutely danger information," he told me, and a crook "would have a very good chance of getting away with the fraudulent transaction" if they had that information. "So that's really important why you want to keep that information confidential."

All of the supermarkets offering club cards in Southern California say they are going to keep this personal information about their customers confidential. Their applications ask for your name, address, driver's license number, birth date, and in the case of Vons, your social security number. But you've got to wonder, what do they need all of this information for?

Ralph's Supermarkets, I found out, wants your
driver's license number to be your store ID number, so if your club card is lost, you can give the store your license number so it can reconstruct your account, including points for prizes. But do you have to give your license number to get a card? Ralph's Operations Manager Michael Quinones told me, no. "It's totally voluntary. If you'd like to put it down, okay, but if you don't we'll still issue the
card at that point." Vons, it turns out, wants either the driver's license number or the social security number. But when I asked Vons public affairs director Brian Dowling why the store needs the social security number, he said "you need to ask our accounting people. I couldn't tell you exactly why." But perhaps Vons needs the social security number to report to the I. R. S. the big prizes it awards to club members, including those new cars and the million dollar payments.

Unfortunately, the applications do not tell shoppers which information is voluntary, and you should ask the store manager just what information you must put down to open a club card account. Unless you think you're going to win the million bucks, you might be better off putting down as little information as possible.

The club cards, to be sure, will also be your ticket for more junk mail. While the supermarkets say they won't sell names and addresses to outside companies, they will help generate mailing lists for the supermarkets. Beware other club cards that could sell your name to other companies.

Consumer Advocate Tim Duffy worries that this policy of keeping customer information private might be changed in the future. Supermarket companies are hot properties on Wall Street, and they're bought and sold all the time. "And we don't know about a policy change," Duffy told me, "if there's an acquisition what will be the policy of the new company?"

Duffy also worries about the computer technology behind the club cards, and the ability of the stores to make up a computer profile of what you buy and when you buy it. Lucky Supermarkets even has a kiosk at the entrance of some stores with a machine that spits out special coupons just for its club card members. Shoppers insert their card, the computer recognizes the account, looks at what the shopper has bought in the past, then issues special coupons that would appeal to that shopper. Shopper Mary Lynn Vargas told me she likes the coupon dispenser that knows so much about her. "Different things will come out based on what you buy," she told me. Does she mind that it knows her shopping patterns? No, she told me with a laugh.

Duffy also worries about what might happen to that supermarket data should the supermarket company make a deal with an insurance company or a health care company. "Well they can find out if you drink, if you smoke, if you're a woman and you're incontinent, if you're buying Depends," he told me. Indeed, your shopping habits could affect what you pay for insurance, even your ability to buy insurance. "They even know if you have hemorrhoids or practice safe sex."

There's more. Supermarket computers can keep track of your lifestyle for an I. R. S. audit, if the records are seized by the I. R. S. through a court order. Stater Brothers, another big California supermarket chain, listened to the problem with the club cards, and has launched a new campaign that says "no club cards." Its Stater Saver discounts are for all shoppers. Even Stater Brothers senior vice president Gene Thorpe told me he wouldn't want to reveal his social security number to get store discounts. "No I wouldn't, and I don't want anyone to know when I shop and what items I buy."

But there is another question here: if you're afraid to give your private information for a club card, are you paranoid? Duffy has a simple answer: "If you want to be an intelligent informed consumer, you have to be paranoid."

Alan Mendelson

* Reprinted with permission Alan Mendelson Kcal TV

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