Is technology making it too easy to spend money?

Go back to the early 2000/1990s and earlier.

Shop A and Shop B were across the road from each other on the high street, in direct competition.
The only way for shop A or B to increase trade was to offer lower prices, or footfall drivers, to entice new custom into their shop.
The customer was king, as shop A and B fought over trade, we the customer benefitted. Things like price matching, special offers that were genuine special offers (as trading standards used to rule with an iron fist over retailers) meant that competition was healthy and prices fell and stayed low or either shop would have gone out of business.
The only information that shop A and B had, was the history of the cash spending from customers on any given day.

Fast forward to today and in the future, where marketing is king and the customer is merely a number.
Shop A and B no longer have to compete with each other, as businesses can now buy our information off each other.
Personal information is not allowed to be sold, but “a report of” or “analysis of data” can be sold on for more profit. This information gathering is killing competition.
For proof of this, I can list many prices over the past year where two of the big four supermarkets have had identical prices and “sales” in my area alone, within hours of them going onto the shelf.

The retail industry now know everything about the people in any given area.
Notice how an online sign up is required before many promotional features are given by a retailer!
Further proof is the way in which we are being pushed into shopping by devices that have no option to see what information is being gathered about our habits.
Next time you shop via your spanking new iphone or android, try to find out what cookies are being stored or information is being collected.
Pay for goods with a credit/debit card? Big mistake!
Convenience costs! There are reasons why businesses want you to pay by card, now some are even charging you for doing so, despite promises from those in charge that this would never happen.
For the customer it simplifies the process, for the business, it gives them vital information they can use to set their own prices and then sell on reports about.

Did you know that one of the big four supermarkets produces for the industry every year, “an earnings report” every year? Where are they getting their information to do this report on? YOU the customer are giving it to them everytime you pay using a card or use their “price comparison” website!
Loyalty cards are another false economy, they are designed for the sole purpose of gathering your information and shopping habits, the more information you give them, the higher prices for goods you will pay.

It cannot be right that I can pay £1.60 for a product, yet for the exact same product, bought at the same time in another time, they are on sale 10% cheaper. This is pricing by demographic, which the customer alone cannot change.
If we had a national “shop in cash week” the retail industry would be stuffed. It would throw out all their figures and reports would cease to accurate.
Final proof of how we are all being ripped off, is the comparison between local stores and national chains.
How can it be that a local independant store can sell a product cheaper, on a regular basis, than a national store who buys the same item in by pallet lot?
The fact is, an independant should not be able to beat the big national company on price, which demonstrates that prices are being set in areas, by how much the national company can get out of the customer.

Technology is killing the customer and genuine competition. The government, legislation and trading standards are playing catch up whilst the customer’s paying the price.
Convenience costs – making it easier to shop is a smokescreen for gathering your shopping information.

Shop local, shop in cash, tell business as little as possible about your shopping habits, then watch prices come crashing down!

One of the oldest and worst ways that technology makes it too easy to spend money is premium rate phone numbers. Many consumers don’t understand that when they phone a premium rate phone number, they are paying money to the called party through the artificially high cost of the phone call. This is even worse when the called party provides no service to the consumer, for example telephone voting lines for television programmes. If premium rate phone numbers were banned and consumers had to pay by other means (e.g. debit/credit card) for the service provided by the called party, then the consumer would think twice about wasting money on such a service. Telephone bills should be for telecommunications services only and should not contain charges for unrelated third party services.

We’re talking about this on the podcast being recorded today. Lets not forget technology also helps us compare prices – and can offer useful impartial help as well!