Loyalty cards dangle from your key chain and are little thought of except when you have the cashier swipe them over the registers red light when checking out at the grocery store. You get a lower price of some store items because of the card, and come to this store because of the membership cards you filled out that grant the lower prices. You, the consumer, receive a benefit; the supermarket also gets benefits from the membership system and loyalty cards.

Without the loyalty cards, the supermarket can only track the total sales of any one item. When the loyalty card is used; the supermarket has a history of all the items you buy, what time of year purchased, and in what area of town you live.

All of this information is useful to the manager of the supermarket and more so for the multinational corporation at the top. If one product is heavily used by people in one section of town, the supermarket can target ads for that product in that area of town. The supermarket can also send coupons for items you normally buy and coupons for items similar to them; giving you an additional reason to return to that supermarket.

Without sending personal information, the supermarket can also sell information of market trends to any of the manufacturers who have products in the store.

The advertising department of the store can look at the demographics of the sales for guidance. Different areas of town can require different styles of advertising. With this information, the sales department can create more effective ads, and save money by playing the ads only in areas where the product is wanted.

Items related to Christmas and Halloween are already noted and planned for in the coming year. If the manage has missed the creation of a new local tradition, an annual BBQ contest or food festival, the extra concentration of items at one time of year is a clue to the manager of a new area for advertisement.

A newer technology is being incorporated into the loyalty cards; near field communication (nfc). The nfc allows communication between electronic devices, when in close proximity to one another, up to two inches. This card will not need to be passed across the red beams, merely held a second near the nfc reader.

The loyalty card can have personal information stored on it with the reader being able to identify you; if you had banking information on the card, the reader will be able to connect with the net and pay for your groceries all in one quick swipe.