When I lived in the Haight, I used to shop at Cala Foods, kind of a poor-man's Safeway. Now that I've moved, the closest place to shop is Safeway. As a store, I love Safeway. It rocks. When I first walked in and had various employees actually say hi to me and ask if they could help me with anything, I felt like crying. Cala Foods was kind of run down and you could at least count on at least one or two really smelly drunken homeless types to be either in front or behind you at the check out line.

Everytime I go to the checkout counter at Safeway, though, they always ask me if I have a Safeway Club Card. The card machine they have there is even geared towards the club card, so if your using just your lowly ATM card, you have to go through several more steps to enter the card. Whenever they ask me and I tell them no, they always tell me that I should and how much money I'd save by getting one.

I don't want one. I don't care about it and I don't like the idea of it. I know they say it's just a card and they don't do anything with it, but I don't trust them. No matter what they say, your name is still logged in somewhere, your purchases recorded and information is tallied. It's just a little too Big Brotherish for me.

Yet, since I've been going to Safeway, I've also been noticing that my groceries are a lot more expensive than they used to be. $20 to $30 bucks more at a time. And with every more expensive bill, comes that question from the checkout counter person "do you want a Club Card? You could save a lot more money...."

So I wonder, does Safeway jack up the prices on a regular basis, just to force people into getting the club card. Is this what I get for not wanting to be statistically analyzed and recorded? Are they basically screwing me over just to force me into getting me one of their damn cards?

Next time I go, I think I'm going to get a Safeway Club Card