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(Sangjin Kim)

Syracuse, N.Y. - Many Wegmans customers received recorded phone calls from the retailer Monday alerting them to a fresh fruit recall after the grocer sifted through its purchase records to identify who bought the produce.

The supermarket chain was able to quickly contact customers of its 84 stores in six states who bought the recalled items using data it collects about their purchases when they swipe their Shoppers Club cards at checkout counters.

Wegmans would not disclose how many automated calls it made. But Evelyn Carter, director of community relations, indicated call volume was high because the recall covered fresh peaches, nectarines and plums sold over a seven week period from June 1 through July 20.

"When you look at it being summertime, fruit season and people making that purchase, there were a significant number of customers contacted," she said.

Wegmans started making the calls at 10 a.m. Monday. "The system can only handle so many calls at one time, so we did it in waves," Carter said.

The calls were made from the company's Rochester headquarters where the Shoppers Club data is stored, she said.

Using automated calls to alert customers of recalls is not new. Wegmans, Price Chopper and other supermarket chains have been using data gleaned from shopper loyalty cards for years to do this. "Because this recall was high profile, it made people a lot more aware of the system," Carter said.

Most customers think using the Shoppers Club card is just a way to get discounts, according to Carter.

"But in situations like this it allows us to communicate with them," Carter said. That's why Wegmans encourages customers to use the cards and keep the phone number on their accounts up to date, she said.

Some consumer groups oppose the widespread use of loyalty cards. Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, for example, sees loyalty cards as a form of profiling and an invasion of customer privacy.

Disease detectives have tapped into loyalty card data in recent years to help solve food poisoning cases.

Costco allowed epidemiologists from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to use data from its loyalty card program in 2010 to pinpoint the source of a salmonella outbreak.

You can contact health writer James T. Mulder at jmulder@syracuse.com or (315) 470-2245. Follow him on Twitter @JamesTMulder

