Almost every supermarket across Ireland has a loyalty scheme or ‘club’ which allegedly saves you money on your shop – but what are consumers giving in exchange for these discounts?

The Irish Examiner consumer columnist Caitriona Redmond wrote in her latest column about her opinion on these rewards schemes.

On Moncrieff, Ms Redmond said retailers call these loyalty schemes ‘clubs’ because they want to make you feel “part of their community”.

“They'll use words like clubs and communities because they want to make you feel like you belong to their retailer community, so you have affinity with them, so you're feel more inclined to go back to the same supermarket again and again to get the discounts that they have on offer,” she said.

The journalist explained how these schemes work for consumers.

“Some of the supermarkets do offer points, which gives you a maybe a discount off of maybe a trip to cinema or a ferry trip,” she said.

“Other supermarkets offer you points, which can add up to give you a discount off of your shopping on a monthly or a weekly basis.

“Some of them say that you have to hit a barrier to get a discount - for example, maybe hit €50 to get €5 off of your shop, or €100 to get €10 off your shop.

“But ultimately, the whole idea is that you're getting a discount because you're part of their club.”

Ms Redmond said the savings with some of these schemes can be significant.

“To give you an idea of the volume of discounts - a reader went to the supermarket [and] a shop cost them €160 because they forgot their card,” she said.

“If they had their card with them, the shop would have cost them €110.

“So, they lost out on €50 because they forgot their card that day.”

Groceries seen in a shopping cart supermarket trolley. Picture by: Tommy (Louth) / Alamy Stock Photo

Ms Redmond said that while you are getting discounts as a consumer in these shops – you are paying with data.

“It's reciprocal, there's a handoff,” she said.

“So, if we want to get that discount, we have to be prepared to give them our data.

"That data can range from what we bought, what day of the week we've bought it on, how much we've spent, down to - depending on what permission you may have set on your app, or whether or not you're using a handheld scanner - how long you lingered in certain areas of the store…

“From that, they can extrapolate the size of your family, the age range of your family, and potentially whether or not somebody in your family could be pregnant.”

Ms Redmond said the data is secure, protected and anonymised, but allowing supermarkets to track your shopping habits is what they receive in return for these discounts.

However, she also said this tracking could be useful to give shoppers offers on items they buy more frequently or in aisles where they spend time “lingering”.

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A woman holds a shopping basket of groceries. Photo: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images