"" wrote:

> Why in heavens name does he need to know specifically
> what John, or Mary bought today ?

It's entered into databases used by insurance companies,
law enforcement, trial lawyers, etc. For example, if you
tell your health care insurance company that you're a
non-smoker to get a lower rate, but you buy a carton
or more of cigarettes every week, they'll collect your
insurance premiums while your healthy but deny coverage
when you get an expensive disease like lung cancer.

Or if you have an accident while driving, if the other
guy's insurance company can show you bought a bottle
of booze an hour earlier and the cops didn't do a
blood alcohol test, this will be used to call into question
whether you were sober while driving.

Or if you run for school board against a rich guy, and
he hires private investigators to check you out, they'll
access the database to see if you make any purchases
that suggest lines of investigations. Like if you buy
a package of condoms every Friday, they will follow
you around on Friday to check out what's going on.
Are you cheating on your wife?

This kind of information is worth a lot of money,
often more than the actual products being sold.