Final answer:
Retailers collect data on customer purchases using scanners and frequent-shopper cards, tracking items, quantities, prices, and shopping habits. Agencies like the BLS collect market data by surveying stores and rents nationwide. This information helps understand spending patterns and to customize marketing efforts.
Step-by-step explanation:
Retailers who use scanners and frequent-shopper cards are able to collect the Data on a variety of customer purchasing behaviors. When shopping, customers present their cards at checkout, which retailers use to track and record every item purchased. This data can include the types of products bought, the quantities, the time and date of purchase, and the prices paid. Retailers can also track shopping frequency, amounts spent per visit, and use this data to tailor marketing efforts, such as personalized coupons and promotions, based on the shopping habits of individual customers.
To gather broader market data, collector agencies like the BLS might visit or call about 23,000 stores in 87 urban areas all over the United States every month to collect prices on these 80,000 specific products. Surveys of landlords or tenants are also carried out to gather information about rents. In another method, collecting receipts from shoppers or cashiers at supermarkets provides data on the total amounts spent on groceries, which can then be analyzed for spending patterns and trends.