A while back, CNN Money ran an article called "Kroger's Secret Marketing Weapon" — about how the company is using database mining to market to its customers. Products on Kroger's shelves are assigned a score based on attributes such as price, quality, freshness and size of package. The system then searches for customers whose shopping carts have similar scores, and groups those shoppers together into segments, ranging from budget shoppers to dieting shoppers to family-focused ones.