Family Fare Convenience Stores Privacy Policy

Last modified: October 12, 2023

M.M. Fowler, Inc, Family Fare, LLC and any of our affiliates (together, “Family Fare,” “We,” “Us,” or “Our”) respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through Our compliance with this Privacy Policy (“Policy”).

This Policy describes how We collect, use, and disclose personal information that you provide to Us through Our websites, http://www.familyfareconveniencestores.com and http://familyfarefranchise.com (“Websites”) and through or in connection with Our mobile application (“App”) and customer loyalty program (“Loyalty Program”) (collectively, the “Services”) as well as information that We collect when you make purchases at Family Fare-licensed convenience Stores, including Caroco-branded locations (“Stores”) or otherwise communicate or interact with Us as described in this Policy.

Please note that the Stores are owned and operated by independent franchisees. This Policy does not apply to information that is collected independently by those franchisees and that is not shared with Us.

This Policy also does not apply to certain services and content operated or provided by third parties that may be available through the App, including age verification services operated by our third-party Loyalty Program partner in connection with certain features of the App that are only made available to users who are age 21 or older, and third-party advertisements delivered through the App. We do not control, and are not responsible for, the practices of the providers of these age verification services and advertisements with respect to the information they collect through their services or content, which are governed by their own privacy notices and terms of service. We encourage you to review those privacy policies and terms of service for information about how these third parties collect, use, disclose, and otherwise process information they collect.

Please read this policy carefully to understand Our policies and practices regarding your information and how We will treat it. If you do not agree with Our policies and practices, please do not use the Services or otherwise interact with Us. By accessing or using the Services or otherwise interacting with us, you agree to this Policy. This Policy may be updated from time to time. Your continued use of the Services after We make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.

Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It

We may collect personal information about you when you use the Services, visit the Stores, or otherwise interact with Us. The information We collect generally falls into three categories: (a) information you provide Us directly; (b) information We collect automatically; and (c) information We receive about you from others.

Information You Provide to Us Directly

When you use the Services or otherwise interact with us, you may be asked or otherwise choose to provide information to Us directly. The information We collect through this method may include:

Personal and contact details such as your name, email and postal addresses, and telephone number.
Commercial and transaction information, including information about the products you buy, the prices of those products, your method of payment and payment details.
Loyalty Program registration and account information such as your username, password, and Loyalty Program ID number.
Loyalty Program participation information, including your purchases and the rewards you earn and redeem through your participation in the Loyalty Program.
Demographic information such as your date of birth, age, and gender.
Responses to surveys, if you participate in surveys that We commission or administer.
Entry information, if you enter a contest or sweepstakes that We offer.
Other information that you choose to provide to Us when you use the Services, such as when you fill out contact forms on the Websites.

This information you provide will depend on the nature and context of your interactions with Us. Generally speaking, We collect personal information from you in the following situations:

Making purchases or otherwise transacting with Us for products and services, including in Our Stores and through the App;
Enrolling and participating in Our Loyalty Program, including by registering for an account, using the App, and earning and redeeming rewards;
Expressing interest in or purchasing products that are only available to consumers of a certain age, in which case We may collect your birthdate and other details necessary to validate your age and identity;
Participating in contests, sweepstakes and promotions that We offer;
Providing feedback to Us, or participating in surveys that We administer or commission;
Providing information or content to Us via Our Services (such as by filling out forms on the Websites or in the App);
Communicating with Us by phone or email.

If you use the Services to apply for a job with Us, We will collect information that you provide in pre-qualification questionnaires that you submit through Our Websites, and information included in other materials that you submit as part of your application, including as may be included on your resume and application form. This information may include your personal and contact details and information about your professional qualifications, work history, and educational background.

If you use the Websites to express interest in, or apply to become a Family Fare franchisee, We will collect personal and contact details, including financial, educational, and employment history, and other information We use to evaluate you as a prospective franchisee and that you submit through contact forms on the Websites or though questionnaires or application forms that We make available through the Websites.

Information We Collect Automatically

As you navigate through and interact with the Services, We may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:

Details of your visits to Our Services, including traffic data, location data, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Services.
Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.
If you use the App, information about your mobile device and internet connection, including the device identifiers such a MAC address, IP address, operating system, browser type, mobile network information, and the device's telephone number.
Usage and clickstream information, which may include information such as the page served, the time spent viewing the page, source of the request, type of browser making the request, the preceding page viewed and similar information about your use of the Services.
Location Information, such as your approximate geographic location based on your IP Address, and, if you agree to allow the App to access it from your mobile device, your precise geographic location to help you locate, and show you offers that are available at, nearby Stores.

We may also use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services. The information We collect automatically may include personal information and We may maintain it or associate it with personal Information We collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps Us to improve Our Websites and App and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling Us to:

Estimate Our audience size and usage patterns.
Store information about your preferences, allowing Us to customize the Services according to your individual interests.
Through the App, help you locate and show you offers that are available at nearby Stores.
Recognize you when you return to the Services.

The technologies We use for this automatic data collection may include:

Cookies (or mobile cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer or your mobile device. You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser or device. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of the Services.
Flash Cookies. Certain features of Our Websites may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on Our Website. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies.
Web Beacons. Pages of Our Websites or App and Our e-mails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that enable Us, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).
Software Development Kits (or SDKs). SDKs are pieces of code provided by Our digital vendors (e.g., development and analytics providers) in Our App to collect and analyze certain device and user data.

We may also have some content or applications, including advertisements, on the Services that are served by third-parties, including advertisers, content providers, and application or other service providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use the Services. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services.

We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other third-party content, you should contact the responsible provider directly.

Information We Collect Through Technologies in Our Stores

We may collect personal information, including images that could be used to identify you, through CCTV and other technologies that we use in our stores and the areas surrounding our premises to conduct video surveillance for security purposes, to protect against theft and damage to our properties, and to prevent fraud.

Information We Receive from Third Parties

We may receive personal information about you from other sources. For example, this may include receiving personal information from:

Independent franchisees who operate the Stores.
Our business partners and service providers, including analytics, enrollment, and validation vendors, and Our Loyalty Program partners.
Suppliers and brands with whom We partner.
Social media sites or job posting sites.

How We Use Your Information

We use information that We collect about you or that you provide to Us for the following purposes:

To provide, maintain, administer, and improve the Services.
To process your purchases and other transactions.
To administer Our Loyalty Program, including by enabling you to earn and redeem rewards.
To communicate with you about products and services offered by us, other affiliates, franchisees, and business partners.
To authorize access to the Services, and to validate your age and/or identity or verify communications from you.
To perform business analyses, or for other internal purposes to support, improve or enhance Our business, the Services, and other products and services We offer.
To communicate about, and administer your participation in, special programs, surveys, contests, online campaigns, online programs, sweepstakes, and other offers or promotions, and to deliver pertinent emails.
To send you confirmations, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages and otherwise facilitate your use of, and Our administration and operation of, the Services.
For marketing purposes, including but not limited to personalizing email marketing that We send to you, sending you other promotional materials, and notifying you about special promotions, offers, events or opportunities that may be of interest to you.
To respond to your comments, questions, and requests, and provide customer service.
To improve Our customer service, and to conduct customer satisfaction, market research, and quality assurance reviews.
To carry out Our obligations and enforce Our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.
To protect the security and integrity of the Services, ourselves, or others.
To investigate possible fraud or other violations of Our Terms and Conditions or this Policy and/or attempts to harm Our users.
To evaluate or facilitate a business transfer, such as to a buyer or other successor in the event of merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of M.M. Fowler, Inc.’s or Family Fare, LLC’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by M.M. Fowler, Inc. or Family Fare, LLC is among the assets to be transferred.
For any other purpose that is disclosed to you at the point of collection of the personal information, for any purpose for which you provide your prior consent.
As otherwise requested or directed by you.

Except where prohibited by applicable law or regulation, We may combine information collected through one source with information obtained through other resources. We also may supplement the information We collect with information obtained from third parties. This may include information collected offline with information We collect through the Services.

We may also collect, or use personal information that We have collected to create, aggregated or de-identified data that does not identify and cannot reasonably be used to identify you or a device linked to you. We will maintain and use the such aggregated de-identified data without attempting to re-identify the data, and it may be used and disclosed for any lawful purpose.

How We Disclose Your Information

We may disclose the categories of personal information that We collect or you provide as described in the Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It Section of this Policy to the following categories of third parties:

Our subsidiaries and affiliates.
Our service providers and other third parties We use to support Our business, including without limitation those performing core services (such as billing, credit card processing, customer support services, customer relationship management, accounting, auditing, administering sweepstakes, surveys, advertising and marketing, analytics, email and mailing services, information storage, and security) related to the operation of Our business and/or the Services, and making certain functionalities available to Our users.
Our independent franchisees.
Our third-party business partners, including brands and suppliers with whom We associate, to provide certain products or services, including rewards offered through Our Loyalty Program, and for their own direct marketing purposes.
Any other parties described to you at the time your personal information is collected.
Any other parties at your request or direction.

We may also disclose your information as necessary for Our own legal and compliance purposes, which may include:

To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
To enforce or apply Our terms of use, and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
If We believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of Family Fare, Our customers, or others.
To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of M.M. Fowler, Inc.’s or Family Fare, LLC’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by M.M. Fowler, Inc. or Family Fare, LLC is among the assets transferred.

Your Choices

You may have certain choices when it comes to how We use your information and We want to provide you with information to make the choices that are right for you.

Tracking Technologies. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. To learn how you can manage your Flash cookie settings, visit the Flash player settings page on Adobe’s website. Some browsers have “do not track” features that allow you to tell a website not to track you. These features are not all uniform. We do not currently respond to those signals. If you block cookies, certain features on Our sites may not work. If you block or reject cookies, not all of the tracking described in this Policy will stop.
Mobile Devices. Your mobile device may offer settings relating to cookies, pixel tags, Flash cookies, and other similar technologies, and the App’s collection of location information. We encourage to you to visit your device’s help menu to learn about your options to limit tracking when using your device.
Email Marketing. You can opt-out of receiving marketing emails from Us by clicking the unsubscribe link from a marketing email We’ve previously sent you. If We or a third party acting on Our behalf has sent you a promotional email, you may use the “unsubscribe” link or send Us a return email asking to be omitted from future email distributions. Please keep in mind that opting out of marketing emails may impact Our ability to allow you access to certain offers, benefits and features. Please also note that even if you opt out of receiving certain marketing emails, that opt-out may not apply to other transactional or legal communications that you may continue to receive from us, such as customer service messages, messages about your account or transactions with us, notices about Our policies and terms, and emails responding to your communications with Us or requests for information that We receive from you.

Data Security

We have implemented measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet or via Our operating systems is not completely secure. Although We do Our best to protect your personal information, We cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to and through Our Services. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures implemented with the Services.

Third-Party Advertisements, Websites, and Online Services.

The Services may include advertisements provided by, or reference or provide links or access to websites, applications, or other online services operated by, unaffiliated third parties with which we do business. These third parties may include brands and suppliers we work with and partners involved in the operation of our Loyalty Program, including the providers of age verification services that verify Your age if you request access to offers that are restricted to users over the age of 21.

When you interact with or access these third-party advertisements and other services, you leave our Services, and we are not responsible for, and do not control, the information they collect or their security or privacy practices. You access these third-party services at your own risk.

This Policy does not apply to any of these third-party services. Please refer to the privacy notices and terms of service for these third-party services for information about how they collect, use, and process personal information.

Children

Our Services are not intended for children under 18 years of age. No one under age 18 may provide any information to or through the Services. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you are under 18, do not use or provide any information on to or through the Services or through any of their features, make any purchases through the Websites or App, use any of the interactive or public comment features of this Websites or App, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use. If We learn We have collected or received personal information from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, We will delete that information. If you believe We might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact Us at customerservice@familyfarecstores.com.

Additional Information for Virginia Consumers

If you are a Virginia resident and interact with Us in an individual or household context (and not in a commercial or employment context), this Section provides additional information that we provide pursuant to Virginia law.

Virginia Residents’ Rights with Respect to Personal Information

Virginia law provides you with the following rights with respect to your personal information:

The right to confirm whether We process your personal information and to access your personal information that We process.
The right to correct inaccuracies in your personal information, taking into account the nature of the personal information and the purposes of the processing.
The right to delete personal information that you provide or that We have otherwise obtained about you.
The right to obtain a copy of the personal information you have previously provided to Us in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format, where Our processing is carried out by automated means.
The right to opt out of the processing of your personal information for purposes of targeted advertising, the sale of personal information, and/or profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects.
If We deny your request to exercise, the right to appeal Our decision.

To submit any of the above requests, you may contact Us by email at customerservice@familyfarecstores.com. When you request to exercise these rights and submit a request to us, before fulfilling or responding to your request, We will verify your identity, and may also use a third-party verification provider to verify your identity. We will endeavor to honor such requests unless such a request is subject to an applicable exemption under Virginia law. Please note that We are only required to honor such requests twice in a 12-month period.

If We refuse to take action on your request, you may appeal that refusal within a reasonable period of time after your receipt of Our decision declining to take action on your request by contacting Us by email at customerservice@familyfarecstores.com.

Sales of Virginia Personal Information and Corresponding Opt-Out Rights

If you participate in our Loyalty Program and use our App, we may disclose your personal information to certain of our third-party business partners for their own direct marketing and other purposes. These partners include brands and suppliers that offer discounts or other rewards to participants in the Loyalty Program and technology and other service providers with whom we work to provide the Loyalty Program and App or features thereof. We may in turn receive monetary consideration from those business partners such that our disclosures of your personal information would be considered “sales” of personal information under Virginia law.

You have the right under Virginia law to opt out of these sales of your personal information. These disclosures are, however, necessary to our operation of the Loyalty Program and your receipt of discounts and other rewards as a voluntary Loyalty Program participant and user of our App. Thus, to exercise your opt-out right under Virginia law, you must (i) delete the App from your device; and (ii) withdraw your participation in the Loyalty Program by sending an email requesting to withdraw to customerservice@familyfarecstores.com.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We will make changes to this Policy from time to time and may not provide notice of material changes. The date the Policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for periodically reviewing this Policy to check for any changes.

How to Contact Us

To ask questions or comment about this privacy policy and Our privacy practices, contact Us by email at customerservice@familyfarecstores.com; or by mail at 4220 Neal Road, Durham, North Carolina 27705.