Privacy Policy

Who we are

The Retail Economist ("we," "us") is operated by Zoey Washington and can be reached at info@theretaileconomist.co. This policy covers theretaileconomist.co and its shopping tool (the "Service").

What we collect

• Email address — to send you a login code, run your subscription, and email your welcome/receipt messages.
• Item submissions — the links, text descriptions, and photos you submit to get a verdict.
• Usage counters — how many reads you've used this month, tied to your email, so we can enforce free/paid limits.
• Payment status — whether you're subscribed and to what plan. Stripe handles and stores your actual card details; we never receive or store your full card number.
• Basic technical data — IP address, used only to rate-limit login and checkout requests against abuse (we don't use it for tracking or profiling).

We do not run analytics, advertising pixels, or third-party trackers on this site.

How we use it

• To authenticate you (a one-time code sent to your email — we never ask for or store a password).
• To generate the verdict you asked for, by sending your submission to Anthropic's Claude API.
• To run billing through Stripe and grant/revoke access when your subscription starts, renews, or cancels.
• To send transactional email (login codes, welcome/upgrade confirmations) via our email provider, Resend.
• To enforce monthly read limits and prevent abuse of free accounts.

Who we share it with

We share the minimum necessary with the vendors that run the Service on our behalf:

• Anthropic (Claude API) — receives the content of your submission (text, links, images) to produce your verdict. It is not used to identify you personally.
• Stripe — processes payment and subscription billing; holds your card details under its own privacy policy.
• Resend — delivers our transactional emails.
• Netlify — hosts the site and stores account/usage data (subscriber tier, usage counts) in its Blobs storage.

We do not sell your personal information, and we don't share it with anyone for their own marketing purposes.

Affiliate links

Some links to shop items (for example, eBay search results) are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This doesn't affect what verdict you're given — the read comes first, the link is just where to go act on it.

Cookies

We set one functional cookie (tre_auth) to keep you logged in between visits. It contains a signed session token, not your raw email or password, and expires after 30 days of use. We don't use cookies for advertising or cross-site tracking.

Data retention

We keep your account, subscription, and usage data for as long as you have an account, plus a reasonable period afterward for billing and abuse-prevention records. Anthropic and Resend retain data only as needed to provide their services, under their own retention policies.

Your choices

• Delete your data: email info@theretaileconomist.co and we'll remove your account and associated data, aside from records we're required to keep for tax/billing purposes.
• Unsubscribe from marketing/welcome emails: use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of those emails. You'll still receive essential account emails (login codes, receipts) since those are required to operate your account.
• Cancel your subscription: email us or use the billing portal once it's available; your access continues through the end of the current billing period.

Children

The Service is not directed to children under 16, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.

Changes to this policy

If we make material changes, we'll update the date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify subscribers by email.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data: info@theretaileconomist.co.