grocery store club cards

[cardsfansince82]

What a crock of [expletive]. I refuse to clutter up my wallet and keychain with all of these things. And I enevitably forget them at home so I end up having to sign up for a new one half the time I go to the store. And some stores are just absurd when it comes to these things. Practically every item in the store has a "regular" price and a club card price. And some of the places I go are just ridiculous with price differences of 200% or more. Regular price for this meat is 9.99 a pound, but club members pay 2.99 a pound! Is there really a hypothetical schmuck out there that actually pays that higher price?

So they give away these things for free, and they have all this information about me and my buying habits. Yet they never seem to act on it. I don't get anything in the mail targeted specifically toward me. If they are using this in any way or selling the info to other people I'm sure as hell not noticing it. So what is the point? To piss me off I guess.

And the biggest kicker is when I check out and they cheerily tell me, "You saved 24.97 with your club card!" I didn't save jack [expletive]. I paid the normal price, the price you have decided you can sell something for and still make a profit. I don't see any extra money floating around my bank account because of you. If you want to be accurate you should not say anything to me, but tell the aforementioned hypothetical schmuck how much money he lost by not giving in to this ridiculous crap. Better yet, mark everything with just one price and end this stupid charade, I highly doubt anyone falls for it.

[KyCardinalFan]

At my grocer you can punch in your phone number while they scan your stuff and that enables your customer number. You don't have to have the card.

I received offers and deals based on my purchases, but it was at least a year after I had their card. I guess they develop a "profile" of your buying habits - what are you buying a lot of, what is a one-time purchase. When my kids were newborns, I'd get a lot of diaper and baby item offers/coupons. Now I get a lot of cereal and yogurt offers - you can really get a sense of where your money's going after a while.

I used to get annoyed with their racket of seemingly charging regular price for items bought with their card. But technically, without that card, you are paying more money than with the card. Luckily some of our area grocers honor other's ads so I can get that deal at many stores.

[cards2468]

I've been to grocery stores that ask me if I have a card and I ask the person behind me to scan, ppl don't mind because a lot of them offer rewards for the more you use your card. My parents have a "Kroger Plus Card" they use at Kroger back home, it gives you big discounts and if you use it at the gas pump it shaves like more than 10 cents off per gallon!

[Bama_Card_Fan]

I live in a small town with 2, count 'em, 2 grocery stores. Neither one uses discount cards. There are times though, when I'm out of town and I'll go to a grocery store to buy some stuff to put in the fridge at the hotel I'm staying in. I'm not going to go to the trouble of filling out the form to get a card for a store I'll never shop in again. Then I start looking for the stuff I want and it's all priced way high because I don't have one of their cards. Once or twice I've been to a place where the cashier asked me if I had a card and when I said, "No," she pulled one out and swiped it for me.

[wart57]

Grocery Companies also use the data to set up demographic data for their stores. They then can plan more effective ad activities and also set up classes of stores so that when product needs to be sent out, they know what stores will sell it faster. There is a lot more to these cards than a lot of people think.

[docellis]

I am so glad St. Louis grocery stores don't use these. I hated having 4 cards on my stupid keychain back where i used to live.

[StatmanCrothers]

i despise discount cards, coupons, etc.

at Jewel if i don't have it, i just say "my wife has the card" and they have an extra card they scan.

i go to a comic store that keeps a count of your purchases and after $100 or 10 trade paperbacks, or something or other, you get a discount. But they keep the cards in a little card file, and just ask your name, nothing to carry in your wallet. That's great. Applebee's had a lunch club thing for bar customers that worked the same way.

when i worked at Tower, we were "supposed" to ask each customer for their zip code, but once a week some dude would blow a gasket not wanting to give out personal info (ooh! I know your zip code! your identity is at risk!), plus the other cashiers weren't consistent about it, so you'd get "i come here all the time and no one has EVER asked me that!"

once when a guy wouldn't give his zip code, but was cool about it, i said "no problem", clicked a key, then looked up expectantly and asked, "social security number?"

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there were too many cards cluttering up my wallet. I trashed my regular wallet and now carry only a little mini-wallet thing, it has a clear window on one side, i put my ID there, behind it i put my library card and my insurance card. on the opposite side there are two pockets, slots, i put my credit card and my debit card--theoretically i could have just one but i use them differently. Then in between there's room to fold up a few bills, plus any cards i want to throw in there for specific errands. I guess I usually keep my AAA card in there (its a bond you can give instead of your license if you get a speeding ticket).

my other wallet i would just keep cramming full of stuff. I tend to totally clutter up the availabe work space

[cards2468]

actually I have the Best Buy card, and I've put like $3,000 through it so far and haven't gotten any "rewards" in the mail as promised... I'll have to give them a call because I think I'm entitled to like a $100 gift card or something

[wart57]

actually I have the Best Buy card, and I've put like $3,000 through it so far and haven't gotten any "rewards" in the mail as promised... I'll have to give them a call because I think I'm entitled to like a $100 gift card or something

You can go on line at bestbuy.com and get that info, and print the reward coupons.

[jim]

I approve of this rant. But what I do is tell them I "forgot" it, I type in an old phone number that I used to have but don't any longer, and whala - I get the "discount". So not only do I not clutter my wallet up, but I don't even allow them to have private information.