Tesco fricking Club Card / two tier pricing

It's disgusting isn't it? And as you say, I can't believe people fall for it.

I hope you mean the collective 'you' (as in me.) Because I don't shop at Tesco, OR Sainsburys. Both over-priced - and Tesco is the worst for the clubcard shite. I only pop into Tesco occasionally (maybe once a month,) for a bottle of milk, or a loaf of bread, or some chewing gum. Literally don't even need a basket. I have not spent more than £50 in there in 5 years ... Tesco has rude staff (IME.) They are cold and hostile at the checkout, and the dot.com workers knock you flying when they're getting stuff for online shoppers.

@VisionsOfSplendour my point is that Tescos are giving a discount to club card customers.

I shop primarily at Morrison and find them cheaper than Tesco and Sainsbury's on the whole. However, Clubcard and nectar pricing may negate that.

It's not just Tescos though. Co-op and Sainsbury's do the same. Not sure about others.

Agree same price for everyone.

I often use my Clubcard in two separate transactions one after the other.

@Pipistrellus the Tesco by me has WiFi. Worth a look if there's no reception.

Tesco is the only supermarket within walking distance for my Mum. She's given up driving due to her age, and one of the reasons she bought the apartment she lives in was due to being close to M&S and Tescos. M&S has closed down, leaving her just Tescos. She doesn't have a choice of a dozen supermarkets. It's also really important to her to keep this part of her independence. Not everyone has access to many different supermarkets. I doubt it will be long before someone will need to shop with her, but at the moment she can manage. She also just sucks up the fact she is paying, sometimes substantially, more for items. But when you're elderly and confused, it can be yet one more thing to add to the burden.

I've accepted I will never get my online clubcard working, and refuse to carry an extra card which I would use once a month or so. Even if Tesco could work out how to send me a card. I keep getting a "computer says no" response from customer service!

It's a pain - tomorrow for example I need to pop into tescos for something I can't get elsewhere, but will then go the opposite direction to get the rest of the shopping I need.

I'm struggling to think of any product that someone would need, where there wouldn't be an alternative non-clubcard offer item available. Even in the case of allergies and coeliac disease, there are usually a few options as far as 'needs' go.

Things that there are only one option for in my local store are usually fairly unusual things - like rose harissa paste. I think the one thing that I've only seen one version of that could be closed as a need is lactose-free cheese (there are plenty of vegan 'cheeses' though) - but I don't think I've ever seen that on a clubcard offer.

The fruit and veg offers seem to be genuine, other than the permanent 3 for 2 on overpriced prepacked pre-prepared items. If people choose to buy a tiny 80g pack of green beans for £1.25 instead of 220g for 85p, well that's on them. A 3 for 2 still doesn't make it worth it.

You are very unreasonable. Given the choice and other items you are likely much happier to over pay for (coffee, high end brands, shared ownership housing, car leases, tobbacco e.t.c), it's a complete non issue.

I'm not quite sure what your point is, Morrisons is nearly always more expensive than Tesco and the price of soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi bounces up and down every week, theres never any consistency ime

I agree with this and I despair at people who can’t understand the difference.

I don’t have a club card because I live nowhere near a Tesco and do not do my shopping there. But if I travel to another city and it’s the closest supermarket when I need to buy something, why should I pay over the odds because I don’t have one - and this is what’s happening in some cases, despite what their signs and advertising might say.

I’m fine with not being rewarded, and not earning points/ vouchers. I’m not fine with paying extra for items because I have not signed up to a ‘loyalty’ card for a shop I rarely go to. If they were genuine price reductions it wouldn’t be so much of a problem, but I’ve seen items where all other shops (prices available online) are selling them for the lower ‘loyalty card holder’ price as standard.

So Morrisons don't do a two tier system? Seem to inflate their prices and then reduce and still more than tescos

Non-loyalty card holders are free to not buy the clubcard offers - and they usually don't. They just love to tell us that at the tills.

So they are voting with their feet and choosing not to be penalised.

Interesting that the 'out and open' offers are the ones that are criticised. Nobody cares about loyalty cards that do it surreptitiously, by hiding the offers in an app or a mailshot - which is better, being able to choose not to buy something because you know you won't get the offer, or buying it not knowing that there's an offer you can't get?

The one article I saw that suggested prices were raised then dropped suggested it was a third of items in one shop and a quarter in another.

Which would suggest that by day the majority of the savings are genuine rewards for loyalty card customers rather than penalties as you define it. But there might be others out there that I haven't seen that suggest otherwise.

How do you differentiate between rewarding loyalty card holders and penalising those that choose not to have one?

Surely they are both just different sides of the same coin?

Rewarding loyalty card holders = this item is normally £5. If you have a loyalty card, you can have it for £4. It will remain £5 for everyone else

Penalising those who don't have a card = this item is £5, we're going to raise the price to £7 on Monday and on Wednesday slap a big Loyalty Card Pricing sticker on it to say loyalty card holders can have it for £5 (or in the case of some supermarkets, £6!). Now we're going to do this for hundreds of items, and the best thing is some of our loyalty card holders will defend us because they think they're getting great discounts but we don't have to make a loss at all.

you're not penalised for not having one! I'm rewarded for having one. 🤷‍♀️

That's the advertising spin.
In reality the "normal" price is often not the normal price, it's inflated to make it seem like the loyalty card holders are getting a good deal, and actually charging a surplus to customers who don't have, don't want or cannot easily access a loyalty scheme.
Which or another consumer group found that loyalty card prices are actually the normal price, not a saving.
Another article in the BBC I think found that there were sudden "price hikes" on products a few days before the loyalty price was launched for that item.

They also don't often publish the cost per gram pricing for items on promotion, which also makes it difficult for customers to work out what's the best deal.

It's all smoke and mirrors.

How do you differentiate between rewarding loyalty card holders and penalising those that choose not to have one?

Surely they are both just different sides of the same coin?

The point is loyalty schemes used to reward loyalty - ie, the bigger your spend, the bigger the rewards. That's fine and worked well for years.

Now they've decided to actively penalise people who don't have their loyalty card/app (and it's even worse if it has to be an app as people don't want them, not everyone has a smartphone and not everyone takes it absolutely everywhere).

Bonuses for having a loyalty card, yes

Penalties for not having one, no.

I suspect the CMA will agree with me.

Fair enough if you disagree on principle, but I can't agree that it's remotely difficult to use or to understand the pricing.

I do wonder about the people that don't want the business they buy from knowing what they buy. Do they only ever use cash? Imagine how much information a bank holds! Do they never buy anything online, or if they do, for places that don't allow you to 'checkout as a guest', do they set up a new account every time?

'There have been a few times where me and the checkout person forgot about scanning it, then I had to go to customer services where they reluctantly rescanned all of my shopping. It was too expensive not to'

I can see why they would be reluctant to rescan everything - your receipt details how much you are due back and what points you are due, so there is no need to rescan everything to get that information.

I've had a Clubcard for years, am happy to get lower prices, than if I didn't have it, and despite being "elderly" 🙄 can manage the app ok.

But, it's not compulsory and no one has to get one.👍

I have always had a clubcard but since this pricing strategy I go to Tesco much less.
A couple of things have made me grumpy. I don't see that it's a discount but more a false inflation of the stuff.
There have been a few times where me and the checkout person forgot about scanning it, then I had to go to customer services where they reluctantly rescanned all of my shopping. It was too expensive not to.

I don't even bother with Boots since they introduced the same thing.

People throw the word bully around until it's lost all meaning.

Nobody is being bullied.

It's a choice.

Tesco doesn't send its heavies round to chuck Yorkshire farmhouse free range eggs at your windows if you don't shop there or you do but you don't want a clubcard. 🤷

Do I want Tesco to compile a huge database of what groceries I buy so they can further their evil cause of, erm, knowing which loo roll lovingly strokes my arse after I take a shit?

No = don't get a clubcard, accept this means you pay a few bob more.

Don't give a shit = get a club card save a couple of quid.

It's not bullying because one of your choices is not shop without a clubcard, safe in the knowledge that Tesco doesn't know which brand of razors you buy or whether you eat too many biscuits while still getting the small discounts given to those who do have a clubcard.