To be fed up with all the NHS discount codes?

[YouDoYouHun]

Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for NHS workers on the front line dealing with the pandemic, that's not what this thread is about, but AIBU to have had enough of shops and businesses offering NHS discount only? Generally, this isn't a new thing and has been around since last March, but this past week or so I have received quite a few emails from various shops/businesses (I won't name) including national and local, offering discount codes for NHS staff only. Great, they deserve it....but what about everyone else too? What about supermarket workers? Council workers? Labourers? Delivery drivers? The postal service? What about the people who have lost their jobs too? Granted, disposable income will be low to non existent so frivolous online shopping purchases will likely not be high on the priority list, but wouldn't that be more reason to offer a discount? for people struggling? How about a pandemic discount code so everyone can enjoy a treat rather than just singling out the NHS and sending the message that unless you work for the NHS you are undeserving?

The NHS also covers a huge variation of roles and I don't particularly find it fair that Mary who works behind the scenes gets the discount just because she is an NHS employee but Barry who works in a supermarket doesn't receive any discount because he doesn't work for the NHS? Not the greatest example, but you hopefully get my point.

This isn't meant to sound grabby. It's not about the discount. Shops/businesses are struggling too and don't have to offer any discount at all. My point is, if there is going to be a discount offered, why effectively invalidate other professions by sending the message that they haven't worked hard enough/suffererd enough to receive the 'prize' that is a discount code?

YABU - what are you talking about? Only NHS employees should receive discounts.

YANBU - This pandemic has affected us all in different ways and we shouldn't be made to feel any less important because we don't work for the NHS.

Why don’t you moan about student discounts....what have they done to deserve that?

Or caravan club members getting discount in Blacks and on the euro tunnel and various ferries and the AA and various insurance?

OP how do you feel about students getting their usual 10% discounts ? This has been going on for years .

YABU, the NHS employs literally millions of people who have an NHS email address and can therefore “prove” eligibility easily. It’s a simple and effective way for a company to offer a discount - it’s nothing more than a marketing ploy.

The businesses still make huge profits despite the discounts and discounts are not new. I honestly cannot tell you the last time I paid full price for anything! I am a serial discount user, I am a member of Quidco and top cashback and MSE and many other discount websites. I use voucher and coupons. There is even a referral code thread on here for sites where discounts don’t exist - if you want/need them, they are available you just have to look.

To me it’s the same as shopping around and that is available to all. 99% of the time, the stores offering discounts to NHS staff will be offering the same discount to everyone else just under a different guise.

It annoys me that NHS and other public sector staff are paid so badly that it is considered normal to offer discounts. The government should use our taxes to give them a fair wage plus free parking, decent PPE and access to good quality canteen food at cost price and other benefits appropriate to their role.

It should not be up to supermarkets to top this up, no doubt at a cost to other customers who could be in equal or greater need.

But there’s always discounts that can’t be accessed by every Tom, Dick and Harry isn’t there? Student discount? OAP/Child concessions? Are they unfair too?

It just seems strange to get het up about it. I mean you could join the NHS if you want.

I find the British obsession with fawning over NHS staff nauseating and tiring

I would not put it quite so bluntly, but it is a fact that other countries also have health services and none of this weird fawning goes on.

because it was too unsafe to enter in case of Covid.

@RedFrogsRule that is almost certainly because of the risk of them bringing Covid into the home and putting the residents at risk. Not themselves.

So you think that places should give discounts to huge numbers of the working population? They may as well just lower their prices and not give anyone a discount. How would companies afford this? Of course it’s only NHS, they are the ones being hit hardest during this. Working front line ICU is completely different to someone working in a shop or even a teacher. Of course they deserve it more.

Most supermarkets give hteir own staff a discount surely? I know Morries, ASDA and Tesco all give staff 10%.

Where do you stop with giving discounts OP?
Many people are key workers.
You can;t give everyone a discount- then it is no longer a discount.

You are whinging, and taking personally, something that is a marketing decision by a trading company.

It isn’t a state benefit or entitlement.

You are not being hard done by, just not getting a discount off the price.

Can you just not be happy that someone is getting a little perk and move on?

Or do you want a whole sliding scale: And extra 1% for every person you had due in front of you today, an extra 1.5% if you had to tell a family their Mum had died, 2% if she was under the age of 40 and had kids?

@Shaniac

Yanbu this is also why i dont shop at Iceland. Even pre pandemic they do nhs discount and police discounts and fire service discounts but refuse military discount as they dont like the military. Nhs staff are no more worthy than anyone else.

The Armed Forces can have a Blue Light Card too. I find this “the NHS are having a discount so we must have one too” tantrum across some of the forces community infuriating. We get a lot of discounts where the NHS don’t. It’s not about us all the time.

Anyway, YABU OP, DS2 and DDIL are nurses. I wouldn’t begrudge them a free house for life after what they’ve been through this past year, and let’s not forget there’s more to come. This is going to have an effect on them for ever.

NHS discounts have been around for years, as have emergency service discounts and military discounts. There’s plenty of jobs in those sectors If you’re so desperate for a bit of money off.

@AriadnesWeb

because it was too unsafe to enter in case of Covid.

@RedFrogsRule that is almost certainly because of the risk of them bringing Covid into the home and putting the residents at risk. Not themselves.

The residents had Covid.....so I can assure you it was the fire brigade refusing to take the same risk as the carers

I can assure you that the "backroom" staff in the NHS are not sat with their feet up either. I work in data science for the NHS and have worked incredibly hard this past year. I also know that everyone else has too and there is a risk of burn out for all sorts of staff (there is a lack of analytics capacity in the NHS as you can earn much more from private companies).

And for those who question why I don't leave. I want to help others rather than line the pockets of shareholders.

As for the discounts. They've always existed and this year I've been too busy to access any.

Dh is frontline nhs. Where does he sign up for all these discounts please? We never get sent discount offers.

He doesn't get his second vaccine either. So currently in very high risk role and vulnerable. Am sure 10% off at Morrison's would make that stress go away...

NHS, emergency services and forces discounts have been a thing since I had a student card 20 years ago. So can't get worked up about it now just because it's more visible...

@DifficultPifcultLemonDifficult

The alternative would be that nobody gets a discount.

Why do people see something nice that a company is doing for someone else and instead of being happy that there's a bit of a treat for someone, they just complain about it because they can't get it?

Would it really improve your life if NHS workers didn't get a discount?

@DifficultPifcultLemonDifficult

To compensate for discounts offered to NHS staff, I assume other customers are all paying slightly higher prices, so OP might benefit from these discounts being withdrawn

OP, I hear you. A friend of mine works in admin at NHS, nowhere near a hospital or patients. Her role exists in all industries, it just happens that she is at NHS

Her job is rock solid secure, zero risk, no additional workload due to NHS, all just carrying on as normal. She acknowledges that she is in a better position than many, and to her credit she never requests an NHS discount

I find the British obsession with fawning over NHS staff nauseating and tiring

I’ve also never understood this, other countries don’t act like this. It’s really quite odd.

Nhs discounts are not a new thing. Many of the shops also offer discounts to military and police etc.

there is a coffee shop near me that gives free coffee to the police and NHS which is tearing its hair out as they are near a big hospital and the police have now earmarked it as “theirs” (you never see a policeman ‘on the beat’ around there but sure as shit there will be 6 or so at any time outside this coffee shop). With the restrictions on how many people can go into the shop at any time, the queue is often very long. And about 75% of the queue is made up of people in key worker uniforms. Up to the coffee shop of course, but they are paying their staff to basically come in and give coffee away. The manager has said a few times that while goodwill is important, she feels such pressure to keep it up but they are haemorrhaging money. She’s mentioned maybe changing it to a 50% discount but says there has been a lot of resistance and chuntering from the key workers who ‘won’t go there anymore’. Won’t go there for their free stuff!
Personally I would rather that NHS staff were paid better but I can’t get worked up about people in the front line getting 10% off some stuff.

He can sign up for a blue light card . Also why is he not getting the second vaccination ? I was given the time and date for my second when I got my first ( also frontline nhs )

Sorry the above post is to tilder!

Sigh, this again. It had been a few weeks since this thread made the rounds.

Firstly all the discounts currently offered to the NHS have always been around via the blue light card that you have to pay a fiver for. They're just more advertised now to get people's attention and show that the businesses are supporting the NHS.

The Morrison's one is new though that's true! To be honest it's been a brilliant marketing scheme, we've switched to Morrison's for that reason (husband and I both work for NHS), and despite the 10% off probably still spend £100 in there a week that was previously going to Tesco. We now really like Morrison's so will continue to shop there (we regularly forget to take our card to get discount too). So well done Morrison's haha. I know many of our colleagues that have switched to Morrison's for the same reason.

Also for the millionth time, hospitals can't function without the "back office" admin staff who have been worked like dogs too. Yes not always front like intubating patients obviously. In our trust, covid ripped through the porters for a couple of weeks, admin staff such as finance and It were redeployed to be porters. Some still do it now as so many porters are shielding. Payroll need to keep working as the docs will not work if they don't get paid! Medical staffing need to work as there's up to 50% gaps on the rotas so without them those shifts wouldn't be filled (they often go up to the wards to beg doctors to do extra shifts, the business matrons (not patient facing) have been trying to come up with new ways of working to get patients seen safely etc, complaints team have never been so inundated,

Everyone working for the nhs is a vital cog.

But I do agree, everyone working full stop through the pandemic is vital and worthy of discount! But why begrudge those who get it? I'd be lobbying for others to get it not the NHS to not

I found it a bit galling when a customer recently asked if we give any discount for NHS staff - I had to take a deep breath before I replied. We run a small business, DH and I have barely taken any salary since March (and couldn't claim furlough for ourselves but fortunately could for our staff), and we still have had all of the bills to pay. We are barely coming out of the other side, and this newest lockdown has hit far harder than the other ones.

I find any level of entitlement very hard to swallow, frankly.