To think Waitrose loyalty card is losing all its benefit?

[Precipice]

The free coffee disappeared at the beginning of the pandemic (it's "suspended"), in two weeks the newspaper offer is going. There were to my mind the only tangible benefits of having this loyalty card.

They claim there will be "personalised offers". Of course this is vague, but all it sounds like is that the Waitrose card will become like the loyalty cards of many shops where they get the benefit of tracking your purchases and in return for the loss of your privacy, you get nothing or almost nothing in practice, like the current occasional vouchers of "get x off if you spend ". (You can tell perhaps that I am not a loyalty card "fanatic", but I am willing to use some in some circumstances.)

@eldora

John Lewis has stopped sending us the free coffee and cake vouchers. We rarely shopped there, they must have got sick of us.

Friend got the coffee and cake one, none of the rest of us did. She queried it and apparently that's a random one that only goes out to a few people. The other offers are rubbish. I entered the draw for several before Christmas. Didn't win, won't bother again. I would much rather have a small offer I can actually use than the chance to enter a bigger competition along with hundreds of other people.

@HarryDresdensLeatherDuster

It has been the worst and most pointless loyalty card for years!

Oh hang on, M&S are up there too.

Not when you got coffee and a paper. It is now though!

I used to get vouchers for stuff I've never bought e.g. I've bought Felix cat food for years and then you'll get a voucher for IAMS. Then when both my cats had died over a year before, I was still getting bloody weird cat food vouchers. It was quite upsetting actually.

I used to get really good money off vouchers from them. Nothing for literally years now.
Oh and I was a loyal hone delivery customer. All the slots fucked off at the start of the pandemic and have taken literally years to come back.
So now I use Sainsbury's.

I like the co-op one because it gives me actual money I can spend on my shopping and the total seems to mount up really quickly - I’m on a tenner since the start of the year already (though that probably speaks more to how terrible I am at doing a more organised ‘big’ shop, therefore having to pop to the coop at the end of the road all the bloody time).

I've given up using mine, but then I've virtually given up shopping at Waitrose. They have reduced and reduced the size of their products that it's now frankly too expensive for what you get.

The waitrose money off vouchers are stupid. They used to send me £3.00 off £30.00 or £5.00 off £50.00 .I used all of those. Then they had a brain fart and started sending £7.00 off £70.00 and £9.00 off £90.00. There are 2 of us at home. Even at Waitrose prices I cannot spend that much . I don't need loo roll and washing powder every week and the deals are far better elsewhere so I don't buy them at waitrose anyway. No way I can get to the amounts.

@TheSmallAssassin

For me, it's worth it to be able to scan as I shop, makes life so much easier.

As a previous poster said, they are still doing monthly donations, it's just equally divided between that month's three charities.

You can scan at sainsbury's too. They have better offers

It's never been a benefit as far as I'm concerned. I don't read print edition newspapers and their coffee is tasteless crap.

I only use mine for the self scan shopping, and I only go about once a month now because I always seem to spend £100, even if I've only bought a few vegetables, milk and some cat food.

Their prices are insane, shopping at the farmers' market is cheaper now and the food is better!

You can scan as you shop in Asda and Tesco too.

It's gutting isn't it? I used to use it to justify my Fiona cairns cupcake habit and accidentally spend a fortune when I popped in but now I'm forced to face up to the fact that I can spend much less and be almost as happy in Tesco.

Yup, Tesco is much better. I will stop shopping there as my excuse was the free newspaper, but they really did piss me off taking away all of the delivery slots for eons over the pandemic and the other thing that annoys me is there is plastic bags that things like bread and frozen peas that come in that you are supposed to recycle in store. I usually wait until I have a fairly big pile and take them in, but Waitrose have a tiny slot you are supposed to post then through, one by one. First world problems eh!

I did a big shop in M&S before Christmas, swiped my Sparks card and was given the whole shop for free. Until then I had rolled my eyes at the till asking me "Have you scanned your Sparks card?"

We saved a fortune with Waitrose in Nov & Dec as we had £22 off each shop. They tailor the offer to the amount you regularly spend, so wd tend to put small shops on one MyW card and bigger shops on another.

Also given up scanning mine. I used to love getting a coffee. They're not having my shopping data for nothing in return.

I got a terrific offer on Sunday 6th. £4 off a £40 shop, valid until...Monday 7th. Cheers.

Well I find the food is better

I like to pop in for a couple of bits if I’m nearby (I love their world food aisle and organic meat for my husband) but for two of us I’m getting vouchers for £10 off a £110 spend. I don’t spend anywhere near that when I go in, so I don’t know why I keep getting these vouchers for such stupid amounts 🥴

I get most nectar points on eBay now, sainsburys annoyed me bumping off all their home delivery slots during Covid (I’d been a home delivery customer for three years) and I now mainly use my boots and Tesco loyalty cards. Morrison’s is a bit meh but at least the three offers are tailored to my shop. Tight buggers the lot of them 😐

Thousands of John Lewis partners got laid off. Waitrose and John Lewis stores are closing. And you are whinging about a free newspaper.

Yep. Eroded the benefits. Used to be able to get the coffee in the in-store cafe then they removed that. Can't see the free coffee ever returning.

I used to be quite a loyal Waitrose shopper. They sent me regular vouchers and I enjoyed the free coffee & newspapers. During the pandemic they took away the coffee machines, then the vouchers stopped, then they closed my local store and now the papers are going.

Now, I’m quite a loyal Lidl shopper.

@HewasH2O

I did a big shop in M&S before Christmas, swiped my Sparks card and was given the whole shop for free. Until then I had rolled my eyes at the till asking me "Have you scanned your Sparks card?"

We saved a fortune with Waitrose in Nov & Dec as we had £22 off each shop. They tailor the offer to the amount you regularly spend, so wd tend to put small shops on one MyW card and bigger shops on another.

I do the same amount shop each time. Around £30 or £40 pounds. They send me money off for £70.00 shops.

The worst offers of all come from Ocado. I regularly get emails from them saying "buy this disgusting sounding new product for a chance to win a year's worth of it free".
By comparison John Lewis's "click this button to have a one in a million chance of winning a weekend at Champneys" seems like a really good deal.

I have one in town but frankly shopping in there is horrible. Full of very entitled people barging their way round and people I know, so it takes ages to get round. Never could get the coffee machine.

However last year I had six vouchers for £4 off £20 spend last year. That was pretty good. Made sure I used them all.
Normally it’s £4 off £40 or £60 which I just bin as lovely Tesco will deliver twice as much stuff for free for £40.

Yep. We used to go in and have a coffee, a newspaper and buy a cake (and usually several bits and bobs) at least a couple of times a week. My DH when working shifts used to go there and have lunch with a free coffee and newspaper. We now go maybe once or twice a month for a bit of shopping, but that's it. I know they said they felt people were abusing the system but I think theyll have lost a lot of regular custom like ours with their changes.

@DahliaMacNamara

I got a terrific offer on Sunday 6th. £4 off a £40 shop, valid until...Monday 7th. Cheers.

Yes I got that too! As I'd just spent £50 I was hardly going to pop in the next day and spend another £40.