To hate the trend of shops giving lower prices for ‘members’

[SaturdayGiraffe]

Just give us lower prices without forcing everyone to carry cards or download apps (that glitch/not scan/no wifi in store).

Just wasted 30min of lunchtime in Boots only to realise my physical card is at home, so I would be charged more. Logged into Boots site and the number isn’t even on there - “we keep the last 3 digits hidden”.

Amazon Prime wins again.

Go on tell me how much you all love carrying cards/downloading apps for £1 off some foot peel socks.

most people

not mort people

Interestingly - on today's BBC website

I've had a Nectar and Clubcard for yonks as historically I would collect points all year and use for Xmas.

As I already have the cards I get the membership prices but didn't sign up for this reason.

What did piss me off was when I forgot my clubcard on holiday last year (as I changed handbags before we left) We were in a beautiful seaside town but the only real shop was a Tesco! So we had to pay full price despite having their bloody card!! I rang customer services to see if they could send me the card details (no!) or give a refund if I kept all my receipts (no!). I was told to download the app but of course as I'd set the account up a decade earlier I couldn't remember the PW and it was my work email so I couldn't reset PW. Essentially computer said no and I was held to ransom to pay higher prices.

I did do an online shop with Sainsburys to our cottage but alas we still used the Tesco a lot as we were there for 10 days. Still annoys me now.

** my clubcard is so old is proceeds the keyrings etc.

I agree @Crunchymum
This is my point.
I don't mind them tracking my shopping habits in exchange for saving up points. It's something I opt into, and when I need to go into a shop and I don't have one of the 17 odd 'loyalty cards; that I have on me, I still have the option to take the receipt in in the next couple of weeks and get the points added.
I don't have that choice with this new thing of charging me more because I have the audacity to pop into a shop on occasions I don't have my full pack of cards on me.

I would much prefer to have a standard price on the shelf and members receiving enough in points to have in effect a lower price (more or less, since points are only for the one store and cash is universal). Most points-based rewards are less generous than that. I guess the difference is psychological, but a set price with spending-based rewards for members feels fairer than separate prices, which don't feel like a reward for members but a punishment for everyone else. Especially since often we can see that the current "members' price" is what used to be the normal universal price before the introduction of this system, so we look at these prices and see the non-members' one as overinflated.

(That is, I would still have issues with the privacy and data collection and tracking involved, which affects likewise standard loyalty cards.)

I see the BBC website is saying that we are now choosing loyalty cards to get lower prices, no we are not, it has been foisted on us, we have no choice if we don't want to pay inflated prices

Name of employer is not a Protected Characteristic.

When the cards were for points it was an optional REWARD.
Now, if you don’t have one it’s a mandatory PUNISHMENT.

Let's use Tesco as an example.

The current cost of production means the supermarkets can no longer afford to put lines on promotion, especially on fresh produce where they often sell at a loss.

To combat this and avoid switching to discounters retailers have promoted on a lower penetration. Only 70% of shoppers have a club card for example and not all of them are used every time so retailers can afford to be keener on price knowing not everyone gets that saving.

If more people get clubcards that's no matter because Tesco are them gaining footfall which is never a bad thing.

Be careful if you’re scanning your own card whilst working for a care company and shopping for a client. It might be classed as fraud. We have just been reminded of this at work this week. Not to scan our own cards for points when on work shops with clients.

@Fiddlerdragon You're committing fraud.

Be careful if you’re scanning your own card whilst working for a care company and shopping for a client. It might be classed as fraud. We have just been reminded of this at work this week. Not to scan our own cards for points when on work shops with clients
I meant to reply to the poster who saud she dud this a few days ago.
When I worked with adults we had a manager who knew what staff where doing with cards but turned a blind eye. Auditors came in fora routine inspection and copped on to it. Manager denied knowing what people were doing and one gog sacked and another had a written warning.
Thank god I didn't have a card!

I was in a supermarket recently and had to rely on the loyalty card app on my phone. They have not sent me a plastic physical card. At the self checkout the app refused to connect and show the scannable bar code for the loyalty card. I had a £30 item reduced to £20 with the card. I asked the young woman staff member on duty what I could do. I said I didn't want to pay the full £30 for the item. She offered to scan her own card, saying 'That way, you'd get the discounts, but I'd get the points'. I said I was perfectly happy with that. Being coy about store name/location or purchase item so as not to possibly identify the staff member in case they aren't supposed to do that. I have now managed to screenshot the loyalty card and print it out. This works fine for scanning.

I was delighted when I got 25% off six bottles of wine the other day in Tesco. Saved me £12!

The Sparks card and Waitrose card seem like a bit of a waste of space though. Waitrose "offers" are never on anything I buy, so their data gathering is a bit shite. Unless, of course, it's deliberate and they don't actually want to give me money off stuff I might actually buy.

I did get a free shop from sparks once!

I did too, and I wished I'd chosen some more wine!

You could choose not to shop there. I haven’t been in a Tesco store in a long time.

You could choose not to shop there. I haven’t been in a Tesco store in a long time.

I did walk out of Tesco when I saw they wanted to charge me more, because I didn't have my clubcard on me. However, with more and more shops doing it, it starts limiting your options.
Plus, whereas it might be easy for me to "choose" my supermarket - I live in a City and I also drive - many people don't have options if they don't have a car, or live more rurally where there just might not be the choice.

How, if there isn't an alternative shop?

Where I used to live, it was sainsburys or nothing. Any other supermarket required spending on multiple bus fares plus a significant walk up/down a hill and a couple of unlit tracks alongside heathland/through woods to reach the stops in the first place. That's not realistic for the people most affected negatively by the card prices.

But lots of people don't have choice. If you live in a village with poor public transport and you don't drive, then you're basically stuck with the village Spar or equivalent convenience store. Or you get a home delivery from your preferred "big" supermarket which is what you can do if you find yourself close to a Tesco but prefer Morrisons!

Bit of news on this topic.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2023/nov/29/cma-right-to-investigate-supermarkets-two-tier-pricing-tactics

Ooh, interesting. I wonder if they have any teeth.