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.

The issue is not carrying a card around. It's the fact that an extremely sophisticated, detailed picture is being built of you and your family, that is then used to target you (and your children) with advertising – especially when they are online.

Retailers and data companies know extremely intimate details about you and your family, just from your shopping. The sorts of details you wouldn't tell anyone else.

That's why they give you such tempting offers for signing up – because all of this highly intimate data is incredibly valuable to them, and the companies they sell it on to.

Love my Tesco club card prices, takes two minutes to set up. I really not fussed that they harvest my data, not sure what they are going to get out of the fact that once again I have bought 4vpackets of jammie dodgers.

Yes Lidls do a loyalty app but I don't have it and they don't do the wanky two tier prices because they are cheaper to start with.

Similar to others above, I was never sent a physical card for Tesco, just the phone version and it is a pain if it logs out, the signal goes or it needs updating.

The issue is not carrying a card around. It's the fact that an extremely sophisticated, detailed picture is being built of you and your family, that is then used to target you (and your children) with advertising – especially when they are online.

I'm genuinely curious about this. Could you explain how they could target me? They presumably would only have my postal address and the (fake or "burner") email address I put on the form. They're very welcome to send me junk mail every day, it goes straight in the recycling bin! (And presumably costs them a lot of money.)

I don't really understand why data on my digestive-biscuit consumption is of any value to them at all.

I have exactly that problem in sainsburys grrr

I had the same coffee experience in Sainsburys as @awimbawaaay so put all my shopping (all £10 of it!) and went to B&M where I got the same size and brand of coffee for £6. I know its stupid of me as I used to have all the loyalty cards when I did the family shop and it did save me lots of money. Then they all changed the rewards and the children left home and now I'm shopping for one. So I cancelled them all and funnily enough hardly get any junk emails or post now!

Its the blatant advertising of it that riles me - I wouldn't have a problem with them doing it at the till - but by advertising the discounted prices on the shelf its the 'you're not in our club so we are better than you' vibes that annoy me.

They will identify that people with your digestive biscuit consumption levels typically also buy other specific products - and send you advertising (e.g. coupons) specifically about these items. Thereby tempting you both to buy more items and keeping you loyal (because you identify with the store as they sell items that appeal to you as a digestive biscuit lover).

in fairness I should think that’s pretty obvious to anyone who thought about if for a couple of minutes…

…personally, I’m fine with that 🤷‍♀️

Waitrose is a lot cheaper for branded items than the co-op here days. For example heinz soups £1.90 a tin at the coop and £1.70 or 3 for £4 in waitrose.

Yanbu. I don't bother with tesco anymore.
I don't want endless cards cluttering up my purse, just a few essential ones. I won't add a supermarket app on my phone either.

I think this thread alone makes it clear it's not obvious. The leap from "they're using my data to make money" to "they are willing to pay me for my data" is not one that's all that common.

Here's an interesting article from the FT re the power of Retail Media: https://www.ft.com/content/3224a3f6-cf02-4e1f-95f9-9b90da204377 In summary, retailers are seeing huge revenue growth in selling advertising.

You don't have to use apps.
You can use the physical cards.
If you don't get internet in a store just take a photo of it and we can scan that at the check out .
I don't really understand the angst about it tbh

Yes really hate it normally just have my phone and a bank card on me no purse these days. Saying that has saved me money as I have refused to buy stuff that would have been cheaper if I had that store card with me !

The Tory government floated the idea of cheaper basic foodstuffs as a distraction from their failings a couple of weekends ago. No chance of it ever happening.

Whereas same prices for all customers could easily be achieved. By law if needs be.

*I hate it too because my Tesco app ALWAYS logs me out because there’s no signal in the shop O often have to go stand by the front door to get signal to sign on for cheaper goods.

infuriating*

You can get a photo of it and then screen shot it or just get the card itself.

Oh, and I'ma also fine with it. not least becuase increasingly I don't have to scroll through 100s of offers because they're already optimised for me.

Which store uses photos as I have no signal in several stores main one being morrisons keep forgetting to order a new card !

YANBU OP.

It's not just the card, with a lot of them you have to remember to accept the offers in the app to get the discount, otherwise you miss out. And that's what they bank on. People forgetting.

It's just another layer of life admin and brain clutter that I'd rather be able to avoid but that means being ripped off with higher prices.

@OhBling I did caveat that with ‘anyone who has thought about it for a couple of minutes’

Obviously I wouldn’t hold it over anyone for not thinking that deeply into it (it’s loyalty cards after all!) but I doubt anyone would be shocked by the connection once it was made .

If they can afford to sell coffee at £4 to Margaret the member, then they can afford to sell it to me at the same price. Bloody robbers!

Re. Tesco Clubcard - I kept getting to the checkout and finding the app wouldn;t connect, so no Clubcard to be scanned. They never sent me a physical card. So when I got it to show up at home I printed the code on A4 and folded it up. It works just as well.

I can't see the problem. I use the apps online and take the physical cards for shopping.

I get money off, and if they want my shopping info, they must get bored very quickly lol 🙄

There’s also some retailers who do make you pay for membership - and then you get much lower prices. Like Beautypie for example.

I guess the theory is that you will choose to buy more stuff, so that the membership discounts on products you buy is more than you’ve spent on the membership. Also because you’ve already shelled out for a year’s membership, so should stock up now before you have to pay for another year.

The only reason I got a Nectar card and a myWaitrose card is to be able to use self-scanning for my shopping. That is worth every single pixel of data I am giving them - I HATE queuing to have my shopping scanned (it’s one reason I avoid Morrisons whenever possible - none of the ones near me have that option - don’t know if that’s U.K. wide). I don’t have a Tesco card because I don’t have a Tesco near me but if I moved to a place that had a good one near me I’d sign up.

Seeing Nectar prices at Sainsburys recently has been a bonus, as has Waitrose sending me coupons for my favourite granola.

I don’t see the big deal in their being able to use my purchases to advertise - I am free to ignore it (and I usually do). Shops are still businesses - they are allowed to advertise their wares and we consumers are allowed to ignore the advertisements and decline the membership offers that come with the discounts.