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.

@Vitriolinsanity There are plenty of companies who would pay very good money for a list of the addresses of women in their 80s and 90s who live alone and are susceptible to a “good bargain”. Lots of companies that specialise in door to door sales and high pressure selling techniques with “one day only bargains” for example. A lot of these companies will be selling high-ticket items like double-glazing, home improvements etc. Buying a list from Tesco of addresses of the customers most likely to fall for their sales pitches would be worth every penny that they pay for it. If one of those people knocks at your mum’s door it may no longer be just chance. They could be deliberately targeting her precisely because she belongs to a demographic and has a purchase history that suggests she is more likely than the average person to buy from those companies.

Maybe, maybe not. Do you remember when they first brought in self-scan, having carefully calculated that the small amount of extra theft would be more than offset by the staffing savings? Now all the supermarkets are bringing in the barriers to exit self-scan due to high levels of theft...

Im not sure can blame the supermaeket till startagists for not foreseeing the cost of living crisis and associated food poverty, it's a complex issue

This happens less now, especially from big supermarkets due to significant data restrictions and privacy legislation. But retailers can use this data because you gave them permission so that's their way in and why retailers do it and why they want you to use the apps.

I don't go into Tesco for this very reason

I don't use shopping apps on my phone so have had to put all the cards in Apple wallet, I don't want my phone cluttered up with Tesco and Waitrose apps, it's all a bit of a pain really having to do this. Time to stop going into the stores I think, it's all do it yourself now so a lot of hard work. I don't want to have to get my phone out in shops to use cards on it

Genuinely can't get my head round loyalty cards annoying people so much.

All of these types of cards are virtual in my iPhone wallet so they're easy to access

I also have theatre tickets on there and even Eurostar tickets

I have mini Tesco, nectar and Waitrose key fob cards which are very handy too

They buy the data with the offers. It's mutually beneficial

I don't think it's a scam, we have strict laws on private companies use of customer data. They have to set out the use in a Privacy Notice. If you believe they've not done this / processed your day in a way that's not compliant, report it to the Information Commissioners Office.

I hate it too.
I have also walked out, refusing to pay extra because I've nipped in unexpectedly for something and didn't have my 'big wallet' on me.
I've actually got cards for most of the supermarkets - but end up with so many, it makes it too bulky to walk around with all the cards. If I were doing 'a big shop' there, I'd take the card, but when I make an impulse decision to pop in for something, I don't have the card on me, and I refuse to pay extra because of it.

I've stopped shopping anywhere that does this. It's infuriating.

In the nicest way possible, are you around much on MN? There are threads about posters being annoyed about all manner of things. Surely it's not surprising that loyalty cards, merchant data collection and pricing discrimination might be one of those annoyances?

There's an App called Stocard and you can load all your cards on to it. Easy!

What you're missing is that, for many shops, you don't just have to have the loyalty card to avoid paying the inflated price, because in many cases, the 'discounted' price is the normal price unless you think £3+ is a sensible price for a tube of pringles or jar of sauce for example.

You also have to go into the app, every time you shop to activate the offer. Otherwise you pay the higher price. Its deliberately like this because they know people forget.

Its like this in Sainsburys, M&S and Morrisons at least, and possibly other supermarkets.

That's what people find annoying as it's yet another thing they have to remember to do.

These cards either mean you have to carry a large purse full of cards or retrieve your phone from the bottom of your bag every time you shop. No wonder people don't bother anymore and just shop online

Sainsburys isn't as bad because the members prices are on a relatively small number of goods (although I still don't like it) I popped in Tesco and it was on loads of stuff.

I shop online at Tesco and yes, most things are Clubcard price, I told DH not to go into Tesco and buy stuff in passing because of this as no way would he remember to use a Clubcard or even have it with him, he doesn't want to bother with his phone for this and have Tesco on it for an occasional shop.

A lot of doing it like this is to catch the occasional shopper like my DH who barely knows what loyalty card is, I guess there are many of these types of shopper about. I have an old Nectar card which I only used on eBay but have now had to resurrect it for if I am going to shop in Sainsbury's, DH hasn't got one though and I can't see that he would get one.

I carry reward cards in my wallet, I don't even have to think about them, they are just always there. Doesn't seem like much of a hassle to me.

I wonder if they lose out on people who can’t bring themselves to pay the non-member price because they don’t have a card with them for whatever reason, as it feels so painful and so walk away from the purchase altogether. They must measure these things and decide they can afford to write off these customers.
Me! Lol! First time this appeared in Tesco myself and dh were getting a few bits and saw (as people pointed out) that the normal price was only available through club card. A passing employee said it would quick to sign up online. Couldn’t get it onto phone, we were both on phones trying and dh said ‘nah. No, forget this,’ and we did that big ‘make a point’ petty thing of placing everything back and walking out heads held high. I’m sure nobody noticed and we shot ourselves in the foot but we felt like we’d made a point😅

Well that’s fine for us who embrace how life in 2023 is.
But when they introduced it, it was a huge issue for my 84 year old grandfather who only has Tesco as an option. He is a proud man and didn’t like to think he was bothering his grandchildren so it was probably 2-3 months before I made the connection and had to create an email just to get him his own club card. He’d probably pissed away the best part of £100 in paying inflated prices during that time, it’s mindless. I’ve boycott them on his behalf because I can make a choice.

+He is a proud man and didn’t like to think he was bothering his grandchildren*

That's the issue. Not the Clubcard.

It's the overinflated prices that make my blood boil. Is our data really that valuable that they can afford to discount products by 50%? So a jar of coffee is £8 but they will sell it for £4 in return for my shopping habits. It's crazy m.