Sainsbury’s and its overuse of vouchers and annoying discount systems

[Danc1ng1nthedark]

It’s now driving me nuts. Aside from the separate prices for Nectar card holders I get sent some quite good vouchers through the post separately weekly dated £7.50 (and above )off a shop and a load of dated extra points awarded for certain items. They are all connected on a perforated sheet you have to rip apart and each token has a different date.I then get given masses (when I pay) of annoying separate paper non perforated slips. I also have a nectar card. Some slips are petrol discount you have to bizarrely give a slip to get back a slip. My purse is rammed.

I work full time and shop/ fill up on my way home from work once a week So at checkout I have to scan my nectar card and pull out masses of slips to sort through and rip. Check dates and check I get petrol back and also take off discount from my Nectar card. I get people huffing behind me and I’m having to be patient for people doing the same in front. The cashiers are sympathetic and think it’s nuts too. I know I should be super organised but I have no idea what necessarily going to end up buying, I’m often knackered and often can’t remember what I’ve exactly bought at checkout either to have all the correct slips to hand. Life is too frantic to have everything prepared before I shop.

Why can’t they just give us a better Nectar card points deal instead of all this faff?
Life is too short. Don’t want to think about the money I’m wasting if I don’t go through the rigmarole so honestly think I’m going to quit and go somewhere with less faff. Would probably save money not looking at Tu and Habitat in the process.

Agree - the so called reward schemes are a waste of time. Much prefer to quality of the fruit and vegetables in Aldi.

One of the reason I stopped shopping at Tesco was the Clubcard prices, I object to being blackmailed into supplying my personal data which can be monetised in order to avoid paying over the odds. I considered moving to Sainsburys switched to Ocado and glad I did

OP, is there a Lidl on the way home? If so, I'd switch to there. Their discounts are very good - I got £10 off my shop once (no minimum amount) and regularly get free products and money off full shop.

The staff are lovely, too. Very helpful and let me know if there's a way I can get the best value for money.

This. Also you can load your nectar card into your Apple wallet (Android wallet???)

Also if you scan as you shop you scan the nectar card at the beginning so don’t need to faff at the end with that.

If you use the app it’s all on there. Also if you use the scanner you get even more discounts offered that are only for online/scanner shopping. Still get the odd printed voucher at the checkouts.

I don’t think we get less via the app though as we can also opt in to the challenges when they come out such as buy 20 fruits or vegetables and earn £2.50/£5 worth of vouchers every week for a month. Same at Christmas they did an offer on collect X amount of points every week and get £5 worth of nectar each week.

I don’t mind selling my soul though because I genuinely shop between Aldi and sainbos so if I can save money I will.

Also the veg was horrible last week in Aldi. Got home opened up the bag of peppers to find loads with holes in, then 2 days later the good ones where rotting. Mushrooms going bad in a day or two. Do look the fact they do TooGoodToGo bags though, though sainbo also do the save me don’t waste me boxes for £2.

Because there isn't really an environmental crisis ?

Fuck getting everyone to switch to a unicorn EV and wave at windmills. If we stopped using paper and postage, we'd be half way to net zero and laughing,

I hare supermarkets.
I hate the fact they have taken away people in favour of machines
I hate the vouchers, the cards, their hold over food producers.
They are horrendous.

My hatred goes back further. I hate that way that over the past 40 years they've ruined independent retail and small shops, and then latterly the High Street. We used to be a genuine "nation of shopkeepers" with shops on virtually every street corner, vibrant High Streets, markets, parades of small shops in residential areas, etc. Tesco, Asda, Morrisons etc have killed all that off.

My family used to have a newsagents on a small parade of around 8 shops including a butcher, greengrocer, grocers, bakery, post office, etc. A bloody great Asda opened up half a mile away and our shop's turnover halved overnight and continued falling. Within a year, we were the last shop standing - all the other had had to close, and we only survived due to newspaper rounds, then a couple of years later, the bloody Asda started selling newspapers too and that completely killed us. The entire parade is now derelict - over the years, a few re-opened for various things, i.e. an office, hairdressers, etc., but none lasted.

Same in the village where we now live. It used to have two grocers, a butcher, post office, newsagent, green grocers, etc., when we first moved here. Now all that's gone.

Completely agree @Kazzyhoward. But one thing I'd say, when our old corner shop got all the neighbours on side with "Tesco, shuts every little shop" signs, and I was glad we had moves was no, I didn't stop using them because of the Tesco Express, I stopped using them because every time I went in, if the mum or daughter were serving, they carried on chatting into their phones without a smile or thank you or greeting. I'm sure your family didn't carry on like that but I'm equally sure that if a supermarket cashier behaved like that, they'd be dismissed.

Never mind the vouchers from the tills (which I never use), my local sainsburys now has screens above the self checkout tills. When I asked why I needed to watch my self scanning stuff, the staff member said she had no idea what they were for.

I have no idea why people think the app is more efficient than a card. Wave your card at the machine - done.

App: get phone, put in PIN (or wait for it to recognise your face), find app, find relevant page, scan. Much longer.

If I am in the queue behind you, I know which one I'd prefer you to do!

Discounts should work on the card.

I assumed they were videoing you so if there is a discrepancy on self-scanning they can work out who it is and arrest you next time.

Or at least, make you think that the above is true, so you scan accurately.

The Lidl and Pets at Home apps never load for me so pretty sure the Sainsbury one won’t be any different.

Completely agree. I also hate the falseness of the language the marketing department use to pretend that we're all great chums. Stuff like this:

Hey Gasp, we're missing you down at [insert local store name here] - it's not the same without you!

I'm afraid my response to letters that start like that is a short phrase starting with fuck and ending with off.

It also irritates me intensely when they send me vouchers through the post but haven't allowed for the fact that our postal service is abysmal, so the vouchers arrive so close to the expiry date they're not going to get used.

And while I'm on the subject of useless vouchers, I have occasionally ordered online from Waitrose. They have sometimes sent me vouchers offering a substantial amount off but the minimum spend is skyhigh and the vouchers are for consecutive weeks. I'm not going to spend £150 a week with you week after week! Send me one a month, or one every three months. That's realistic!

[and relax]

If you have all your cards on your phone, you find the relevant wallet and do all the biz needed before you get to the check out, then you wave your phone at the scanner twice.
Or so I've been told 😁
Apparently you also need to have mobile data switched on.
I never have my phone on me so I still use my debit and nectar card.

Wait till you see the AI cameras checking the self weigh scales.

They irritate me. The petrol ones I only get given, printed at the till, the week after I've just filled up, then it expires weeks before I need to fill up again.

Use the App then you will no longer get the paper vouchers, it will all be on the app for you. Simple 🤷‍♀️

I get my offers the day before they are due to expire (on the app) which really boils my p*ss.

The paper vouchers you get from the cashier/serve yourself tills go in the bin.