Mostly, I shop for groceries in local low-cost German supermarkets - "Lidl" and "Aldi". Nonetheless, occasionally I visit high-price supermarkets like "Tesco", "Sainsbury" and "ASDA". What begins to irritate me in these palaces of commerce is that at the checkout I am always asked if I have that store's loyalty card. It's the same in petrol stations. "Have you get a Nectar card?", "Have you got a Shell card?", "Have you got a Clubcard?"
Well to all of these people I would like to say - No I bloody well haven't! Why would I even think about showing loyalty to a supermarket or a petrol provider? For a measly few pence and a bunch of "privileges" I don't need? No way! And besides it is patently obvious that these loyalty cards represent cynical trickery - to capture your business and via computer wizardry to investigate your buying habits.
In coffee shops and some pubs you will also get cards that can be stamped. Ten stamps and you get a free coffee or a free bag of crisps or something. Do they think we are stupid and so desperate that we are going to play that demeaning stamping game, fishing out the cards from our pockets every time we visit? They can get lost.
If I am going to show loyalty to anything it will not be to a damned supermarket or a coffee shop. Loyalty is a precious asset and I prefer to show it to my family, my beloved county (Yorkshire), the natural environment, my football team (Hull City), The Labour Party and to the memory of all the young Englishmen who died in past wars for our freedom. Is there a plastic card for that kind of loyalty I wonder?
Eat your heart out Victor Meldrew!
Eat your heart out Victor Meldrew!
I remember once shopping for a trolley-load at Sainsburied only to find at the checkout that their card payment system was down and they were demanding cash (which I didn't have with me). They seemed quite peeved when I simply left the groceries on their conveyor belt, I think they expected me to put them all back on their warehouse shelves or something before I left. Grotty places, all.
ReplyDeleteNice one Mr Hutson!
DeleteYou show loyalty to your family, by decorating and practical things, oh and the love that is clearly shown. Yorkshire: your posts and photographs. Hull City: you wearing the scarf and hanging it out of the car as you drive to a match. The Labour Party: your much loved Gannex mac that you insist on wearing in all weathers. You wear your poppy with pride, I'm sure. All these things don't need a loyalty card; your loyalty is embedded deep in your DNA. Just wish more folk had your principles and values.
ReplyDeleteLLX
Hell Lettice, how did you know abot my Gannex mac? So pleased you didn't mention my pipe!
DeleteWell said YP!
ReplyDeleteI shall take a bow only for you ma'am!
DeleteI too scorn loyalty cards but never refuse help with packing. I enjoy the service. What really annoys me is the queuing. It doesn't matter which checkout I pick I always get behind some daft old bat with a handful of money off vouchers she's cut from the Sunday Sport or NUTS or somewhere. I then get to the tobacco and newspaper counter to find the same individual claiming money back for coffee she bought as she had mistaken Nescafe for gravy granules.
ReplyDeleteIt can get worse if two months worth of lottery tickets have to be checked.
Use Whiterose. They are a bit more expensive but it adds years to ones life.
Whiterose/Waitrose! You must be kidding Adrain! Those places are only for toffs!
DeleteWe used to shop in sainsburys
ReplyDeleteThen tesco opened nearer
Recently I popped into sainsburys ( keep with it)
And was given a voucher for 18 pounds off my next shop
18!
They remembered me
They have still done the calculations Earl. In two weeks I would easily save £18 by shopping at Lidl and Aldi - compared with Posh Sainsburys.
DeleteNow, if the staff of a grocer's were to sit me down, pour me a scotch and light my Romeo e Julieta for me while they ran off to complete my shopping list, adding it to my account (to be settled monthly, of course), they would earn my undying loyalty.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that is going to happen Hippo! You are living in a dream world old chap!
DeleteRegarding getting 10 stamps on your coffee card - once upon a time, while at university (you get the picture), a friend saw a similar offer - after 20 pints of beer at the local, you'd get a pair of sunglasses.
ReplyDeleteProbably as peeved as you about having to remember and find his card everytime he went in (or maybe just because he was a uni student), he duly requested his 20 pints of beer to be lined up on the counter there and then, and - with a little help from his friend (guess who!) - by the end of the night he'd earned his loyalty sunglasses ... whether they, or he, actually made it home that night is another story ...
Were they beer goggles?
DeleteWhen they ask me if I have a card, I always say "Sure, but I don't like to pack it around with me." Then they ask me for my phone number. When it doesn't register, then I say, "I changed it and I don't remember the old number, it was my cell phone." Most of the time they just give me the discount rather than play games.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should reply - "No I don't but do you? And can you explain the advantages of possessing this card?"
DeleteDidn't you ever collect green shield stamps either, YP? Having said that, I divide my shopping between Aldi and Sainsbury's and get petrol at Sainsbury's. At the end of the year, my Nectar points usually pay for at least half of our Christmas food shopping (includes drink)!
ReplyDeleteIncluding drink? Bloody hell Jenny, Christmas with one small bottle of Babycham?
DeleteWe do love Aldi. And I buy breads at a discount bread store (end of route dropoffs, etc) where not only can I buy 12 English muffins (I know, they're not really English ) for $2 instead of $6 but also get the little card punched each time you spend $5 or more and after ten punches it's $5 of free bread. Sounds like a good deal to me. I'm not going to cut off my nose to spite my face. But Kroger's loyalty card? (For every $100 spent in a month, get 10 cents a gallon off at the gasoline (petrol) pumps). Forget it. That's spend $100 to save a dollar and fifty cents on a 15-gallon capacity gasoline tank. I'd rather drive to Aldi and save 50% on my grocery bill. Some "deals" are anything but.
ReplyDeleteSo they have "Aldi" in America now? Perhaps they should be made to underwrite Obamacare. After all we allies won the war - even though you lot appeared rather late in the day!
DeleteHere, the big two supermarkets (Woolworths and Coles ) give petrol discounts with every $30 spent thus doing their best to put the independent petrol suppliers out of business. ( like they have the butchers, green grocers, and bakeries ). As soon as this competition has been eliminated they hike the prices up and the fools who helped them in their campaign then have to pay a randsom for their bread, meat and fruir& veg. We do have Aldi but their shops are a mess and poorly stocked and the ones I saw in Switzerland were the same so they haven't won me over yet.
ReplyDeleteHaven't found any that have earned my loyalty as yet.