Walgreens is a largish drug store chain in the US.
In addition to the pharmacy, they sell greeting cards / makeup / candy / cigarettes / batteries etc.
Today I went into my local store to pick up a tube of toothpaste. At the register, I was asked if I had a customer loyalty card, and when I said I didn’t want one, I was told that as of next week, if I don’t have a card, I won’t be able to use in store sales, or store coupons.
Really? What the hell? It’s not like Walgreens is the only place to buy this stuff. It’s not even always the cheapest. When I need one or two items, I tend to go there because it’s smaller and easier to get in and out of. Heck, in the 1/4 mile between the Walgreens and my office, there is a Target store and a grocery store. Instead of luring customers to their card, by offering additional discounts, they are now beating us by taking away those that already exist.
So Walgreens, shove your card. I’m not going to stuff another item in my wallet just so I can be your free market survey. I’ll be spending my money with your friendly neighbors.
If this turns out to be true, I’ll be just as pissed off as you are. But I’ve been looking for a cite for this, and the only thing I’ve found has been articles like this one that say Walgreens is launching a loyalty card program that will award “points” for purchases. No mention of any penalties or restrictions for not having a card.
I don’t know about ALL sales, but I picked up a card last week because the buy one get one free cider special only applied to Walgreens loyalty card members.
All the drug store chains here already require a card for many of their sale items. My key ring has more loyalty cards on it than keys. You are not required, however, to give them true and accurate information.
Hopefully, they’ll let you use a phone number at checkout, rather than requiring the actual card. If someone in every area code sets up a dummy account with 867-5309 as the phone number, all will be well.
CVS tells you that it’s required to scan your loyalty card to get discounts and sales, but they also allow you to look it up by phone number, and even have a “courtesy card” button on their self-checkouts. Hopefully Walgreens will implement this system soon.
I loathe loyalty cards with the white-hot fury of a thousand suns, at least when I can muster up the energy. I try very hard to avoid shopping any place that has them, although that’s getting more and more difficult.
Beside store cards tracking your purchases and helping the store build up a data base on each of its customers, they add overhead and in the long run result in somewhat higher prices. The supermarket around here that has no customer loyalty cards is also the one with the lowest prices.
I just stopped in to Walgreens the day before yesterday on my way home to grab a couple bottles of water. When I was at the checkout paying for the water, the cashier told me she was going to give me the form (or whatever) I needed for my loyalty card. I told her her “No thanks, not needed.” She said “Oh but you’ll need it to save on all our sale items, etc.” I looked at her blankly for a sec and said, “It’s just one extra thing in my wallet that I don’t need; no thanks. I rarely even come into this place anyway.”
But she persisted!! “Oh but you don’t even need to have a card, you can do it all online.” I was ready to go at this point. “I’m really ok, ma’am.” Unbelievably, she said, “Well, I’ll just put it in your bag anyway.” :eek: Wha…wha…what? At that point I just shrugged my shoulders and threw up my hands in defeat. “Whatever.”
I don’t even go into Walgreens. I sure as shit ain’t going again. :eek: Weird.
