The supermarkets around here that have loyalty cards will swipe a generic number into their system if you don’t have a card. I find it amusing because it completely defeats the purpose of having one!
I’ve never been impressed by Walgreens, even though it’s closer to me than the local CVS. I can’t even think of the last time I bought anything there, or CVS, for that matter.
Especially with Jenny.
With this new card, and the number of prescriptions I get at Walgreen’s for my family, I’m soon going to own a fucking Walgreen’s.
I got this same spiel last week at Walgreens. The guy checking me out (who I believe was a manager) said, “it’s really just like having Jewel [aka Albertson’s / Supervalu] card.”
My response: “yeah, I stopped going to Jewel entirely when they started wanting me to carry a card and provide personal info just to receive their advertised prices.”
Might have been the best example I’ve ever seen of a frozen smile.
Walgreen’s sells beer?!? Damn my state’s archaic liquor laws!
And wine!
I hear you. I remember my first time consulting in Kentucky. Forgot to pack some toiletry, walked over to the CVS drugstore to find they had a full liquor selection. Almost enough to make me move.
Good. Will you get rid of the stupid loyalty cards?
I guess y’all have never been to Las Vegas. Go into a casino, start gambling, and pretty soon you’ll have someone at your elbow asking you if you want anything to drink. Yes, she means alcoholic. Yes, she can get you just about anything you want. Yes, even at 8 AM on Sunday. No, you don’t have to pay for it (though she’ll be glad to take tips, either in cash or tokens). And she’ll keep on bringing you drinks for as long as you’re gambling.
Back to the regularly scheduled rant…
I wish that loyalty cards would be outlawed. An advertised price should be available to the general public without any jumping through hoops. I’d also love to see all rebates made into instant rebates, that is, the rebate is applied at the register. None of this filling out forms and sending them in nonsense, because the fulfillment houses always seem to be very, very slow IF they manage to get the rebates out at all.
If a store isn’t willing to sell an item to the general public at an advertised price, then they shouldn’t advertise the price to the general public. Yes, I know I can fill out a card right then and there, but that’s not the point.
Meh. CVS has been doing this for a while and while I was annoyed at first, I actually do get a bunch of super useful coupons (after all, they are specifically tailored to me).
Why should that be surprising - of course casinos want people drinking ASAP. Much easier to separate them from their money that way.
Drugstores selling booze? That’s a bit surprising.
Every time I went to Walgreens last week (like three or four times), someone tried to pitch me that stupid card. So now, I make sure I’m talking to someone on my phone when I get to the checkout counter. I don’t care if they have the program, but I’m sick of hearing about it. Mostly because they don’t know how to take no for an answer. When I say I’m not interested, that’s not an invitation to pitch the fucking thing AGAIN. Piss off, duders.
I remember the Walgreenseses around here used to sell liquor. Nowadays they don’t, but I don’t think this is due to any change in the liquor laws. A little research dug up this Wall Street Journal article:
I signed up for some loyalty card at my local CVS and NOW THEY KNOW WHO I AM!!
This is such a stupid strawman argument. My hatred of the damn things has nothing to do with protecting my oh-so-precious privacy. It has to do with them insisting that I jump through hoops or pay more money. It has to do with them clearly wanting something from me and using these bullshit “deals” to try to entice it from me. It has to do mainly with the fact that they’re a big fucking hassle, and that they are entirely for the store’s benefit, not mine. Why should I have to go to the trouble of carrying dozens of these damn things? And don’t tell me that my reward is that I get these amazing coupons and deals. That’s bullshit.
These card systems cost money. The store has to pay for the damn cards, they have to pay employees to push them, they have to process applications, they cost the store money. So why are they so eager to push them everywhere you turn? You can argue the details all you want, but it’s pretty damned certain that stores wouldn’t be pushing them if they didn’t bring in more money. And where does this money come from? The wallets of you, me, and every other customer. Sure, they dress it up by inflating prices and then bringing them down just a tiny bit and other marketing crap, but the end result is more money going from me to them. Period. A store that has cards has increased overhead, and therefore will cost me more money. It’s amazing to me to watch how reluctant some people are to acknowledge such an obvious fact.
Mainly, though, I just don’t see any good reason for me to carry the damned things around. Or recite my phone number. Or just participate at all. I want stuff. You are selling stuff. I give you money and take your stuff. That’s it. That should be the entire extent of our relationship. Life’s too short to put up with all this other shit.
Yeah, but think how much tail you’re gonna get when the ladies see you fanning out a spread like this!
Seriously, there are so many ways around this, there is no reason to be angry. You can:
Heck, at CVS’s self-checkout, they even include a button for a “courtesy card” that applies the discounts. That is the exact same thing as if the button said “Do you want discounts?”
Many of these things take time & hassle, and none of them address the main objection that Smeghead described. I’ll just be angry, thankyouverymuch.
With a properly implemented loyalty card system, the whole point is to reward and encourage the loyalty of their best customers, and attempt to convert their less frequent/profitable customers into more loyal/frequent/profitable customers.
So really, the money to pay for the loyalty program comes from their worst, less desirable customers, who pay for their better, more profitable customers to receive the benefits. If you dislike and resent the program, that pretty much tells you which group you’re in. If you enjoy and appreciate the program, you already knew which group you’re in.
Either way, if implemented correctly, it’s pretty much win/win for the retailer, and no surprise why they do it. They don’t really care if you give them a fake name/address, either. Sure, they’d probably prefer being able to send you promotional material in the mail, but otherwise, their main concern is encouraging you to make more trips to their store, and buy more stuff on each of those trips. If you’re the kind of person who only stops in once in a while to buy a specific item, and will never be swayed to do otherwise, they really don’t give much of a shit about you anyway, and they’d rather you not be able to take advantage of the sale prices they use to encourage their better, more easily swayed customers.
You know, for a cheap beer, it’s surprisingly decent, as long as you can tolerate mass market American lagers. I would rank it better than Bud or Miller or Coors, but under Schltz. We’re talking somewhere in the Old Style/PBR level, perhaps slightly better. It’s the macro-style lager of choice in this beer snob’s home.
