The Store Card Customer

[purplecat41877]

Yesterday, one of the checkers called for a store card which I put through. The customer didn't get why the card had to be scanned first and I mentioned that what's corporate decided. When he came up to the service desk, he calmly explained his take on the policy. It turned out that he didn't want to get out his card if he wasn't going to save anything with it. He didn't think using the card on non card items made sense. He did request the number for corporate which I gave him.

[CurlyLocks]

Actually, if I read your post correctly, I agree with the customer's reasoning. Sometimes I'm only buying a couple of things and I know they're not on sale, so I don't always use my card. I only reluctantly use the cards in the first place because my budget requires me to save wherever possible, but since I know that the corporations keep all the information on our purchases in their databases, I'm not going to give them any more info than necessary. Not that I have anything to hide - I just resent the whole lack of privacy thing. (of course I could take a stand and not use store cards at all, but again, there's that budget thing) But I wouldn't go all SC on a store employee if this ever became an issue.

[Jet]

Yes, that actually sounds very reasonable and seems like he was quite polite about it.

[powerboy]

Actually, if I read your post correctly, I agree with the customer's reasoning. Sometimes I'm only buying a couple of things and I know they're not on sale, so I don't always use my card. I only reluctantly use the cards in the first place because my budget requires me to save wherever possible, but since I know that the corporations keep all the information on our purchases in their databases, I'm not going to give them any more info than necessary. Not that I have anything to hide - I just resent the whole lack of privacy thing. (of course I could take a stand and not use store cards at all, but again, there's that budget thing) But I wouldn't go all SC on a store employee if this ever became an issue.

It is the same with me also. But I mostly buy items which I can save money with the store card . But I also get a few items that Doesn't save me anything also.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I figure I've got my wallet out anyway, what's the difference? If it doesn't do me any good that day, oh well...and sometimes I get surprised by something I didn't realize was on sale...

Hardly worth calling corporate about...

That said, all of the store cards I've ever used were able to be scanned at any time during the transaction so it really didn't matter if I got it out first or not.

[CurlyLocks]

I dunno - if I shopped at a store where corporate decided you HAD to have your card scanned whether you were buying sale items or not, I might make a call to them myself. What is the point of that except for them to gather more information on us? That just wouldn't sit right with me.

[Sonoma]

I have to agree with the others. If I'm buying items that I know are not on sale, why should I have to use my card.

One local grocery store has a rewards program, and you earn 1 point for every $5 you spend. If my purchase is $3.50, I don't get any points, so I don't bother using my card. It's in a separate area of my wallet, so just that much more digging, and for what benefit.

[El Barto]

I think it's a pain to make people use the store cards for sale prices unless the card does something else too. My stores card gives you money back on everything you buy and gives you coupons based on what you buy, for example, I used my employee discount card (which acts like a store card as well) to buy Abreva and I got a coupon for $4 off Abreva a few days later (which is great, because that stuff is expensive).

Unless a company is going to do with their card besides give customers the sale price than I don't think they should bother, it just creates another thing the customers have to carry around and remember to use.

[purplecat41877]

Where I work, sometimes customers get coupons with the card to save on items they regularly buy. We even have a special machine that prints out a savings sheet that have item that the customer can save on the savings card they specifically have.

The store I work at has a privacy policy. The cardholder can also choose not to have information mailed and/or e-mailed to them.

[powerboy]

That is why I like Safeway's Card. I can get a little cheaper gas, and plus just getting what is on sale with that card, saves me a lot.

[Andara Bledin]

We have a few grocery stores in my area that have cards and one that doesn't.

The Vons has a card and the prices after the card discount are still way more than the prices for the other stores. The Albertsons has a card, and the prices there are decent.

When the strike rolled around a couple of years back, I started shopping at Stater Bros since they weren't involved in all that, so still had things regularly in stock. They don't have any form of card, and their prices are notably below both of the other two stores by about 20% for Albertsons and something like 35% for Vons. No joke. I was shocked the last time I ended up going to Albertsons. I never go to Vons if I have a choice. And they (Stater Bros) do coupons at the register for either things you bought or competing brands for things you bought.

^-.-^