Loyalty Cards

Gwyllt

Husband like the Lidl card.
Apparently he gets a free bakery item every so often
I only see the bag and crumbs in the car.

I shop a lot at Lidl and find them pretty good value on the whole - however the loyalty card is a waste of time, there is money off all sorts of rubbishy unhealthy treats!

Posset. Oh don’t I know it
Husband a compulsive shopper and they end up in my cupboard and freezer
Plus the yellow sticker stuff
Having said that I agree they are good value for money
The competition until recently was only Asda now we also have an aldi

Where I used to live there was a BOOTHS. They were a small supermarket but one of there really good ideas was that they had a charity card. So it worked like this. if you had forgotten your card, or did not have one, or were just a visitor and didnt live locally, they would ask if you had a card and if not would offer to put the points onto the charity card. Then at christmas time there would be a big sign up telling you what had been bought or given to the various charities, so it could be a new wheelchair or paid for a treat for a deprived group. It was a very clever idea business wise too. Everyone could see the sign up and feel a little glow of pleasure that their small contribution had added to this very good scheme. so instead of feeling annoyed you had forgotten your card or whatever you knew where the money went and that =Booths gained nothing from this, indeed they obviously paid out more as every point was counted and so it was much appreciated and I'm not sure but think you could contact them and tell them things such as a school was trying to make a garden or a hospital needed something for the friends of the hospital. they would have pictures of things that had been given and so we all had that cheering sight of something very positive being done in our own area from this gathered money. Tesco do the blue tokens, which is a similar thing and I always take the tokens , both to put in the slots myself, but also as a little kindness , if I see a mum trying to organise her shopping with a couple of children with her, i ask if they would like to choose where to put the tokens and it allows mum to get organised and the children enjoy dropping the tokens in. So perhaps we could all start a little campaign for the other supermarkets to do something similar. I am sure that BOOTHS did it for good reasons but it did influence me about where I shopped as I knew this scheme and wanted to contribute to it. They even used to get the local paper putting an article in at christmas time about something that they had provided so a win/win situation eh?

posset

Gwyllt

Husband like the Lidl card.
Apparently he gets a free bakery item every so often
I only see the bag and crumbs in the car.

I shop a lot at Lidl and find them pretty good value on the whole - however the loyalty card is a waste of time, there is money off all sorts of rubbishy unhealthy treats!

Rubbishy unhealthy treats?
Today my coupons are for tea/coffee, Nescafé, limes, chillies, spinach, and lettuce.
Also money off a heated airer and a steam cleaner.
Lidl is the only supermarket I can access on foot and not 2 busses so I use it all the time. I get discounts on things I buy and often qualify for 10% off an entire shop.
I don’t feel they are inflating prices for “non-loyal” customers to offer discounts to some.
This seems like a good deal to me.

I only bother with cards that give points or a discount. So I use only Boots Advantage and Nectar.

I find Tesco club card good.

I use Boots card and Tesco's Clubcard, got £8 off £58 bill yesterday. Can't be bothered with Lidl, and although I have a Waitrose card, I don't shop there very often. I also have a John Lewis loyalty card and sometimes get vouchers.

I gave up on sparks card. Boots and Asda Apps are really good and money soon adds up so they get my vote.

Oh, I have loyalty cards for everywhere, though I’m loyal to none. They all come in useful, even the M & S one - I’ve occasionally had 20% off something I’m wanting to buy, and I had a free box of grapes this month for my birthday.

I love Booths, madeleine45. If only the other supermarkets had a similar charity scheme to donate points to when shoppers don’t have loyalty cards. So many people seem positively offended when asked if they’ve got a loyalty card - the Tesco checkout operator advised one in front of me recently that she could have saved £15 on her shop, but just got snapped at, poor woman.

Just checked my Sparks card. I currently have 20% off women’s knitwear, coats, jackets and jeans. 10% off fruit and fresh chicken.

I think the less you buy the more inclined they are to offer generous discounts. I haven’t shopped in M&S for several months so it’s certainly not a loyalty discount. I don’t think they reward regular customers.

I shop mainly in Aldi and Tesco. I accumulate my Tesco Clubcard points and save them till I have a substantial amount. I used £58 worth in December towards Christmas dinner.

I spend my Tesco Clubcard points with the partners that offer twice the value, for our annual railcard or a meal out. I used to save my Nectar points for the annual fortnight when they were worth double their value, but I haven’t seen one of those advertised for a couple of years. No doubt there’ll be one just as soon as I spend my points on the weekly shop.

I retired from Waitrose three years ago, I hadn’t been there long enough to retain partner discount into retirement and their loyalty scheme is such rubbish I very rarely shop there. There’s never anything to interest me in the monthly magazine, I get the free coffee on the way out but the pathetic discounts (where I can select two vouchers from the 6-8 offered) barely cover the fact that they’re more expensive than any other supermarket. Every couple of months they offer a voucher for £1.50 off Alaskan salmon, or my preferred cat litter, but otherwise it’s not worth the 12 mile round trip.

I never spend enough in M&S Food to get their % discount off a certain amount spent eg on deli or prepped fruit, I only go in there for instant coffee and milk.

Morrisons are the best for me, loyalty point added per spend, which convert to a £5 voucher off anything, and I love the monthly scheme where points build up for conditional spends on a wide range (eg any own-brand frozen vegetables, or organic products) they easily mount up to a significant booster.

I really don’t like Sainsburys except for underwear, and use my Nectar ponies towards a new multipack of socks or knickers. Tesco are best (locally) for yellow-sticker reductions and if I’m driving there I’ll also get basics like ibuprofen that they’ve price-matched to Aldi, but the Clubcard scheme is a shadow of what it used to be.

Really I’d prefer them all to ditch the gimmicks and just lower prices across the board, same with fuel for the car. Who remembers books of Green Shield Stamps, rival petroleum stations offering double, triple, quadruple stamps, and my parents always gave me the task of licking and sticking the wretched things in the books. I’ve no recollection of what they exchanged them for.

madeleine45

My main one is the Tesco club card as , in my last two houses, they were the nearest supermarket and I found useful and could get points on fuel too, but now they are getting quite stingy in the reductions etc, but we always kept all the vouchers to buy our christmas food , which worked well for us and there wasnt that awful scraping together of every penny to afford stuff. I do also have a cafe Nero because, if I am out I usually look for them, I find their seating reasonably comfortable, and get I think it is still 1 free coffee for every 10 i buy . I also am fussy about my coffee and want to drink from a china mug , not a thick earthern ware or a horrible paper cup. So i take my own (bought in a sale of course ) white china mug, which I also get a reduction for bringing my own cup in which suits me very well I support the local market and would rather have cheaper goods than cards and in fact I really wish that supermarkets would just pack in bogoff and x percent off and x cheaper than another store and just put the blasted prices down and so we would not have to stand there trying to decide what is the best value!!

... and in fact I really wish that supermarkets would just pack in bogoff and x percent off and x cheaper than another store and just put the blasted prices down and so we would not have to stand there trying to decide what is the best value!!

I share your frustration.

But - think about it. These supermarkets and big stores are competing with each other.

If they were to compete on price alone, they would have to continuously undercut each other in order to grab their share of the market - a race to the bottom for all of them.

So, in order to maintain their profit margins, they have to devise another way of attracting customers - hence the loyalty cards, discount schemes, awards points, etc, etc, etc. Supermarkets and other big stores are, in effect, a cartel.

They don't actually give you anything - these schemes are all factored into their pricing, shaving a little off here, and adding it somewhere else. They make sure you buy 10 cups of coffee at an inflated price which then pays for that 1 'free' cup you get later.

It's exactly the same with energy suppliers. They cannot afford to compete on price alone, so they offer you 'packages' to suit your needs. All the companies offer different types of packages / deals, so it is absolutely impossible to compare like-for-like, so you opt for the deal that most suits your needs. And regularly waste precious time searching for another 'deal' when that one expires. You can see the argument against the privatisation of our energy supply.

Just take whatever's on 'offer' and redeem the money they've already taken from you - there's no such thing as a free-lunch.

I have loyalty cards for most stores I use. Most don't save me much but I save significant amounts in Sainsbury's and Tesco. I too find M&S card frustrating and last time I went there I forgot to present it until I'd paid and they couldn't add the points retrospectively!

Our village store was taken over as a Morrisons so I got their 'more' card but when I tried to use it they said they were a franchise so it wasn't valid! I've only ever really used Morrisons when my DS and DiL lived near one so I hadn't bothered before. At least it's only on my phone so not another plastic card!

I recently chose to pay at a cashier in Tesco as I had some alcohol so knew I'd be held up at the self service. The person in front had a huge trolley full and didn't have a loyalty card and the assistant asked if I had one and would I like the points. I got nearly £2 worth! I'm guessing they aren't really supposed to do that but it was a nice bonus for me!
In Sainsburys I was once given a free bag of potatoes as the person in front didn't want her bogof but the cashier said I could have them. Perhaps I look as if I'm struggling!

I use the Tesco one when I shop on-line.. also Superdrug

I use my M&S card quite a lot. The offers last about 2 weeks. I have money off chicken, ice cream and tea/coffee, also fish. I also get double or triple point coupons which all helps. They used to give you a free treat but l haven’t had one since the Autumn. I tend to use the clothes coupons less because l feel they are aiming for a younger customer and there are few petite items available.

I have a Boots card but rarely shop there as I find it expensive. I use my Superdrug card and Tescco clubcard most weeks. I've just exchanged my Tesco vouchers for a railcard and had £35 off a holiday I'd booked. It's very rare that there's an offer in M & S that I take advantage of.

When M&S started the Sparks card, they had already had their own credit card for several years, and that was what gave the points & vouchers. So they had to make the Sparks card rewards different. Which made it pretty pointless (sorry!)

Boots and Tesco

The nearest Morrison’s to me was knocked down and rebuilt and we went one day out of curiosity and we were surprised at how much it had improved on the old store, which we didn’t really use. Since it’s reopened it’s been our store of choice and since September we’ve had over £60 back on their more store card. We usually spend about £100 per week so it’s not as if we’re over spending. It’s higher if we take our youngest DGD along as she always ends up with some clothes or a small toy. Their clothing is good value, we’ve bought several outfits for her and none have been more than £20, which means we have spare clothes at our house, as DS forgets to bring a change when dropping her off.

jocork

I recently chose to pay at a cashier in Tesco as I had some alcohol so knew I'd be held up at the self service. The person in front had a huge trolley full and didn't have a loyalty card and the assistant asked if I had one and would I like the points. I got nearly £2 worth! I'm guessing they aren't really supposed to do that but it was a nice bonus for me!
In Sainsburys I was once given a free bag of potatoes as the person in front didn't want her bogof but the cashier said I could have them. Perhaps I look as if I'm struggling!

Recently a woman asked if id use my nectar card for her shop. I think I looked a bit confused and said she'd get the nectar prices and I'd get the points. Not sure if it's allowed but as we were as the self service checkout we did it

Doodledog, the Nectar card gives me weekly price reductions on grocerties that I had previously bought, also extra points on frequently purchased stuff, sometimes even 5 x points if you spend £30. You find this out by downloading the app and checking their weekly offers. I didn't use Sainsburys much in the past, but since I found out about the app offers, I tend to do my weekly shop there, especially since a number of items are matched with Aldi. My points do mount up fairly quickly.

My M&S Spark card is useless so I don't bother with it anymore.

What I don't like is dual pricing, I had to share my cards with my daughter when that came in
I do like my coffee from Waitrose though, id not go just for that but if I'm nearby and I pop in I will get one