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Supermarket
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Club Cards
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by
Tim Duffy
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 TM**
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Club cards-a phenomena of the
90's. Their purpose is to build customer loyalty to a
particular chain by making it appear that you are saving a
great deal of money by using the card every time you shop.
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Supermarket Club Cards a good deal?
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Supermarket Club Cards are a very good deal but not for you
the consumer. They also are not a good deal for the managers
and employees that have to deal with them. The only real
winners in the Supermarket Club Card game are the supermarkets
themselves and the companies that sell the data to other
marketing companies.
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Do you save money?
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You do save money when you use the card; however these are not
real true savings. Let me explain! When a supermarket decides
to develop a Club Card program they tell the consumer that
this is to eliminate coupons and they are passing savings
along to them. This is exactly what the Safe-Way chain did
when they came out with their green card that would save the
forests and save you, the shopper, money. So what savings are
you getting? I call them Ghost Savings or as a magician friend
of mine would say "smoke and mirrors".
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People are shoppers but they do not
shop!
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People buy into this because people are creatures of habit.
They generally go to the nearest store in their neighborhood.
They have developed a relationship with the manager, the
clerks, stock people etc. The majority are unaware of the
actual money they could save by just doing a very small amount
of research. Well, I have done the research here in Southern
California and in Upstate New York and this is what I found.*
When you shop in a club card store you will invariably hear
announcements over the PA system telling you that you're
saving 13%, 14% or more off your grocery bill by using their
club card. This is repeated often and is a way to subliminally
convince your mind that you are a smart shopper and to further
reinforce this they print the ghost savings on your receipt. I
have found the opposite to be true you spend more in a club
card store. I have also found that in every area that has club
cards there is also a chain that not only does not have club
cards but has lower prices overall, a lot lower than the club
card stores.
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Not all non-club card stores have
lower prices.
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An example of this is Albertson's and Stater Brothers, two
supermarket chains in Southern California. Neither offer club
cards but Albertson's prices are a lot higher than Stater
Brothers so you may have to check more than one market chain
to find one that is truly lower.
Update Albertson's now has Club Cards along with high price's
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Why should I really care?
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Well, it is a lot more than a couple of pennies. It can amount
to $500.00 or more in savings per year and this is each and
every year. Could not you use an extra five hundred a year?
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The worst feature!
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The worst thing about club cards is your Privacy! There is
none! The supermarket saves a record of all of your
purchases and they sell this information to marketing
companies. One such company is Catalina Marketing in
Florida. Catalina Marketing in turn sells the data to other
companies.
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TV Transcript
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I recommend this site:
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Consumers Against
Supermarket Privacy Invasion
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* Stores researched:
Vons, Albertson's, Stater Brothers, Wegmans, Ralph's,
Grand Union, Giant Markets, Cosco-Priceclub***. *** With
Cosco-Priceclub you even have to pay for a membership card
each and every year. (Now that's a real deal-you have to pay
for permission to shop there!)
** Stater Brothers owns the copyright and has applied for
Trade-Mark status and has granted Tim Duffy permission to
use.
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