Journal Archives
10/04/99 Those Damned Grocery Store Cards
So I'm at my local grocery store the other day, waiting at the checkout counter while the cashier scans all of my purchases. Before she starts, however, she asks me the question that is really starting to get under my craw:"Do you have a Reward(tm) Card?"
What's up with these things? I'm sure you have them at your grocery chain, too, for they're spreading like some fungus (courtesy of Jack's House Of Fungus, no doubt). The basic premise behind THE CARD is this:
You shop as you normally do. Upon entering the checkout
aisle, you proudly whip out THE CARD that looks similar to a credit or ATM card,
handing it to the cashier with a smug smile as you prepare to reap thousands of
dollars of savings on your booty of Pringles, cabbage, Pop Tarts, and chuck
steak. The cashier runs the card through a bar scanner, and while you sit back
and watch the pennies of savings add up, your complete buying history is being
faxed to a bunch of pencil pushers at the store's corporate office in Topeka,
Kansas or something.
Did you buy a can of frozen orange concentrate? Fine... be on the lookout for a
mailing from the Florida State Bureau of Travel. Have you purchased a bar of
Irish Spring Soap? Expect a phone call from the Leprechaun Defense League.
It was bad enough when the price tags on the store shelves reflected the cost of
the product without THE CARD, and then said what you'd save with
THE CARD. Now, however, it's been reversed. The price displayed is the price after
one uses THE CARD, with the non card price written underneath in a typeface at
least four points smaller:
2 liter bottle of Coke, 99 Cents!
$2.49 without Reward Card
You get the idea... down with THE CARD.
