"You'd save so much money on these groceries if you bought them with a Shufersol card." She was telling the truth. Much of the store was twenty-five percent off with their card.
"Next time you go shopping, you'll save even more money."
After a while, my wife finally told her that she wasn't interested in a new card, and the sales pitch subsided. For a while.
A short time later, the woman started up again.
"You really should get the card." Pointing to a package of diapers she said, "Look, you'd save money on these if you bought them with your card."
Rena had finally had enough, and told the woman,
"Look, I don't want to be in minus (overdraft - very common here). The way I do it is that I have one card, and I pay it off at the end of the month."
The woman's attitude shifted immediately.
"You can say that again. I have two credit cards (one of them from the supermarket, because she works there), and I'm drowning!"
Apparently, her heart wasn't into the credit card after all.
Here in Jersey (no, not that place next to New York; I mean the original Jersey in the Channel Islands, off the coast of northern France) and in the rest of Britain we are urged by supermarket chains to take out "loyalty cards".
ReplyDeleteBy using such a card the holder acquires "loyalty points" which, when surrendered, can give a substantial (in my case +/- £130 a year) cash discount.
The downside is that the card operator can build up a picture of the user's buying habits but - on balance - I do not object too much to that.
Personally, I would never use a retailer's card; like the woman in the story I much refer to use a single card to help me manage my budget.
Come over to Jersey for a vacation! Our קהילה is tiny, but we have a great בית כנסת and a beautiful מקוה.
Here in Jersey (yes, the place next to New York), the thing is to get credit cards that give you miles. Keep in mind that "miles" need to be doubled to be useful, and that you're basically locking yourself into travel. Our primary card - which we also pay off every month - gives us cash. All the supermarkets have loyalty cards as well, but they're separate from credit cards. Department stores offer credit cards with discounts for your initial purchase, but not ongoing. I believe Target offers a combination credit/loyalty card, but we've avoided that for the same reason Rina gave: I need to know where my money is going and be able to pay it off every month.
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