GIVE THEM A CARD AND SHOW THEM THE DOOR
By Carrington Vanston - September 23, 2004
http://www.carringtonvanston.net/archives/frequent_buyer

One of the local shops I used to frequent for DVD purchasing was the main Sunrise Music store downtown. But Sunrise lost my business because their rewards card became a punishment every time I left it at home.

As with every other store on this big round Earth, Sunrise has a frequent buyer card. Ostensibly such cards are meant to reward loyal customers, though a more cynical person than I might suggest they are a means of buying such loyalty.

Unlike most loyalty cards, however, the Sunrise card is one you purchase. The membership fee is small, and the resulting "member discount price" on merchandise would quickly recoup the membership fee for someone who buys DVDs with reckless abandon the way I do.

Except that I hadn't bothered to buy the card. The reason was loyalty cards are wallet bulking annoyances that I prefer to leave at home.

However, I bought a sizable stack of DVDs all at once one day and the helpful cash register professional pointed out that buying the card first would actually result in a net savings for this one purchase.

So as I walked home feeling a bit guilty about the non-recyclable bags that held my new armfuls of filmly goodness, my wallet was thicker by the size of one more rewards card.

When I got home I tossed the card on a pile of its peers, where it has remained to this day. I can see it there poking out from under a local burger joint's stamp card with its single fading stamp.

I am now a card owning, if not card carrying, paid member of the Most Loyal True Blue Sunrise Records Customer Group, or words to that effect. I will now receive special discounted prices on all my future DVD purchases, and presumably on CDs as well. This looks like the start of a beautiful friendship for Sunrise and me.

Except it isn't. I haven't shopped there since getting the card. Not once. Oh, I've gone in. I've even picked out DVDs I wanted to buy. But never once since paying my way into membership have I actually made a purchase in the store. And it's because of that card.

You see, I don't carry the card around with me. It's just one of the masses of membership cards that sit on my desk at home because I dislike stuffing my wallet with them. I dislike carrying an extra inch of bulk in my pants--which, by the way, makes me absolutely not the target market for 90% of the spam I receive.

Since I don't carry the card, I no longer shop at Sunrise. Before I had a membership, I simply ignored the membership prices. I was already a loyal Sunrise customer--a regular, repeat customer--and one that was all the more valuable to the store because I paid full price.

But now that I have a card, the membership prices represent not a savings but a loss when I shop there. Those discounts now seem like punishments for leaving the card at home. They're now the extra fee Sunrise is charging me for not carrying around their damn card.

So I have started going across the street to make my purchases in a shop that doesn't reward frequent buyers. I no longer even go into Sunrise, and will probably keep away until my membership expires because the sight of all those "This is how much more you have to pay, Carrington, you big sucker" price stickers are just depressing.

[aside]

Yes, they really do say that. The words "you" and "sucker" are even in boldface, which, I'm not ashamed to say, hurts.

[end of aside]

Some membership cards work for me. I don't like them, but the system is effective. Stamp cards, for instance, work if I can redeem multiple cards. "A free sandwich with 10 stamps, you say? Great! Here are my ten stamps...on ten different cards."

The big question is this: why the hell aren't any stores smart enough to do away with the damn cards and switch to rewarding their actual customers instead? Let us have pass phrases or pin numbers.

Or a secret handshake! Something that cool would seal my purchasing loyalty forever, and I bet I'm not alone.

But if they insist on a card system then at least let me pick my own card. Let me swipe any damn card I please, then have your software hash it and index my account accordingly. We customers are all sure to have something suitable on us, perhaps a driver's license or a library card or a Blue Blazer Regulars identification card. Give me convenience and you'll get my loyalty. Plus you'll save the cost of printing your own cards.

On the other hand--and I realize I'm probably talking nonsense now--if we're such frequent and appreciated customers why don't you just recognize us and give us the damn frequent buyer discount? You might have kept my business that way.

I'll be across the street shopping at your competition while you think it over.

Carrington Vanston
carrington@carringtonvanston.net

[This article is released to the public domain.]