These days, most retailers are offering reward programmes. You will know this if you pay attention to adverts I guess, or if you're like me, you find out when asked if you have one when paying for goods.
I'm actually fed up of it all now. While I love a good discount, and getting money back, I'm just tired of all the cards I carry around, and fishing for the right one wherever I am paying. After all, I really don't want to lose any points.
Aside from my bank cards and drivers licence, I have acquired the following in recent years (some just lately):
Dischem Benefits
Jets cashback
Clicks Clubcard (cancelled the first one I had years ago and now have a new one again)
PicknPay smartshopper
My School card
Ebucks
Please don't tell me about the ones I don't have, I don't want to wonder how much cash back I'm missing. I'm Indian after all, or maybe just having an audit background has given the mind-set that a purchase is not real unless there's a bargain (read: everything is expensive).
I'm so irritated with it all. Why don't retailers give the same benefits to everyone? Why don't they just slash prices anyway, I mean if every shopper had to swipe a reward card, is that not creating more systems for them to control. Yes, it may add to employment, but then again, wouldn't it just be easier to cut prices and make life easy for everyone?
Why don't they all just club together and give us a shop with free items?
Shoprite fights back with their ads of not needing people to swipe because their prices are so low anyway, we are rewarded every day, and we know who they are targeting here.
But the last time I checked, prices are just rising and it aint funny. And I don't mean just Shoprite, it's everywhere. There's no competition to keep prices down now, there's a fight to remain in the market, not at the top.
After this latest fuel increase, I shudder to think what the end of the year will look like.
But I digress; this was after all, about the state of the nation being bombarded with all kinds of cash-back and reward programmes.
I must admit, I have felt special when I received the vouchers from Clicks. I also felt pleased after having accumulated almost R300 worth of points at Dischem over 18 months I think. I have not yet checked my PNP smartshopper points. My ebucks seems to be accumulating slowly, I actually don't know how it works just yet. My cub's school has definitely benefited from the MySchool card.
Was it all just a matter of job creation or what? Or who is really benefitting from this? Who is the master mind that sold this idea to these retailers and is now becoming a self-made billionaire very quietly?
Everyone wants a reward, everyone wants a good bargain, and everyone wants CASH back!
Why don't they just give it to everyone, rather than making the whole country get cards (i.e. Pick n pay, I’m sure almost the whole country buys here, and in Shoprite)?
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