Okay Then. I Won't Be Back

The conversation went something like this.

"Would you like to sign up for our preferred customer card?"

No, thank you.

"In two weeks, if you don't have it, you don't get the specials."

Excuse me?

"You'll be paying full price on these items because you don't have the card."

So, what you're saying is that there will never be sales prices for non-card members again at Walgreens.

"Yeah."

Therefore, every time your sales flyer comes in the mail, I can throw it out because it's meaningless to anyone but a person who has a card.

(Hesitant look on the clerk's face.) "Well, no. It's still something you could read."

But you just said that all the sales prices in the store are only for card members. Isn't that what you told me?

"Um...yeah, but..."

There's no but. Either I have a card and can get the sales prices or I don't have a card and this whole place becomes full price. That's what you're saying.

"No, there will always be sales."

But I have to have a card, which I don't want, in order to get those sales.

"Well, kinda...yeah."

Well, thank you for the information. I won't be shopping here ever again.

I collected my chocolate and left the store. As I got to my car, I heard an "Excuse me!" It was the guy who was behind me in line.

"Do you really think they are going to no sales without a card?"

It sort of seems that way, doesn't it? He nodded.

"I've always come here for quick stops on the way home. Guess I won't be doing that anymore."

I agree with him. Walgreens has been convenient for me. It's on the way home. CVS, where I get my prescriptions, is closer to the house but not on the way home from work. I understand the whole loyalty program. I use several loyalty cards, but it seems to me the way to suck people in to using them is not to exclude them on everything you have for sale. "The M&M's are 50 cents off, on sale, but if you have our loyalty program, you get an additional dollar off." That, to me, is how you build a use for a loyalty card.

I don't use Walgreens for anything really. It won't change my shopping habits to never go there again. It will make me think about my purchases more because the M&M's aren't on the way home. That will probably be a boon for my pocketbook.

Beverage:  Water

Deb