Grocery store rewards racket

This morning I went grocery shopping. My list wasn’t large, but it did include a 20 pound bag of dog food, a box of milk bones and a couple of small bags of rawhide chews for Terry. This wasn’t even a major shopping trip. I didn’t need house cleaning supplies or laundry supplies. Just a few food basics like bread, milk, a couple of cuts of meat, cottage cheese and orange juice. Stuff like that. Oh and Clementine oranges. They’re in season now. Those are must haves.

When I reached the check out line, there wasn’t very much in my shopping cart. So when the final bill was tallied and the cash register said $94, I was absolutely dumbfounded. The cashier asked if I had my store ‘rewards card’ with me and, of course, I did. As soon as she scanned that, my bill dropped to $87. For some reason that didn’t make me feel measurably less outraged.

Either I haven’t been paying attention lately or groceries have suddenly taken a huge jump in price. Good heavens.

Well, in looking at the cash register tape, I see that the dog food and treats added up to a hefty $31. I can understand why small dogs are popular. They don’t eat much.

Along with my cash register tape, the cashier’s machine spit out a long tape with store coupons printed on it. This is supposed to be one of the advantages of registering for the store’s rewards card. That card is truly a racket. It allows the store to charge crazy prices for items and we are supposed to feel good about the crazy prices on selected items being reduced to almost reasonable prices when our cards are scanned during cash out. Because the store computer keeps a database of items that we regularly buy, the tape of store coupons is supposed to be tailored to our shopping habits.

My rewards this morning included a $1 coupon for 2 packages of hot dogs (bleh), and three coupons for eggnog. I hate eggnog and only rarely purchase hot dogs. Oh, and I also got 3 turkey points. If I save up 20 turkey points, the store gives a $20 discount on a Thanksgiving turkey and fixings. That’s all the rewards coupons I got this shopping trip. Big whoop for me. In order to get a $20 discount on a turkey and fixings (excluding milk) that I don’t plan to buy, I’d have had to spend $500 in groceries between November 1 and November 21. That’s useful for a large family, not so much for a single.

So, really. my rewards for owning this stupid rewards card were virtually nil today. The whole thing was more like an exercise in legalized extortion.