It’s Okay To Not Become A Member Of A Rewards Club

Just wait until you hear about my conversation at the grocery store. You know loyalty clubs are all the rage. I don't mind being told about them. There just comes a point where you've had enough.

First off, let's get the elephant in the room out of the way.  We have our own loyalty club. The difference between ours and others is, it doesn't cost you more to listen if you're not a member and you don't win anything less by not becoming a member.. We've made sure that everything in our loyalty club is a bonus on top of what we've always given you.  Most importantly,  you can turn on the radio, enjoy the absolute best of everything we have to offer and never sign up for jack squat

Drugstores, supermarkets and the like have started loyalty programs and what they do is take some of the discounts that they would have given everybody and now just give them to loyalty members. It actually COSTS you to not be a member. Then there's the fact that every single time you go to the store you have to be asked about it, swipe a card, enter a phone number or do some other dance.

Sunday morning I had this conversation:

Checker: Are you a member of our rewards program?

Me: No.

Checker: No? You could be saving all this money.

Me: I'll sign up soon.

Checker: You could save that money and we're going to be giving away gift cards soon.

Me: I promise I'll sign up soon.

Checker: You should because you could be saving money and winner those gift cards.

Me: Okay, thanks. 

At this point I went back to my car with my propane tanks, then returned to get groceries from the same checker just a few minutes later.

Checker: Did you sign up for the loyalty program?

Me: No, not yet.

Checker: Okay, well if you're collecting stamps for the pots and pans you still have time to turn them in.

Me: Okay, thanks.

Checker: But you should sign up for the loyalty.

Me: I promise I will.

Checker: And Monopoly is coming back soon, you could play that too..

Me: Awesome.

Checker: And here's your receipt, if you have time fill out this survey right here and you could win (something). 

Me: Thanks.

Okay, so, just to buy a few items, I got pitched the loyalty club four or more times, got told about the stamp program, was told about the monopoly promotion coming up and was asked to fill out a survey on the receipt.  Does anybody else think this stuff is getting a little out of hand?  Shopping should be as easy as "Here I want this", "sure that will cost you this much", "here's my money", "thank you, come again".  I just don't need the rest.

So why not just "sign up for the loyalty"? Well when they started that program I thought to myself, "great, I now how to give this place my phone number if front of other people for the rest of my life as well as give up other personal information". After that thought, I just though "enough". I'm not doing it anymore. If yet another store is successful with a loyalty program, then another will implement it and so on and so on. It's just time to stop.