Re: Loyalty cards

["paul gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

Here Here!!

Keith, I couldn't agree with you more mate!! - I'm no fan of the B&Q's
and
the Homebase's of this world, precisely because of the way the stock
availablility is so hit-and-miss. Many's the time when in the middle of
some
DIY job or other, I've suddenly realised that I don't have a few things I
need, so off I go, merrily trotting down to the superstore, with a list of
three or four things that I want, and how often do you think I can get
everything on my list??? HARDlY EVER!! - Then you get some
"superstores"
that are more "super" than others - what's available from one
store isn't
necessarily available from another... and on.... and on....


Seriously though, (for one minute), I do only have this one loyalty card
(honest!) - my wife has three or four others!, and to be fair, I certainly
do seem to get quite a lot of payback from it (in comparison to other shops
like Tesco's for example) - I think it's true to say that we spend more
money per year in Tesco than in homebase, but I certainly seem to get more
spend vouchers than the wife.... (I reckon I get about £200 - £300 pa in
Homebase vouchers).

But you're right of course, nothing is free in this world, so I've
obviously
already paid them that £200-£300 in over-priced product, but if you spend
wisely, it is usually possible to pay exactly the same for goods in
Homebase
as you can get them for from A.N. Other store which does not have a loyalty
card... And then of course there's the argument that in homebase et al, you
pay exactly the same for a purchase whether you've got their card or not,
so
you might as well have one, so at least in the long term you do get back
what you've overpaid them, instead of just letting them add it to their
bottom line.

And it does give me a nice warm feeling when I go in there & spend a
sizeable sum of money, and then see most of it wiped out 'cos I've got
enough vouchers to pay for about 80% of the purchase price!

I guess you just have to take a pragmatic view, that these big stores are
here to stay, they do have more buying power than the small village
ironmonger's shop, and they usually are quite convenient...

So for anyone planning to go to their local Homebase this Friday to
purchase
some cheap(ish) X10 kit, - I bet there's a less than 50% chance that your
local store carries those items in stock!! - Most likely they'll have to
order it in for you, with the usual week-long delay before it comes in
etc... - you see if I'm right!! (At least if you order on the 30% off day,
you do still get it at the 30% off price)

Regards all

Paul G.

>From: Keith Doxey <keith.doxey@xxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>To: "'ukha_d@xxxxxxx'" <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
>Subject: [ukha_d] Re: Loyalty cards
>Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 09:58:01 +0100
>
>Damn, Damn, Damn :-((
>
>I hate loyalty cards,
>I always forget to take it with me when I go, if fact I dont even know
>where it is.
>My wallet doesnt have space for 14 trillion little plastic cards so I
cant
>carry them all (and NO - it isnt because its full of money). What
really
>gets up my nose is the fuss they make at the checkout when you have
dashed
>it there to get something you urgently need and waste even more of my
>already scarce time convincing me that I am seriously missing out by
not
>having that 4 pence added. I would rather the item cost 4p less in the
>first place and I could just nip in and out of the store with no
hassle.
>
>I also hate the fact that all stores now try and sell everything rather
>than there being specialist shops dedicated to a particular range of
>products.
>
>In my home town we used to have 3 specialist record shops where you
could
>by almost any record "off the shelf". Then everyone started
selling CD's,
>putting the specialist shops out of business, so now you can go into
almost
>any shop in town and buy a CD as long as its in the Top 20 :-((
>
>Last Christmas I went into WH Smith and they had more CD's than me by
>quantity (ie 50 of each title in the top 20 plus a handful of other
popular
>artists) but I probably had as many, if not more, different titles than
>they did.
>
>The dedicated hardware shops have gone to be replaced by the DIY
>superstores, again with lots of stock, but that little used bit of
>ironmongery that is needed worth about 20p will either be non existsnt
or
>sold in a little plastic bag for about 2 quid.
>
>Still....it is good to see X10 spreading. It might help the prices to
fall
>to more realistic levels, but lets hope they stock more than 3 or 4
types
>of modules. We want the whole range of stuff they have in the States.
>
>There....got that of my chest, I'll get off my soapbox and I'LL GET ME
COAT
>!!!!
>
>Keith Doxey
>http://www.btinternet.com/~krazy.keith
>Krazy Keith's World of DIY Home Automation
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:	paul gordon [SMTP:paul_gordon@xxxxxxx]
>Sent:	Wednesday, August 25, 1999 9:26 AM
>To:	ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>Subject:	[ukha_d] Re: Couple of FYI's
>
>Even better news is that, as a regular Homebase customer, with one of
their
>loyalty cards, I have also got ?50 worth of FREE homebase vouchers
stuck to
>my fridge door!! :-))
>
>So I'm going to get the transceiver module, 1 appliance module, and 1
radio
>remote for ?12....
>
>BTW, they normally extend their opening hours from 8PM to 10PM on these
>special 10% off days......
>
>Paul.
>
>
>
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