The Rewards Card – Who REALLY Benefits?

You can call them rewards cards, membership cards, wellness cards, preferred customer cards, or any of dozens of other names.  Just don’t call them favorable to the customer.  As previously mentioned in a past blog, Staples has been using their rewards cards to link to credit card numbers and from there link to email addresses.  The sad thing about all this is that there is NO WAY to opt out of this at all!!  At least that is the information that I got from them before the BBB shut down my claim.  Certainly, linking credit card information to rewards cards without customer knowledge is not only a scam, but is just bad business.  But then again, what isn’t unethical with anything Staples does?  Welcome to this blog (as if you didn’t know that already)!

My first experience with a rewards card was way back in the mid-1980’s with a company called Waldensoftware.  For those of you who are not aware of this company, it was a part of the Waldenbooks chain before Borders took over the company.  At that time the Walden group was owned by the Pre-Sears Kmart Corporation.  The store that I shopped in was located in the late Newington Mall in Newington New Hampshire.  The store was located 2 doors down on the right hand side beyond the late Montgomery Ward store.  The store was about the size of a mall bookstore at the time. More information about the company can be found at http://waldensoftware.com/

During its existence, I was a member of Waldensoftware’s Preferred Customer Program.  Unlike a similar program being run by the Waldenbooks division, this one allowed for more aggressive rewards to the point that I was toward the end of its existence getting $10 back in coupons for about every $50 I spent with the company.  At the time I was buying a lot with the company for myself and other people as well.  However, it was during one of my visits to the store that absolutely floored me.  The store manager told me that I was the top customer of ALL of the New England stores and was in the top 10 customer purchasers of the ENTIRE company.  It was at this point that the proverbial bell in my head rang loudly.  WALDENSOFTWARE HAD BEEN COLLECTING DATA ON MY PURCHASES!!

While today this is a common practice even though it is usually NOT told to the customer, it still proves that these so-called rewards cards benefit the companies far more than the customer would ever benefit.  Eventually, the company would be sold off to Electronics Boutique and would eventually close as the mall would eventually become an empty shell of abandoned stores.  The mall would eventually be demolished and become part of the retail history.  More details of this late mall can be found at  http://deadmalls.com/malls/newington_mall.html

After Waldensoftware was history, I signed up for the Waldenbooks Preferred Reader card at the local mall.  At the time that I signed up for the card, Waldenbooks had been operating two stores in the local mall.  The one closest (and the larger or the stores) to Sears was more like a bookstore, the one at the other end of the mall (now occupied by a GameStop) was more like a bookstore/software store hybrid.  While this store wasn’t a Waldensoftware store, it had about more software than its companion store at the other end of the mall.

About a year and half before Waldenbooks had closed their larger store, one of the managers had told me that I was its top customer and once again I felt that same anger that I had years earlier about the data being collected about my shopping habits.  I just wonder if after Borders closed if my shopping habits along with my email address was sold to Barnes and Noble.  I really hope not, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they did.  After all, like Staples, they did lie to their customers all the time and always stated that they never “sell, give away, or rent customer information” .  So much for that when they sold my email to B&N!

One thing that always bothered me most about some rewards cards was the fact that they are charging for them.  During the final year of Borders existence, a customer could sign up for the Borders Plus card for $20.  Sadly, the company didn’t last a full year for anyone could take advantage of it.  No matter how many times they tried to push it onto me I always flatly said NO to it as I knew better that this card along with all other cards that you have to pay for are a rip-off!  Ironically, the price of the Books-A-Million card cost $20, but the B&N card costs $5 more.  How stupid do these people think we people are!  However, I will say that back when the Waldensoftware card was around, it was $20 a year until the very end, but at least I took the company for over $1000 in coupons over its lifetime.  I was also a member of the Suncoast Motion Picture Company’s card as well, which cost $20 per year, but again I made up with lots of coupons.  Originally, Best Buy charged for their Reward Zone card, but eventually got smart and stopped charging for it.  Apparently, they knew it wasn’t selling so they had to make it free.  Let me say that I was the exception to the rule for many of these cards as I did excessive shopping for many people (and was reimbursed by them + interest), but for the everyday shopper NONE of the rewards cards would be beneficial if they had to be paid for.  I think it is ironic that any company doesn’t want to collect data on ALL their customers and open their cards availability for free.  Then again companies like Staples enjoy scamming as many customers as possible which is why their card is free.  But what cost is free when you have your information stored without your permission with no way out?  That is a question I will touch upon from time to time.

Up Next:  Selling the FREE Staples Rewards Card (or not)