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S..H..O..PP..I.N.G
Apr. 26th, 2022 02:18 pmThere are various complaints I have about various shops - some much loved items disappearing / never seeming to be in stock; a loyalty scheme deciding that it didn't want to give its offers the one time I was trying to take advantage of them - but I am going to mention one thing that I am not going to complain about but I know others don't like...
Waitrose changed its loyalty scheme a few months ago. If, like us, you only use them for a few things, the new one is wonderful.
Rather than have some random offers plus a free newspaper if you spend £10 there - the local store never had the Guardian when I went in and I never worked out if that was because they disappeared quickly (in which case, why not get more??) or they simply didn't stock it (why not??) - you now get offers based on what you actually buy there.
So one example is sheep's milk yogurt, which L eats. At one point, Morrisons stocked it, but that stopped a few years ago. (They still do goat's milk yogurt, which JA eats, and noticeably cheaper than Waitrose sell exactly the same thing for.)
Now, every week, we get £1 off the price! It's now slightly cheaper than Morrisons used to sell it for!
Similarly, I sometimes get the posh 'Charlie B-something' ready meals when they've been reduced. Although Morrisons have some, they don't have any of the ones I like, and they're expensive there too.
Now, every week, we get £2.50 off the price!
There are two one things I have to remember. The first is that when buying something that's a 'only very very rarely' buy from Waitrose, it pays to buy those in a separate transaction without using the loyalty card: if you use it, the system can go 'Ooooh, they buy X! I will give them offers on X and stop giving them offers on Y and Z!'
The second is to leave selecting the offers until I am actually in the shop. You can only pick two from about six options and you can't change your choices once you've picked them. If the item isn't available - it's been ages since one very nice sort of pear has been - then the FAQs say you can use it on something else in the same category but a) what that category is isn't made clear (for the yogurt, is it any yogurt? any non-cow's milk yogurt? any chilled dairy product?), b) I have never worked out how you do that (get some 'partner' to do it?), and c) you run into the problem above.
Waitrose changed its loyalty scheme a few months ago. If, like us, you only use them for a few things, the new one is wonderful.
Rather than have some random offers plus a free newspaper if you spend £10 there - the local store never had the Guardian when I went in and I never worked out if that was because they disappeared quickly (in which case, why not get more??) or they simply didn't stock it (why not??) - you now get offers based on what you actually buy there.
So one example is sheep's milk yogurt, which L eats. At one point, Morrisons stocked it, but that stopped a few years ago. (They still do goat's milk yogurt, which JA eats, and noticeably cheaper than Waitrose sell exactly the same thing for.)
Now, every week, we get £1 off the price! It's now slightly cheaper than Morrisons used to sell it for!
Similarly, I sometimes get the posh 'Charlie B-something' ready meals when they've been reduced. Although Morrisons have some, they don't have any of the ones I like, and they're expensive there too.
Now, every week, we get £2.50 off the price!
There are two one things I have to remember. The first is that when buying something that's a 'only very very rarely' buy from Waitrose, it pays to buy those in a separate transaction without using the loyalty card: if you use it, the system can go 'Ooooh, they buy X! I will give them offers on X and stop giving them offers on Y and Z!'
The second is to leave selecting the offers until I am actually in the shop. You can only pick two from about six options and you can't change your choices once you've picked them. If the item isn't available - it's been ages since one very nice sort of pear has been - then the FAQs say you can use it on something else in the same category but a) what that category is isn't made clear (for the yogurt, is it any yogurt? any non-cow's milk yogurt? any chilled dairy product?), b) I have never worked out how you do that (get some 'partner' to do it?), and c) you run into the problem above.