nealglover – Member
If I don’t have a nectar card, I buy shopping and get nothing back.
If I have a nectar card and use it, it costs nothing extra, and I get money back (for free)
You’re looking at it the wrong way.
You don’t have a nectar card, you buy shopping and are paying more than you should so that the store can give money back to those that do have the card.
They are also paying money to those with the card for information, but it’s coming out of profits they get from everyone through slightly higher prices.
If the store didn’t have a reward card, there’s a chance prices in general will be a little lower.
The money has to come from somewhere. It comes from the customers.
Of course you get all kinds of seeming bargains anyway. Believing you’re getting a good deal is the marketers trap and almost all of us fall for it. Look at the unit price, check the prices before the discount and how long they were higher, plus if you know the price they are supplied at and the mark up they are getting normally in order to drop it to a “discount” price, then you realise it’s no real bargain. It is compared to what you usually pay, but you shouldn’t really be paying that much in the first place. Same with places with reward cards.
It’s averaged out across customers though and if you know how to play the system you can minimise the costs. You still aren’t really getting something for nothing.