My wife recently received an offer to spend $40 or more a week for 3 weeks at Liquorland to receive a $50 Liquorland gift card, which she did.
More recently, she received a text message from flybuys with an offer of 1,500 bonus points if she spent $40 or more online at Liquorland.
After wasting considerable time in creating an account and an order on their dog’s breakfast of an online ordering system, we went to the checkout only to find we could not utilise the gift card online.
I called the number on the website and was told we could only use the gift card instore.
When we asked about the 1,500 bonus points, we were told that was for online ordering only.
Thanks for nothing, Liquorland.
Little wonder as to why Dan Murphy’s is the market leader.
Actually, the Fly-Buys and Rewards programs are here for another thing - war… The article says they will use their extensive databases of your purchases to woo you with special offers.
I also noticed while accompanying friends, that both of the Big Two have one checkout marked “pick up your online orders here” and that would generally be orders automatically robotically fulfilled in a central packing warehouse and distributed, another sign that their bottom line is not healthy.
Interestingly, I’d noticed a month or two ago on a rare visit into Coles that they are already adopting ALDI practices, where manually stacked shelves of soda and mineral water once stood, they’d removed the shelving and placed the drinks on pallets just like that other store does.
The era of the “supermarket” is over, and it has been for decades. Remember when the “supermarkets” had a “super” selection of each of their lines? More than two brands and styles of tinned peas to choose from? Ah, the good old days…
While you did not imply that they were, Aldi is not the originator of the practice. In Australia that gong probably goes to Bunnings but there could be predecessors. Stacking pallets rather than placing product on shelves is part of the warehouse marketing concept that implies lower prices because of lower overheads. If you like the concept you owe it to yourself to visit a Costco if one is close enough, whether or not you keep the membership. (You may have to buy a membership for even a walk-around unless you know a member who will walk you in, but you can cancel it on the way out.)
Prices will be what they will be at all of them.
Aldi’s gong is perfecting making decent house branded goods resemble well known brand names to make them more attractive to their price sensitive customers. Both Woolies and Coles have started introducing their own made-up brand goods where the main giveaway is ‘packed for Woolies|Coles’ on the labels.
You will be surprised what can be collected even if one does not have a loyalty card. If you use a credit card the data can be compiled against a shopper. Even Aldi which does not have a loyalty card system collects customer data. Its privacy policy is worth a read, along with any other retailer on shops at. While this is a UK article, the practice also occurs here:
The only way not for the store to collect personal data would be to to only pay with cash and never use the internet or provide any details to a retailer (such as email for being sent direct advertising material from them).
Ummm ‘Jack the Slasher Food Barn’ Supermarkets had a bulk or on the pallet store shopping experience way long before Bunnings did it. Ahh the memories of the pirate figure holding a cutlass painted on the outside walls of their supermarkets. It was purchased by Woolworths sometime in the 1980s and became branded as ‘Food For Less’ stores but I don’t think these even remain nowadays and where still open have become just Woolworths stores.
Woollies shut down the Jack The Slasher store in Cairns shortly after they took over the chain and the building is now Lifeline’s distribution depot for FNQ.
I as well as many other people believed that Woolies intention was to buy the group so as to shut down the stores merely go get rid of the competition.
For sure it was to get rid of competition and also to give Woolies a ‘bargain’ type store to compete with Coles ‘Bi-Lo’ stores and some others. They didn’t want to dilute their premium offers in their Woolies branded stores so it was an easy effort to just introduce the ‘Food for Less’ businesses.
Woolllies did a similar thing to the Jack The Slasher takeover in Townsville some decades ago when they bought out Phillip Leong’s group of supermarkets.
They operated them for a while and then shut them all down.
My late grandparents always dealt with the Phillip Leong supermarket in Hermit Park.
They would phone the store and place their order which was delivered at no extra charge to their door the same day.
An article regarding frequent flyer programs with input from Choice.
As we pay for almost everything with our credit cards and pay them in full every month, it is certainly worthwhile for us and we use the points for ffights.
My wife and I were dissatisfied with the bank’s credit card offerings several years ago, and wound up getting a supermarket credit card, with an annual fee.
We get multiple times the annual fee (I chose the one with a fee and more points earned) in shopping discounts without even trying - to the extent that we got an email earlier this year saying we were in the top 1% of points earned/spent. So from our perspective, the loyalty points are ‘worth it’. The supermarket could see what we buy anyway, because we almost never use cash. I have not installed, and will not install their ‘convenient app’ - because that would definitely sacrifice my privacy.
I would not consider using the points to ‘buy’ something, as everything on offer can be found elsewhere for less total cost. Just the supermarket discount is fine, thanks.
The Coles Platinum Credit Card is a very good option for those who shop at Coles and use their credit card to pay for as much as possible. For a moderate spend, the collected points for a $10 voucher to use at Coles, easily covered the $99 annual fee.
The fee-free international transaction fees is another plus.
But like all good things, it’s coming to an end. The collection of points is being culled. For me it will only impact big ticket purchases on top of my regular spend. But back in the day with kids living at home, the limit would be reached most months.
BELOW IS AN EXCERPT OF THE EMAIL FROM THE PROVIDER:
Change to Flybuys points effective from 12 January 2021
The Flybuys points you collect will now be tiered. You will collect 2 Flybuys points per dollar for up to $3000 spent on Eligible Transactions in each Statement Period, and then 1 point per dollar thereafter
Introducing Value Boosters for Coles Rewards customers
You are eligible to receive marketing offers from us from time-to-time, starting with 10% off items purchased in the Coles Express shop throughout October and November2. If you remove your consent to receive marketing offers, we may not send these offers to you.
Changes to your Coles Online Bonus Point Special Promotion
The Special Promotion where you will collect 1 Flybuys point for every dollar you spend in each Coles Online order will end on 30 November 2020. For more information, refer to your October 2020 statement.
I don’t like Coles Financial services. I didnt ever have their CC, but I did get a reloadable Mastercard which carried no fees. Clearly it didnt work for them as well as t worked for me, they canned it after about a year (well it was a year for me, no idea how long it had been going for). No profit, no deal. I’m just saving a few more flybuys points for something I want from the “Rewards” catalogue and then my flybuys account and card will be dropped.
I have moved the topic to this one that is about whether Frequent Flyer & Loyalty points are actually worth it. While the points may have been earnt at a better rate in the past, the amount they have been worth even then is paltry in many people’s opinions. Does the change make the card less attractive looking? Probably yes, but if we only had the Card for it’s points it’s value was already very low in real terms. If a person has the card for the other benefits eg fee free international transactions then it likely is still good value to the holder.
If you peruse your options your best value for flybuys points is usually getting flybuys money used toward grocery or other purchases available with them.
Products offered in ‘rewards catalogues’ are usually better value on sale in the open market than using points. Some consider points free, but if they get, say $10 of groceries for 2,000 points ($0.005 per point) or deliver a product for a value of $0.003 or less per point, which is a better outcome?
Of course if one has points but not cash it might seem getting a product is better, but if one gets discounts from the grocery bill and applies each $10 saving toward a product it could work out.
Advice would be appreciated on my entitlement due to their "error’, as follows:-
I used my Week 15 voucher for 2,500 BONUS POINTS, very clearly stated on the face in coloured highlighting, when spending $40 or more in a single shop at Coles. HOWEVER, I only received 500 Points!!! which on looking at the Terms and Conditions in very small print on the reverse side, it stated that 500 BONUS POINTS would be credited!!! This seems to be a gross discrepancy/error rather than a deliberate deceit which would be very unfair for the Consumer to be penalised as I would NOT otherwise have used this voucher for only 500 points.
Your views would be appreciated. Thanks.
