Posted on 02/17/2024 11:59:52 AM PST by DallasBiff
I don’t remember the Jewel Tea Company, but the Watkins salesman Bill Porter used to sell door-to-door in our neighborhood when I was a kid. He was the guy with cerebral palsy that they made a movie about. Very nice person, though my sisters were scared of him because he walked and talked funny.
Jewel is still around in the Chicago area. I think Albertsons took them over and kept the name. I still shop at “Da Jewels” as southsiders call it.
My father found a better way to get "stuff" for the house. He played BINGO when household items were the "win". Dad did good. I can still picture some of the stuff...
There's something to be said for loyalty programs. I say this with the caveat that I participate in very few.
-It's much less expensive to advertise to customers you already have. It could be worth it to give back some of those savings.
-In some businesses, there is a cost to add a new customer to their systems for account information such as delivery addresses, etc. Someone has to take the time to enter and maintain the store systems with customer account information.
-In some industries, there's a cost to educating customers about specific business practices such as when things are in season, optimal shopping and ordering days, handling and care of items they're buying, how to perform maintenance on items, servicing schedules, when to call for help (and when not to). It is worth it for a company to reward those who already know the business practices and don't need to be walked through them. I've seen discounts as high as 20% for customers who don't need help from staff.
-A company benefits when their regular customers get a heads up about new items or items coming back into stock. In different places I worked, we had emails that would go to some of the regulars to give them a heads up that we had seasonal items back in stock, especially if the items were in high demand but in limited availability. The customers greatly appreciated not losing out on their favorite items that they bought year after year.
-A business eats part of the cost of processing returns and minimizing that with a rewards program helps. If I was in parts supply for technical equipment, I'd gladly give discounts to customers who knew exactly what they wanted and didn't need my staff to check and double check everything for them to make sure they have the correct components and also know how to install them properly.
-Reward programs are often designed to distinguish between bulk sales versus individual sales. If I sold 100 items in four weeks to untracked customers, how do I know if it was one customer coming in and buying what was available on the shelf (where I could reach out to them to see if I could get them larger quantities) or if was different customers coming in and buying them? The market basket reports at the cash register transaction level will show me how many were bought at a time and what they were purchased with but won't tell me who bought them if the customer paid cash or used gift cards. Replenishment systems will see a spike in sales at a store and send more product but I've witnessed where the sales dropped off because it wasn't a multi-customer trend but one or two customers coming in and buying large quantities for a specific event. The store later had to mark down the price on the excess items to sell them before the expiration date. Multiply that across multiple items in multiple stores and it becomes a significant problem. A loyalty program can help clean up such data and factor into the store replenishment calculations.
I remember Blue Chip Stamps, also.
Warren Buffet was a big fan and major stockholder. He loved them because they collected money up front (from the merchant) and they took an average of over 18 months to redeem. Plus, California being more wealthy and laid back than the rest of the nation, many didn't get redeemed at all.
I still had 2-3 books when I moved away. I gave them to my girlfriend for helping me move. Just over 14 months later, I decided I couldn't live without her and she became my wife, never expressing a desire to return to California except to visit family on occasion. She was definitely a keeper.
The silverware I use daily was gotten with S&H stamps back in the late 70s or so. Just a cheap set, but at this point they’re a family heirloom. ;-)
I still have a lamp that I bought for my Mom (RIP) with S&H green stamps (as a kid).
It was a gift to her way back in the late 1960s.
Our money bought more and American factories made goods and jobs.
Most of the benefits you listed are true, but they all accrue to the company. Not many go to the customer. When you account for the customer aggravation factor AND the customer savings, the customer is behind.
These electronic loyalty programs were supposed to simplify things, but most don’t. Southwest Airlines has done a good job with their Rapid Rewards program. It’s pretty painless to find the best price and accrue point. I just signed up for a new Visa card that gets me 75,000 points after spending $3,000 (which doesn’t take long these days). That will get me maybe four tickets for western US travel worth about $800. So some of the loyalty programs DO work with me!
Well, that's nothing, we had a S&H Green Stamp Redemption Center in the Lakeland Shopping Center on East Side Boulevard next door to my mom's beauty shop in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Apparently Im the only one dumb enough to click the links.
Despite what you will read along the way you will eventually run into a dead end sign...
“PROGRAM DISCONTINUED
Please visit myfreshpoints.com for more details.
S&H Green Stamps are no longer valid and we are no longer accepting them. They have no value.
Effective October 4, 2020, we are also no longer accepting or redeeming S&H greenpoints here.”
YES! Where I lived in West Nashville, Top Value was the thing. There were a few places around that did S&H, but not a lot.
I still have some.......
HA! Pic-N-Save
those stores were real pizza chits
My mother put a dish of water on the table along with a stack of washcloths. We were to use the dampened washcloths instead of licking the stamps.
Yes. Amazing how it all changed
I remember getting a backyard croquet set with S&H green stamps.
-PJ
I assume by your use of the past tense that they are no longer in business?......................
I also remember Betty Crocker coupons. We got some nice sets of stainless Oneida ware with those.
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