So, I have this thing, right? This thing that makes me REALLY hate how stores make you sign up for their damn “cards” to get a reasonable price on items. This is why I get my groceries at Target. Good prices and GOBS of cheap generics. NO CARD.
Well, I also have this thing where I drink a couple cases of Diet Cokes a week. And Super Target? Usually has them reasonably priced with sales every week. About once every six weeks or so, though, there is NO sale and they are priced over four dollars a case. These weeks? I find who else has them on sale and go there. This was one of those weeks. Who had them on sale? Kroger. 4 cases for 11 dollars. AWESOME.
On my way home today, in a horrible storm, I decided to stop and get a few cases at Kroger. I walked in with a VERY fussy and irritated baby. I walked up to the coke display and saw “With Card 4/11 dollars. Without? 4.99 ea.” WHAT? NO! Did I stay strong with my thing against cards or did I stay strong with my thing for Diet Cokes? What do you think…the chemical addiction won out. I signed up for a damn card so I could get the damn cokes for damn cheap. The whole time I told myself “Just this once…” vowing to destroy the card when I got home and NEVER shop there again.
(But not before I grabbed two 8 packs of gatorade on my way out. $4.50 with a card! I wasn’t going to miss out on that deal.)
(But THEN I’d destroy the card.)
(I know. I’m a freak.)
I have to say I am all about the Kroger card. It may be that’s because we only have Walmart (which I hate with the wrath of all that is good and righteous) and this Family-Southern-Happiness-Gayness Place for options. And I have a special place in my heart for the steak deals they sometimes have (seriously, how do you expect a country girl to turn down ribeyes for $5.99 a pound?). But, I did lose my Kroger card and I refuse to give up my gas discount, so I have regressed to rattling off my phone number as soon as I step up to the register to the poor clerk. Why can’t they just print me a new one? Why?
P.S. I miss Target.
Wow, you’re really stickin it to “the man” aren’t ya? We don’t have cards around here for anything, but I do worship at the SuperTarget golden calf. Thankfully, our town is too small to have one or I’d need a second mortgage on my house to pay for my purchases. Oy.
It works if you work it - like only buy meat and tampons at one store, and only buy veggies and ex-lax at another. THEN they don’t know what coupons to send you and quit buggin’ you about it all….
Wow. I think I have a “thing” for those cards; I must have about ten of them. I like how they give you the little mini-cards to put on your keychain. And I don’t get bugged by any of them, either. Although maybe that’s because I gave a fake address when I filled out the form…
Now THAT’s stickin’ it to the man. Hee!
I recently got ticked about the card because my grocery store used my buying record on it and tracked the allergy meds I bought two weeks before and wouldn’t let me buy more than the state mandate for the month - we have four people, two little kids who DON’T SLEEP when they can’t breathe (they’re funny like that) all with sinus gunk in our heads and they used the card to treat me like I was using Benadryl for illicit purposes. So I went to Target and I now have a thing about the card, too. Sorry you “had” to sign up for one…But the coke would have won me over, too.
I just get the card and use a fake name and address. Like my Kroger card belongs to Ms. Visa Declined. (I heard that name on a show about drag queens and I heart it very much so I plagerized it for my life of crime.) So, why not get a card with the name Lotta Boobsweat, with an address on NikkiZ Way, in the town of LilZoot, Alabama? Creative problem solving!
I was just going to tell you to keep the card, because Kroger has some good sales. But I also like the previous comments (fake names! I never thought of that!)
I’m with you on the card thing. I hate them with a passion. Why, oh why, can’t we all just pay the same price? Why did we as consumers let them get away with this? I know, I know, tracking purchases, more targeted sales, coupons, etc. But seriously, it’s unfair and unjust. (Ok, off my soapbox now.)
YOu could have gone to Walmart, (I know you hate it but…) and got what you wanted, then told the cashier how much they were at Kroger and got the sale price…no card necessary…woloohoo that’s how I do b/c I am way way way away from a target.
We are SO soul sisters. If I am ever forced by circumstances to buy something at Kroger, I actually feel compelled to tell the hapless cashier what a hunk of crap all card programs are, and that I am not a member, am not interested in ever becoming a member, and shop there as infrequently as possible because of their stupid card programs and gas station prices for non-members. HATE THEM!
I’m always amazed that the cokes are always, except for that one week, on sale at Target. It’s great…really fuels my coke addiction.
I got caught in the hail storm on the parkway this evening. What is with all the hail anyways?? I’ve seen more hail here in these past weeks than in my entire life!
Thanks for the heads up on the diet coke sale. hehe. Looks like I may have to use my Kroger card that I got (in college) before my husband knew the joy of target.
Just tell them that you don’t have your usual keys (or wallet) and could they just swipe through the generic card for you. Then if they don’t get REALLY mad. Works every time.
I hate those cards with a passion, too. But the CVS I go to will just grab a card from the pile next to the register and scan it for you if you don’t have one, so that’s cool.
I once couldn’t find my Bi-Lo (like Kroger) card, and asked the woman behind me if I could please use hers (because the savings would have been ridiculous, and at the time they were running some sort of reward thingy on it so I would have been HELPING her get that) and she screeched “NO!!!” so hatefully you would have thought I asked to use her credit card instead. Eesh.
Hate the cards, Hate ‘em, Hate ‘em, Hate ‘em… What do they do with all that information you give them?
Give them fake information if you *must* have them. But I’m with everyone else who just won’t shop there because of the card program. If they wanted me to have the discount, they would just GIVE me the discount and not reduce me to a barcode.
I signed up for a bunch of the cards, but I’m not worried, because I gave them all YOUR address.
hahahaha
I use the card religiously for Hen House, but that is where we get all of our groceries. Otherwise, I am with you on the cards.
Target generics ROCK. I use them wherever/whenever possible. I LOVE how they will even say “compare to” and then state exactly which brand they just copied. The Archer Farm spices are really good, too!
Oh, I am a total black sheep here, because I’m store cards’ complete bitch. I have, in my wallet right now, the following cards: Books-a-Million, Kroger, Hancock Fabrics, GameStop (also good at MovieStop, huzzah), and CVS. And I never get any unsolicited mail. Just once every couple of months I get some nice coupons (usually $5-$10 off an order)–that’s all. And my mom loves it because whenever she shops at a store where I have a discount card, she just uses my phone number and gets my discount.
Every time I HAVE the time, which is never any more but still it’s the thought that counts…. I get a new card. And I give them bogus info. If everyone got a new card once a month it would shut those scumbag card programs DOWN I tell ya!
Just doin’ my part.