🛍️ Regulators confirm that loyalty does pay - when it comes to the supermarkets 🛒
The Competitions and Marketing authority rubber stamping the validity of supermarket loyalty schemes this week will come as a welcome relief for consumers. The cost of living crisis and intense marketing of shopping events like Black Friday have made us sensitive to having the wool pulled over our eyes to the point our scepticism is detrimental; we simply will not believe a deal is a deal until Martin Lewis himself tells us. And it costs us a lot in missed savings.
Validating to me, the ambassador of ‘you can always find it cheaper’ that when it comes to supermarket shopping, I am right. I tend to gauge real savings based on a mental basket of items I have, the Nescafé Azera scale, if you will. Keeping an eye on usual costs means you can recognise a real deal more immediately.
That said, this enquiry by the CMA should reassure consumers that it is worth seeking out those loyalty prices and signing up at a bare minimum - and they have done research at scale to comprehensively prove it and demonstrate a tangible positive impact on your basked.
Whilst shopping around is the best route to savings, this can be limited by what you have in your area, and that is where loyalty can have a big impact, both on your immediate basket and also through the accrual of points to spend at a later date or put towards something else.
Unfortunately there is a real creep towards fully digital loyalty offerings and that does stand to leave out those who are less mobile-literate, who may well be the people most in need of these savings. Age banding the cards also excludes younger people looking to get the best prices. Regulators should keep a close eye on supermarkets to ensure the deals they are doing are fair and available to as many people as possible.
What are supermarket loyalty scheme points worth?
Tesco Clubcards - 1 point per each £1 spent. Each point is then worth 1p to spend as vouchers either at Tesco, or they can be worth double if you spend them at one of it's 100+ reward partners like Pizza Express or Disney+.
Sainsbury's Nectar - get 1 point per pound you spend. Every 500 points are then worth £2.50 to spend at Sainsbury's or you can also redeem them at other partners like Esso fuel or eBay for differing amounts.
Asda Rewards - when you buy certain 'Star Products', you get 10% of their price back to your account, plus even more on selected 'Super Star Products' You can then redeem that money to spend at Asda.
Morrisons More - get varying amounts of points when you buy selected products. Once you've earned 5000 points, you can then exchange that for a £5 voucher to spend at Morrisons.
These are the basic offers that everyone gets but some schemes also have personalised offers within the app, based on what they know you like or things that they know will be in demand, particularly around Christmas.