One thing, I noticed during my thirst time in an American supermarket where the little signs, under each good for the better price if you use your store card when you buy it.
In Germany we have these cards too, but not for supermarkets.
The differences between buying something with the card or without are very big for some products.
The first question I asked myself was, what does these cards cost the supermarket? Which are the regular prices? I am very sure that the amount for paying without using a store card is like an extra fee. So does the supermarket want the people to use the card, or are they happy for every customer who forgot his one?
It is really easy to get a card and it takes you only two minutes to fill out the sheet of paper. If you use the card, the supermarket manager always knows what you bought during week in his shop. But is this extra information really worth the efforts?
I am sure that the fact that they are offering these special prices has another advantage, besides the extra information. When you see the high “regular” price and compare it to the “special” price you get the feeling that you are saving a lot of money. But in fact you maybe only pay the regular price now and it is still expensive compared to the price in another supermarket.
Anyway the store cards are an interesting instrument to analyze the buying behavior of super market customers.
Tags: Buying Behaviour, store card
