Looking for loyalty

Savvy shoppers choose to spend their hard-earned dollars with vendors that are eager to reward them for their brand loyalty. In a market where choices abound, consumers are asking, “What’s in it for me?” Retailers are responding with a variety of loyalty programs.

Genna Stubbings, an HR professional, chooses to shop at places where she knows her brand loyalty will earn her discounts and freebies in the future. When it comes to shoes, for example, she only shops at SoftMoc.

“This store is awesome,” says Stubbings, “because they don’t even give you a card. They just keep your phone number on file. Whenever you make a purchase you get more points, and then you start getting some money back.”

When shopping for clothing, Stubbings heads straight to Eddie Bauer. “Their program also offers discounts after you’ve spent a certain amount of money with them,” she says.

The same strategy applies to drug store purchases. The only place Stubbings will shop is at Shoppers Drug Mart because this chain offers the Optimum card program where purchases allow the consumer to collect points for future discounts.

And if the tank on the family car is near “E” the only place Stubbings will stop for a fill-up is the local Esso station. “My husband Shawn and I have an Esso card,” she says, “and through my husband’s professional association we get a discount off every litre we buy.”

Stubbings and her husband rarely shop around. “We just go to these stores because we know that we’re going to get money back,” she says.

Another method Stubbings uses to squeeze as much value out of every purchase is a Visa card. “We put everything on one credit card — our Scotia Visa — because we get points for it,” she says. “So every time we go to a department store and they ask us if we’d like to open a credit card account, we just say no, even though they tell us that we can save on the initial purchase by doing so.”

Have her tactics paid off? Most definitely. “With our Visa we’ve already received a free KitchenAid mixer, power tools, a tent, and a car seat for our new baby,” she says. “That’s why everything except food goes on my Visa.”

Farhan Zamir, an IT Consultant, employs a similar tactic. “I’m a PC Financial fan,” he says. “With their PC Mastercard I get PC points I can use toward free groceries at a number of grocery stores, or on their website where they have other rewards.”

These “other rewards” include electronics, furniture, gift cards from other retailers, and more. “I’ve collected over 400,000 points over the past four years,” says Zamir, “and I’ve redeemed maybe about 100,000 on their website on travel.”