Rethinking Retail

I need to whip up a couple of my cute little mesh bags to send to Scott's girlfriend for Christmas. Last night I chose the fabric, pulled out the mesh, then began inventorying my collection of zippers to see if I had the right lengths and colors to assemble these bags without making yet another trip to the fabric store. Alas, I didn't.

So then I started scouring the house for a current Jo-Ann's or Hancock's coupon. And my level of annoyance rose.

Why do stores insist on requiring shoppers to sign up for frequent shopper cards or mailing lists in order to save money? If a store owner can afford to discount one item by 10% for the shopper who walks in with a coupon, he or she can afford to discount one item for every shopper who walks through the door. After all, would I rather shoppers come in only when they have coupons, or wouldn't it be nicer for them to consider me the retailer of choice when they need something? Wouldn't I rather a shopper stopped in whenever she was driving by instead of going back home to get the coupon and coming back another day?

They're all doing it. Safeway offers strawberries 2 for $6 if I swipe my card. Fry's, Basha's—my key ring has more frequent shopper dangles than keys!

And we won't even discuss the department and clothing stores—Dillard's, Macy's, Gap, J.Crew—who offer you 10% off if you open a charge account. Ain't happening! I've got enough charge cards. In this day and age of identify theft, I don't want any more open accounts than I absolutely need.

Which reminds me: Prudential Insurance, who holds my old life insurance policy from the early days at IBM, sent me a letter saying that some data was stolen and offering me two free years of credit monitoring. I signed up (it was free, after all) and discovered that the three credit bureaus now list 59 Grace Rd., Wilmot, NH, as one of my addresses. That's the home Steve's new wife got him to renovate for her at the cost of close to $100,000, and where they live during the summers when he's not teaching in England. Does it piss me off that the credit bureaus think that's my address? You bet your sweet bippy.

I can't even tell you why it pisses me off so greatly. There are more emotions tied up in that feeling that yards of fabric in my stash.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've gotta surf over to hancockfabrics.com and joann.com to see if they've got a coupon online I can print to save some money on a zipper this evening.

Oh, and my store, when I open one? Each and every shopper will get 10% off one item every day. I don't know how I'll track how many times a shopper comes into the store each day. But I will not require frequent shopper cards. Come one, come all!