How many loyalty cards do you possess? I lost my Sainsbury’s Nectar card long ago, have never understood the point of a John Lewis card, and refused to get an M&S Sparks card because I was so annoyed at being hectored to use one by a disembodied voice at the self-service checkouts. But I do have a Tesco Clubcard, and I’m not alone. It is “Britain’s most successful membership scheme ever,” according to Harry Wallop, consumer expert and contributor to The Big Loyalty Card Rip-Off (Channel 5).
The Nectar card isn’t far behind, and this programme promised an investigation into both Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s offerings. Are the deals too good to be true? What are these high-street giants really doing with our data? “Could it be that there’s a lot about loyalty cards we just don’t know?” it asked at the outset.
Now, if you’re going to call your programme The Big Loyalty Card Rip-Off, you’re making a pretty big claim. You’re also giving lawyers for Tesco and Sainsbury’s something to get their teeth into. And the title over-egged the pudding. There was no proof of a rip-off here, only a suggestion – strongly denied by both retailers – that discounts for loyalty card holders aren’t what they’re cracked up to be because the “normal” price has been inflated prior to the deal.
In theory, loyalty card data could be used for good: the programme highlighted an Imperial College London study in which doctors hope to spot early signs of ovarian cancer by noting women who are frequently purchasing certain types of over-the-counter medication and pain relief.
Mostly, though, it’s to tell the supermarkets how many Hobnobs you buy. They also learn how loyal and valuable a customer you are, which allows them to target their advertising to your habits and tastes. The supermarkets also “share” your data with other companies, although they say that customers are anonymised.
The clearest part of the show was a simple shopping test: presenter Alexis Conran spent around £65 on basic items, and an identical shop by someone with a loyalty card cost £15 less. Channel 5 deserves credit for continuing to run consumer affairs programming in primetime, where its rivals have pretty much given up.
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