The points program offers huge savings and gives Kmart a big price advantage over Target, Walmart, and other discounters. One drawback is that it is often confusing, time consuming at checkout, and excludes too many items. I think it would work better and drive sales if it was simplified. The first thing is there needs to be a physical card that is scanned. This would eliminate a lot of time at checkout with phone numbers and pin numbers (that system could be used for those who didn't have their card), but for most customers they could then scan their card and pay. A very simple flawless process for both the customer and cashier- scan items, scan card, a choice of points or coupons that apply to the purchase pops up on the pad that the customer can choose to use on the purchase, and then payment. The second thing is the issue of coupons and free cash which someone on here explained to me previously and most customers are unaware of, that there is no choice between free cash and earned points, that should be made clear to the customer that there is no distinction. A choice of points available to use on a purchase should pop up and be selected or coupons. The point system should also be setup in a way that doesn't exclude any categories of clearance, sale, deal flash, food, household etc. Obviously normal exclusions like alcohol, tobacco, lottery , gift cards make sense, but it's too complicated for the customer and cashiers to exclude so many normal merchandise categories. Food and household could have prices raised to incorporate the fact that coupons and points will include those lower margin categories. Customers like to save money and get a deal, but not too complicated. A simple card that is scanned and shows 2 choices for the customer to choose: x amount of points OR x amount in coupons.
11 replies (most recent on top)
You're right, points don't roll, but I earn a lot of the points from playing their stupid contests/sweepstakes games. Ok, maybe a few of my transactions have been for like a dollar or two when I didn't calculate correctly before getting rung up, but other than that, I have received hundreds in merchandise since.
Who carries a card anymore? Lol kroger? Macy’s ?? At syw I just bring up the barcode on the app and they scan it- easy peezy.
Btw loving the hell out of my new kenmore smart appliances!
@idse you are a liar. The points haven’t rolled in years so there is now way you got $400 in free merchandise and only spent $50. #icallbs
Too bad if someone leaves their card behind. I've never heard of retailers not having physical loyalty cards over fears that they are somehow responsible for customer mistakes.
@fjd They just made it more confusing with the 'freecash' nonsense... now points, offers, and coupons are ALL called "freecash" at some times, even though they all work differently.
That really wasn’t the issue, but OK. Honestly they were too damn cheap to have cards made, they wanted to run the program as cheaply as possible. If there was such a concern over fraud they could have required a pin with or without card which Plenti does.
The points program is a big fraud happening in order to show 'sales' that aren't really there. I can't even imagine the amount of accounting fraud going on behind the scenes. I've spent $50 out of pocket since January and have received $400+ worth of merchandise. What other kind of business gives away merchandise?
If you signed up when it started you were given a card. There are still a few of us that have our card. Free cash is points to your account, they just tried to rev interest in it again so they called it free cash. Stupid if you ask me
What is a thug?
What is a king ring?
You are most definitely an idiot.
I have the card too! Love this place!
I have both a card and a thug that goes on my king ring for the cashier to scan!
SYW is the best!!