Does having a Safeway club card mean you have to pay membership dues?

No. It’s free.

It is free and it is also a reason to raise prices. I watched the local supermarket go from .99$ for a Coke one day to $1.09 the next day. If you had a Loyalty card you could still buy the Coke for .99$ but if you chose not to participate in the free loyalty program it cost you more. Total scam.

You are paying by providing marketing information. they can track every one of your purchases.

I guess it can be argued that club members are paying closer to actual price than those who aren’t, depends on how you look at it.

But they are totally free, what they gain in market insight by tracking your activity and purchases is worth a hell of a lot more than what they would charge you.

@missingbite How is that a scam? Just get the card.

Who cares. Often times things are a lot cheaper. I don’t buy at Safeway that often but when I do I notice pretty good deals. I don’t give an f if they wanna track my spending and food habits. I buy the same thing all the time damn. Track away!

It’s a scam because they claim they are giving you a discount for being loyal when in reality they only raised prices to give some people a loyalty card. A lot of stores are doing this now. If I am out of town should I join the “loyalty” program of the store I am visiting just to get the lower price that I should have been charged in the first place?

@missingbite Maybe coke was going up anyhow? I don’t know. You could be right. Usually though for a one time thing it’s really not like you’re losing SO MUCH MONEY that you NEED to join the club. It’s usually small savings, but over time it adds up.

The normal prices are arificially high. The club price is retail. The card allows them to keep up with your purchases and sell that information to marketers. Yeah, it sucks!!!

I disagree that because you’re not paying the wholesale price they did means it’s a “ripoff” to the consumer. They are somewhat arbitrarily set by the store to achieve a certain level of profit margin. the vendor is sacrificing a portion of that profit margin to gain user data on you and by tracking your habits they can better figure out how to more better stock their shelves with the kind of products you buy and want depending on your demographics.