At the risk of sounding like a corporate shill: If you are one of those people who can't be bothered to carry reward/customer loyalty cards, these are the times to change your ways.
One example is Duane Reade. The DR offers a $5 coupon for every 100 points you earn. Although prescriptions and beer* purchases do not count, enough shampoo, toothpaste and chewing gum at 1 point per dollar and you have $5 off your next purchase before you know it. You gotta buy that stuff somewhere, so why not utilize their
customer-retention program to save you $5 now and then? Register for their e-newsletters and get chances to earn double points and reach your $5 coupon that much sooner.
It's not just drug stores, of course. Many stores offer coupons and specials if you join their rewards programs and sign up for the e-mails (Borders is constantly sending me e-mails with coupons for 20%, 30% or more off.) Again, if you're going to be shopping there anyway, may as well save some green.
You can avoid making your wallet burst with all these cards by simply taping the keychain versions together into one card (I get weird looks from the cashiers here in NYC, but they still work). Or you can use the site
Just One Club Card to consolidate
all of your rewards cards onto one.
[via The Finance Journey via Lifehacker]
*which is just a different kind of Rx.
Photo by Jane M Sawyer / cohdra Morguefile.com
Today is the first annual Free Shipping Day for many online merchants -- some who even promise to get it here by Christmas (too late for some merchants). [via Lifehacker]
