The AJARG and the AJARGCard logos are Registered Trademarks of the AJA Research Group   2009 - All Rights

If Your Organization Does Not Have A Loyalty Card Program, Let Us Develop One For You!

Fat Wallets, Slim Satisfaction

A consumer responding to our national survey recently wrote to complain about his fat wallet. The problem: It's gotten unwieldy thanks to all the customer loyalty stores from several grocery stores, the bookstore, pet store, drugstore, shoe store, sports-equipment store. etc. As the consumer said: "My wallet isn't that big." Besides, he added, "I'm always trying to simplify my life, so even one extra card bothers me."

The consumer asked: "Wouldn't it be nice if they could all be combined onto one card. Rather than handing out new cards, stores could gather your card information and add the info to their database--maybe give you a little sticker for your card so you can keep track of which programs you belong to."

The consumer's request doesn't surprise David Hogan, senior vice president and chief information officer of the National Retail Federation, the trade association for all kinds of stores. In fact, Hogan said, he agrees with the consumer. He said he gets so frustrated with all the loyalty cards that stores hand out that he doesn't carry

any. His wife, on the other hand, has a keychain full of them.

Hogan said the problem is "retailers are very passionate about retaining existing customers and generating new ones" and they believe their own individual store cards are the way to achieve those two goals. However, he said he believes that one day soon there will be a cooperative loyalty card where retailers join together to give customers rewards at multiple stores.

That day has finally come.  The AJARGCard may be used at multiple participating retailers and service providers. There's already one such card in the United Kingdom (the Nectar card), but the AJARGCard was developed to meet the need of US retailers and service providers.

Now the wallets of US consumers won't have to be like the explosive one that George Costanza carried around (remember, Seinfeld called it a walking "filing cabinet" under half of George's rump). With the AJARGCard the day is here when there may be a slim wallet in the future of US consumers.