Tesco, the biggest supermarket chain in the UK, is cutting its Clubcard rewards scheme in half and removing the amount of buy one get one free offers in stores.
Tesco says it will be focusing on reducing the prices of everyday goods on the shelf from Monday 26th September, 2010. More than 3,000 products have already been discounted, including 14p off certain types of bread and 35p off a kilo of potatoes.
The move is thought to be in response to poor performance as Tesco’s dominance in the UK supermarket price war begins to slip.
The Clubcard scheme is hugely popular and now has more than 15 million members in the UK alone. Members can scan a barcode on a card, keyring or on the screen of their smartphone at checkout to collect reward points on their shopping or fuel purchases. Points can be spent on shopping, dining, days out or holidays. The scheme also runs in other countries such as Poland and Malaysia.
The supermarket has been running a double points promotion as part of its Clubcard offering for some time. The double points offer has always advertised as a temporary increase after it was initially introduced in late 2010.
Tesco are announcing that the scheme will now revert to its previous reward level of giving shoppers one point per pound spent as of 23rd October 2011.
Critics say that Tesco already altered some of the terms of its deals when doubling the points last year, making customers save more points for the same rewards. Withdrawing the double points scheme means customers will now be paying more in points than they did originally, meaning shoppers are worse off than they were under the original terms of the Clubcard scheme. A handful of rewards will be offered at a better rate.
While CEO of Tesco Richard Brasher defended the change, Martin Lewis, the journalist behind the Moneysavingexpert website, said Tesco had “truly slashed the value of its rewards scheme.”
In an unrelated report, a woman from Wrexham has been arrested for using multiple copies of a Moneysavingexpert voucher in Sainsbury’s. The fraudulent vouchers are thought to have been put through a self-service till to avoid detection, totalling £150 in value.