Borders Rewards not so rewarding any more

[niko]

Man, I knew that the Borders Rewards program was too useful to last long, but still...  *sigh*

The old program:  For every $50 spent in the store, you basically get a "10% off entire purchase" coupon good until the end of the next month.  Plus some small percentage of every purchase goes into a "Holiday" account to get additional $X.XX off of purchases made around Christmas.  So if you're like me and spend a lot of money on books & manga, you can stop in once a month, spend $60 (some of which comes off from the 10% coupon), earn next month's coupon, and also earn a little cash towards a bigger discount at the end of the year.  Decent deal, and one that made me change my buying habits from sporadic binge-shopping at whatever bookstore happened to be handy, to a steady budget that was all directed right at Borders.  Even during months when I only had $30-worth of books that I really *needed*, I would usually throw a few more on the pile just to get up to that $50 target.

The new program:  A single $5-off coupon for every $150 spent in the store.  Period.   For my $50/month habit, that's a fair drop from the $15 off I would've gotten with the 10% discounts.  Not to mention the loss of the holiday cash bonus.

They just completely killed any brand loyalty they had built with me...

Comments

suggest a change in venue

[jnutley.livejournal.com]

I'm almost entirely Amazon anymore, cause the stuff I like isn't available at local Borders or Barnes & Nobel without a special order.

It's too bad, cause I used to love getting lost among the stacks of librarys or bookstores. :( All I see there anymore is just a lot of mediocrity.

Re: suggest a change in venue

[nikojen.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is that bookstores are the one case where I have usually preferred to shop brick-and-mortar despite the higher prices. But having had a deal where I felt like I was saving at least a little money and then going back to full-price is making me reconsider just going the Amazon route, where the savings are significantly better.

So, *not only* did Borders lose a chunk of my business, but their bait-and-switch tactics may have actually served to drive business away from brick-and-mortar altogether...