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Premieres 6 November 2026 at 6pm UK time
Who's Tricking You? · Episode 7
Why does a supermarket pay you to carry its card?
The points aren't really the prize. You are.
The 1995 loyalty card that showed a supermarket more in three months than its chairman had learned in thirty years, what a point is actually worth, and what the competition watchdog found about member prices.
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What the fox said
Why would a supermarket pay you, just to carry its little card?
Because the points aren't really the prize. You are.
February, 1995. A British supermarket launches a loyalty card.
A small data firm studies what cardholders buy. Every basket. Every brand.
When they show the board, the chairman reportedly says they know more about his business in three months than he'd learned in thirty years.
The points? At one big chain, it's one point per pound spent. Each worth a penny.
Spend a hundred pounds, and you've earned about a pound back.
In return, the shop gets a map of your habits. What you buy, when, and what tempts you.
Now the big chains offer lower prices for members only. Many shoppers suspected the normal prices were puffed up.
To be fair, when the competition watchdog checked about fifty thousand products in 2024, more than nine in ten member deals were genuine savings.
But it warned that loyalty prices aren't always the cheapest. So shop around.
So enjoy the discount, but remember what you paid with. Your card is a window into your trolley. Keep your nose to the wind.
Sources
- Tesco Clubcard launched on 13 February 1995 after a trial in 1994, with the data analysed by the firm Dunnhumby; chairman Lord MacLaurin reportedly said Dunnhumby knew more about his business in three months than he had learned in 30 years (Marketing Week, 'How Tesco revolutionised loyalty with Clubcard'; Computer Weekly, 'Clubcard at 30').
- Clubcard earns 1 point per £1 spent, and 100 points are worth a £1 voucher in store, about 1% back (Clubcard terms, as summarised by becleverwithyourcash.com and thepointcalculator.com).
- The Competition and Markets Authority examined about 50,000 products and found 92% of loyalty prices were genuine savings on the usual price, with average savings of 17–25% (CMA, 'Groceries loyalty prices offer genuine savings, says CMA', 27 November 2024).
- The same review found 55% of shoppers suspected usual prices were inflated, advised that loyalty prices are not always the cheapest option, and found no breaches of consumer law in how loyalty data was used (CMA, November 2024).
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