Mid-Autumn Festival and Grocery Store Rewards Programs

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

In Hong Kong, the day after Mid-Autumn Festival is a public Holiday (which is this Friday), so Jill and I along with another couple are headed to Guiyang (mainland China) tomorrow for the long weekend.  Read more about the Mid-Autumn Festival here.

On our trip we're planning on visiting the Huangguoshu waterfall (amongst other things) which is supposed to be the biggest waterfall in Asia.  I'll try and put the photography lessons to good use!

And just a cultural side note...you know how in the U.S. it seems like everywhere you go you can sign up to be a member of their savings/rewards program?  Walgreens, every grocery store, Macy's etc.  Everywhere has them. And every time you go to purchase something, you get asked "Are you a rewards member? No?  Well let me tell you about all the savings you're missing out on!"  Then they go on to give you the whole spiel.  I hate that...

Well they have savings programs here too, except I've only seen them at grocery stores.  The major groceries are Wellcome (that's how they spell it), Park 'n Shop, and City Super (basically the Whole Foods of Hong Kong), and they all have programs.  What's awesome here is that there is no convincing you to join.  No selling.  They simply ask, "Rewards club member?" and that's it.  No spiel, no trying to get you to sign up.  It's great.  It's just so different from the US though.  Even after having gone to the grocery a hundred times since I've been here, I still expect them to follow the "Rewards card member?" question with a sales pitch.  But it never happens.

I believe there are two reasons why that is.  Reason #1, they aren't required to sell you on it, or they have no real incentive to do so from the employer.  Reason #2, they don't feel comfortable enough trying to do it in English.  I'm going to go ahead and assume that it's just not part of the grocery store's strategy, but it's probably the latter.

I guess I enjoy the fact that it's so opposite of the high-pressure sales pitch you normally get in the U.S. I just get a kick out of thinking of the cashiers here taking it to the way opposite extreme. Something to the effect of:

Cashier: "Rewards club member?"
Me: "Nope"
Cashier:  "Good.  Go f#$@ yourself." 

Now that I think about it, we should probably sign up...we're probably missing out on a ton of savings...

Til Next Time,
Luke & Jil