Discounts, Rewards and Bonus Points

If you’re like me, you probably have way more discount and rewards cards than you can possibly keep up with, much less stuff into your wallet or hang on your keychain.  I finally gave up and only carry the three that I use most often—My Panera card, Max Perks from Office Max and Best Buy Reward Zone.  The others are in a drawer somewhere or were lost a long time ago.

But then you just never know when one of those long forgotten cards might come in handy.  Case in point.  Today I needed to purchase some cream cheese to go with the baker’s dozen bagels I had bought at Panera (I got points for that purchase, by the way).  I was on the way to a job site, when I passed a Winn Dixie.  How simple it would be to stop and get the cream cheese I needed instead of waiting until I got back to my side of town and going to Publix because Winn Dixie closed the store at Brook Highland years ago.

So that’s just what I did.  When I got to the check out line, the cashier asked if I had a Winn Dixie card.  I had forgotten about my Winn Dixie card, which was probably the very first discount card I ever owned.  I used it all the time.  I explained to the cashier that unfortunately Winn Dixie closed the store near my house, so I no longer carried my Winn Dixie card and had no idea what had happened to it.

She asked for my phone number.  I said it had been years since I had used the card, and I was sure I wasn’t still in the system, but I gave it to her anyway.  What do you know, I was still there, and I saved $1.59 on two containers of soft cream cheese.  Note:  I really pays to have one of those discount cards, because it appears that Winn Dixie charges non-card holders a huge premium.

Anyway, maybe some of you are way more organized than I and carry all of those cards in some convenient container that you tuck into your purse.  However, there’s got to be a better way.  Surely there’s an app for that.