Companies don't give a shit about your BD by ending free coffee and other rewards

 

It was bound to happen. Corporate fat cats (no offense to loveable feline chonks) have decided your loyalty to their products and services isn't worth squat. Many are quietly reducing rewards or eliminating reward programs entirely. This started last fall when Dunkin' announced no more free coffee on birthdays (I said it in Soup Nazi voice). 

 

Other companies took notice and realized they could add another 0.0000001% profit to their coffers by reducing and/or eliminating programs that have been used for years to reward customer loyalty.

Companies that are saying "screw you & your birthday" include Sephora who now requires online customers to spend $25 to get a free birthday gift. Um, why would anyone do that? The "free" gift is probably perfume sample that smells like jailhouse hooch.  Red Robin is telling customers they have to spend a minimum of $4.99 if they want a free birthday burger. WTF? And Starbucks requires customers to redeem birthday coffee on their actual BD by eliminating the 30-day grace period. If you can't get to a Satanbucks Starbucks on your BD - too bad.  More companies are expected to join the "Screw You" club.

Marshal Cohen, a retail industry expert told the Associated Press:

"Businesses have to look and say, 'Are these programs working? Are they working to full capacity? ... (And) is there another way of doing this that wouldn't cost us as much money?' The pie is getting smaller for a lot of these discretionary items," he said, pointing to persistent high costs of living that consumers are facing and the increased competition among businesses vying for those limited dollars. You're going to see a lot of (companies) assess their programs to try to figure out how to drive business in a more profitable way."

Oh, so it's the consumers fault. How about blaming companies that waste money on corporate jets, executive golden parachute packages, and outrageous salaries and perks for their execs? Of course that will never happen because it would be pointing out the obvious.

Source: Associated Press; photo: iStock