You know how I feel about saving money on groceries. I even wrote a book about it. Although I buy a lot of food at local stores, a local farm, warehouses and other sources, I still do a significant amount of grocery shopping at actual grocery stores. A key component to saving money at a grocery store is to take advantage of their sales combined with coupons (where available).
It gets complicated, though, because each grocery store (with one or maybe two exceptions) only allows you to access your deals through membership to their savings club (or whatever they choose to call it). And that means you can only get the sales prices if you scan your membership card at the register.
For someone who likes things to be as simple and uncomplicated as possible… it’s a nightmare. Right now, I’m planning my monthly grocery shopping trip, and I have no less than 5 grocery store ads sitting on my table. All but one of them require a membership card to get the deals, which means that all of those cards are filling up my wallet and weighing down my key chain.
This does not include loyalty cards to non-grocery stores like bookstores, office supply stores, warehouse club stores and more. These days, it’s rare for a store to offer you their sales prices without requiring a card to track your purchases.
As much as I would prefer to shop without such hassles (although then I suppose one would run into the issue of tracking via credit card numbers like Target does… which I definitely do NOT like!), it’s just a fact of modern life, which is why I‘m excited about a new program that would help all of us consumers reduce the number of cards in our wallets - and on our keychains - to one simple little card.
It’s called the LOC Card. It’s still brand new, and not readily available just quite yet, but it promises to be the next best thing since sliced bread.
Here’s how it works:
- You pick up a FREE LOC Card at any merchant that participates in the program.
- Once your LOC Card is swiped at the register, you can use it to replace that store’s loyalty card.
- You can then begin to use your LOC Card at any participating retailer, replacing each individual loyalty card with that one LOC Card.
- You can keep track of all your loyalty programs and rewards by registering your card on the website.
- All your information is private and securely protected. In fact, you are not required to share any personal information (unless you register on the website and create an account).
- Once you have a LOC Card, you can also access the free app for your smart phone to keep track of all your loyalty programs there.
LOC Card is still in the process of signing up merchants and getting things rolling, but you can help spread the word and make this a reality. “Like” their page on Facebook and enter the “Show Your Cards” Contest. Snap a picture of your pile of loyalty cards or your keyring of loyalty cards, and be entered to win $50! Three people will win… and who doesn’t love free money?
You can also suggest your favorite retailers on LOC Card’s website.
Still curious? Watch this video for more information (and don’t forget to follow LOC Card on YouTube for even more informative videos):
If you like the LOC Card concept, be sure to give them a holler (or a tweet, I guess!) on Twitter, and let them know I sent you.