The great supermarket loyalty meltdown
Thursday, 25 June 2026
Virginia Fallon is a staff writer and columnist based in Wellington and was awarded Best Columnist at the 2026 New Zealand Media Awards
OPINION: The supermarket has changed its loyalty scheme and all hell has broken loose at the checkouts.
Today people are lined up, tapping helplessly at their phones, demanding their points and discounts, and damning technology at large.
Just ahead of me there are now three staff members involved in one case, collectively investigating a discrepancy worth less than the loose change rolling around in my car’s console.
And all around me, people are furious, bewildered and behaving as though their retirement savings have just vanished into a cryptocurrency scam.
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I am not mocking these people because I am these people. I want the discount off my cat food, dammit.
Much like all technological upgrades the one replacing the decade-old New World Clubcard was spruiked as being much better for users.
The app is purple instead of red, for a start, and allows folks to get discounts, fuel vouchers, and reward points in the form of money. As an example of the latter, when I spent $33.92 on Friday I got 26 cents.
The old card did all that too, but now Club+ allows us to use it at New World, Four Square and Pak ‘N Save. We do not, however, get discounts or points at the latter, but we can spend the money we’ve accrued.
As an example of that, in the past six weeks I have made 25 visits to New World and earned a total of $5.92. I am saving for a block of cheese.
Anyway, there’s been a bit of kerfuffle since the new scheme rolled out. Folks have been logged out of their old accounts, can’t swipe their barcodes and have been experiencing delays in getting verification codes.
Foodstuffs has described “a small number of issues”, while today a man at the self checkout describes “a real bloody mess”.
When I ask him what’s going on with his disloyalty card he points and taps at the checkout screen.
“Where’s the discount? On the coffee?”.
Its not there, me and the lady at the other machine confirm. Then all three of us step back from our swiping and stare helplessly about.
I have never seen so many staff around the checkouts. Today they resemble a small army, deployed not against shoplifters or emergencies but forgotten passwords, expired logins and missing markdowns.
Today, when they rush over their 16-year-old commander explains the man’s coffee discount will appear on the payment screen.
Crisis averted, the three of us return to our shopping – albeit warily.
Behind us, people are holding phones at arm’s length, squinting at apps and muttering darkly. One woman repeatedly closes and reopens her screen as though Club+ might suddenly materialise if she catches it off guard.
Complete strangers compare notes. Have you got your verification yet? Is your balance showing up? Did you get the email? Have you tried uninstalling it?
“Good luck”, folks call to each other as they reach the front of the line to take their chances at the machines.
This has ceased to be a shopping experience and become a support group.
We are no longer shoppers but digital conscripts, armed with loo roll and about to be launched into IT warfare.
Anyway, despite these initial hurdles Foodstuffs says the transition to the new scheme is well underway.
More so, there has been “strong interest from customers signing up to Club+, with uptake so far ahead of our expectations”.
Personally, I don’t buy the bit about expectations. After all, tiny household budgets tend to turn even the tiniest discounts into something worth signing up for.
It's desperation, Foodstuffs, not loyalty.