Store loyalty programs are a scam, and we all fell for it.

Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a rich in your life.

Here are your host, Jen and Jill.

Welcome, frugal friends.

I'm Jen. She's Jill.

And store loyalty programs are a scam that are there to monitor your usage so they can

monitor how much they can charge you without you leaving for a competitor.

And to offer you incentives to get you to buy stuff you wouldn't otherwise.

We're not least in any time. We're just going to get into it and talk about how loyalty rewards

don't reward behavior. They shape it. This episode really started small with my disdain for a certain company that we will get

into, and it grew into something that has become my entire personality for the last

couple weeks.

And the sad thing is, is that store loyalty programs have become so embedded in our shopping

behavior that we cannot separate ourselves from it. And we will look at that in this episode.

And so this episode will have be opening our eyes to what these things really are, and the other half will be, okay, how do we then live with it without moving into the forest and living off the grid?

So it was a bit inspired by your disdain for Starbucks? Yeah. And if you, you guys, if you've been with me

in this podcast for any amount of time, you know how I feel about Starbucks. If you are walking

around with a Starbucks cup in 2025 and 26, you should be embarrassed. Wow, embarrassed.

You should be embarrassed. But that's besides the point. This episode is actually inspired by

in March, they changed their loyalty program. And I will admit, I used to be a strong Starbucks loyalty program, like elite highest member.

Like back in, like, what, 10, 15 years ago where they actually gave membership cards.

I had a black Starbucks card that I could load money onto and give like an Amex black card, but for Starbucks

...