I’ve been back for a while now but I’m always trying to figure out better ways to manage my money. I have membership at various stores that have offered it readily to me, but I have yet to determine whether it’s really getting me that much better of a deal. Point systems always seem to be designed to rip off the consumer. Or I just don’t really know how to utilize them at all.
Honestly, so far I feel like I’ve gotten the most out of my membership at my local bakery. Three baguettes for 60NT? Hell of a deal.
eslite: Long, long ago I accumulated enough points with eslite to get a lifetime membership, 10% off. I’m not sure if that’s even possible now. And most of my book purchases are now Kindle e-books, so it’s no longer an issue for me.
Carrefour & PXMart: both chains very, very rarely give members a discount on items, but you accumulate points, and you can use them to get small amounts off your bill. For Carrefour, it’s something like $1 for every $100 spent.
The one that annoys me the most is 燦坤 / “Yellow Box 3C”. Members get significantly cheaper prices, but membership isn’t cheap, and it only lasts one year I believe. This basically means that I try to buy electronics from Carrefour or online, with Cankun as a last resort.
I used to have a Starbucks card - I probably still do - but I decided that leaving the card at home would mean I’d spend less money at coffee shops. And that’s what happened.
I’ve got a bunch of different restaurant cards with variations on “spend $200 to get a point, six points to get a free main course”, but I almost never use them. When I do remember to use one, I often discover it’s expired.
Oh yes, local coffee shop: I spent enough at some point in the past that I’ve now always got 10% off purchases of coffee beans (but not drinks). That one’s useful if I’m in one of my phases of trying to “buy local” rather than from Costco.
Which I suppose leaves Costco as the most useful membership. The other ones are just for occasional discounts, whereas Costco won’t let me in otherwise.
Happened to me in Costco I spent an hour accumulating stuff something in excess of 20k, but they dont allow me to pay and I end up leaving empty handed.
Are you sure? I have a membership card, applied for it years ago and never renewed it, or not that I’m aware of. Last time(couple weeks ago) I went there, they said it was fine. But their price difference is quite massive, the things I was interested in had about a 30-40% markup for non-members. It would be ridiculous to buy there as a non-member.
Now I’m not so sure. I know we’ve paid for it twice, and I haven’t gone in a couple of years because I assumed the second time had also expired. But maybe we were wrong in the first place and we shouldn’t have renewed, or maybe the policy has changed.
My current card has a space for the date on it (“發卡日期”), but there’s nothing written there.
Hmm: dug around on their site a bit, with my terrible Chinese. Found this: “燦坤會員卡自2015/7/1起一次入會，終身優惠(會員價)。”. Does this mean they now have lifetime membership? It seems like there are different tiers of membership as well.
search for and “friend” 7-Eleven, Family Mart, OK Mart, and Hi-Life on LINE.
also look for their Apps on Google Store or Apple Store and download them.
Tons of deals. coffee, beer, candy, water, etc., such as large price discounts or buy-1-get-1-free.
In my experience, their discounted prices are the same for which you can get item on PC Home. At least on pchome, you can return an item for no reason (can’t do so in 3C)
I’m aware those are out there, but I’ve avoided them - basically the same principle as taking my Starbucks card out of my wallet. Getting points at PX Mart or Carrefour, fine, that’s for groceries I’d be buying anyway. But special deals at convenience stores usually mean I’d “save” money buying cheaper versions of candy I wouldn’t have bought otherwise, or I’d get a “free” second cup of coffee that I’ll pour down the drain because I’m already wired after one cup.
I try to not shop in convenience stores anyway. Too easy to buy something unhealthy that I don’t need. Mind you, avoiding convenience stores became much easier after a PX Mart opened up nearer to my apartment than any convenience store!
The only discount card that I find useful is for a small Western brunch shop that I frequent anyway, whether it had a card or not. I get a free breakfast after buying ten.
For me at least, those membership cards don’t entice to to shop at their stores because of their cards, which I assume is their purpose.
About Costco membership, do you guys buy everything from Costco? I find myself buying only vitamins, meat, backpacks, clothes, or something I can’t exactly find in another supermarket at cheaper prices. I used to buy cheese and bread but it always went bad before I could eat it all, fruits and veggies the same. Lately I I started buying bath tissue too, since the quality is better and almost same price as any other place.
Costco is always so full I try to go there only when I really need one of the items above and I try to be in and out of the store ASAP.
We only go to costco once or twice a month due to distance. We usually focus on things we cannot find in carrefour or that are considerably cheaper/better. I’d say mostly cheese, meat (beef mince and steaks), mayo, some liquor and the occasional super offer for something we don’t really need but looks cool.
If we lived in taipei we’d go there more often to get milk, yogurt and things like that, but we’re used to buy fresh veggies, fruit and fish.
