The Co-Op isn's listening

YorkBrucie

Can someone explain to me something?
I've just received an email from Central Co-Op with changes to the membership.
It says

"You’ve told us:

 It’s confusing that there are different Memberships for different co-ops, and it’s difficult to understand earning points in different Societies"

I thought, great, one Co-op card for all stores but then I read:

"From the 26th January 2025, we’ll only be accepting Central Co-op Membership cards in our stores and funeral homes, and our cards won’t be accepted at other Co-operative Societies."


How is that listening?

Farway

YorkBrucie said:

Can someone explain to me something?
I've just received an email from Central Co-Op with changes to the membership.
It says

"You’ve told us:

 It’s confusing that there are different Memberships for different co-ops, and it’s difficult to understand earning points in different Societies"

I thought, great, one Co-op card for all stores but then I read:

"From the 26th January 2025, we’ll only be accepting Central Co-op Membership cards in our stores and funeral homes, and our cards won’t be accepted at other Co-operative Societies."


How is that listening?

They've removed any chance of confusion, now you know for certain your card is not acceptable anywhere except Central Co-op

Stuart_W

This is a good move. Your Central Co-op membership card is currently technically accepted in a Co-op Group store, but using it in one achieves absolutely naff all. No dividend. No cashback
 No member prices. Let me explain...

Unfortunately the Affinity Membership scheme has been a shambolic confusion-fest for many years and needs to be totally abandoned. Southern Co-op pulled out a couple of years ago.

When the Co-op Group launched the affinity scheme and branding, it seemed like an answer to the confusion caused by different co-operative societies with separate dividend schemes. One membership card could be accepted across all societies who were part of it. Midcounties, Anglia, Midlands, Southern and Chelmsford Star all very quickly joined, and adopted the green "Co-operative" branding to their stores, to the extent that it wasn't always  overly obvious which society ran which store.

All member societies of course remained separate trading entities and declared different dividends at different times based on different trading periods. It could take some time to receive dividend earned in one society but paid via an affinity member - often well over 12 months as payout times were not syncronised and would just appear as "payment from other societies" on a dividend statement.

Whilst not perfect, it was a massive improvement. The big time delay was a problem with the dividend system and why many people thought It didn't work or their divi was missing. It could be almost a 20 month wait if I remember rightly in the worst case scenario (I think that was using a Co-op Group card in an Anglia store at the end of August - in Anglia's new trading year (Aug-Aug at the time) so divi would be paid from Anglia to Group late November the following year, but that would just miss the group payout and be received end of May the year after that. 

What changed was the move away from declaring a dividend by Co-op Group. Co-op Group have not declared a dividend to members since 2013. They switched to a member rewards system - instant cashback. Not a retrospective dividend payment. This is what really killed the affinity scheme. So you could use your other society card in a Co-op Group store, but it would achieve nothing as no dividend is paid. Cashback could not be paid to other society members in the same way as each society runs their own system. Meanwhile Co-op Group members could still use their card in Central or Midcounties stores and receive dividend from those societies in the usual way.

To this day, Co-op Group still send out 6 monthly dividend statements to members who have received dividend through the affinity scheme from other societies, or from the Co-op Members' Credit Card, but they are not making any payments the other way. You can see why the other societies are pulling out.

Lincolnshire Co-op, one of the societies that was never in the affinity scheme and has always been separate with different branding and a different card, recently moved to a "cashback" system rather than a slow retrospective dividend, but then cashback is potentially topped up by a dividend-like profits payment if the society has been profitable and members agree at the annual meeting. 

I think that's where Central are going to be going - moving to an instant cashback approach, long gone are the days of waiting 20 months!!

The regional societies are leading they way this time round -Co-op group have even ditched their cashback rewards scheme too, so no dividend payment and no "cashback" reward either. The only purpose of the membership card is to access member prices, which is their current focus.

Central actually trialled including other society cards for member prices (something Group have never considered) and this included Scotmid, East Of England and Lincolnshire who are nothing to do with the original affinity scheme. What Central do next might indicate how the trial went.

But long story short, make sure you join any Co-op you're likely to shop in! 

mutual_owners1844

Stuart_W said:

This is a good move. Your Central Co-op membership card is currently technically accepted in a Co-op Group store, but using it in one achieves absolutely naff all. No dividend. No cashback
 No member prices. Let me explain...

Unfortunately the Affinity Membership scheme has been a shambolic confusion-fest for many years and needs to be totally abandoned. Southern Co-op pulled out a couple of years ago.

When the Co-op Group launched the affinity scheme and branding, it seemed like an answer to the confusion caused by different co-operative societies with separate dividend schemes. One membership card could be accepted across all societies who were part of it. Midcounties, Anglia, Midlands, Southern and Chelmsford Star all very quickly joined, and adopted the green "Co-operative" branding to their stores, to the extent that it wasn't always  overly obvious which society ran which store.

All member societies of course remained separate trading entities and declared different dividends at different times based on different trading periods. It could take some time to receive dividend earned in one society but paid via an affinity member - often well over 12 months as payout times were not syncronised and would just appear as "payment from other societies" on a dividend statement.

Whilst not perfect, it was a massive improvement. The big time delay was a problem with the dividend system and why many people thought It didn't work or their divi was missing. It could be almost a 20 month wait if I remember rightly in the worst case scenario (I think that was using a Co-op Group card in an Anglia store at the end of August - in Anglia's new trading year (Aug-Aug at the time) so divi would be paid from Anglia to Group late November the following year, but that would just miss the group payout and be received end of May the year after that. 

What changed was the move away from declaring a dividend by Co-op Group. Co-op Group have not declared a dividend to members since 2013. They switched to a member rewards system - instant cashback. Not a retrospective dividend payment. This is what really killed the affinity scheme. So you could use your other society card in a Co-op Group store, but it would achieve nothing as no dividend is paid. Cashback could not be paid to other society members in the same way as each society runs their own system. Meanwhile Co-op Group members could still use their card in Central or Midcounties stores and receive dividend from those societies in the usual way.

To this day, Co-op Group still send out 6 monthly dividend statements to members who have received dividend through the affinity scheme from other societies, or from the Co-op Members' Credit Card, but they are not making any payments the other way. You can see why the other societies are pulling out.

Lincolnshire Co-op, one of the societies that was never in the affinity scheme and has always been separate with different branding and a different card, recently moved to a "cashback" system rather than a slow retrospective dividend, but then cashback is potentially topped up by a dividend-like profits payment if the society has been profitable and members agree at the annual meeting. 

I think that's where Central are going to be going - moving to an instant cashback approach, long gone are the days of waiting 20 months!!

The regional societies are leading they way this time round -Co-op group have even ditched their cashback rewards scheme too, so no dividend payment and no "cashback" reward either. The only purpose of the membership card is to access member prices, which is their current focus.

Central actually trialled including other society cards for member prices (something Group have never considered) and this included Scotmid, East Of England and Lincolnshire who are nothing to do with the original affinity scheme. What Central do next might indicate how the trial went.

But long story short, make sure you join any Co-op you're likely to shop in! 

I believe though both Central Co-op and Co-op Group will continue to honour staff discounts. Same as Midcounties 

HillStreetBlues

Stuart_W said:

This is a good move. Your Central Co-op membership card is currently technically accepted in a Co-op Group store, but using it in one achieves absolutely naff all. No dividend. No cashback
 No member prices. Let me explain...

Unfortunately the Affinity Membership scheme has been a shambolic confusion-fest for many years and needs to be totally abandoned. Southern Co-op pulled out a couple of years ago.

When the Co-op Group launched the affinity scheme and branding, it seemed like an answer to the confusion caused by different co-operative societies with separate dividend schemes. One membership card could be accepted across all societies who were part of it. Midcounties, Anglia, Midlands, Southern and Chelmsford Star all very quickly joined, and adopted the green "Co-operative" branding to their stores, to the extent that it wasn't always  overly obvious which society ran which store.

All member societies of course remained separate trading entities and declared different dividends at different times based on different trading periods. It could take some time to receive dividend earned in one society but paid via an affinity member - often well over 12 months as payout times were not syncronised and would just appear as "payment from other societies" on a dividend statement.

Whilst not perfect, it was a massive improvement. The big time delay was a problem with the dividend system and why many people thought It didn't work or their divi was missing. It could be almost a 20 month wait if I remember rightly in the worst case scenario (I think that was using a Co-op Group card in an Anglia store at the end of August - in Anglia's new trading year (Aug-Aug at the time) so divi would be paid from Anglia to Group late November the following year, but that would just miss the group payout and be received end of May the year after that. 

What changed was the move away from declaring a dividend by Co-op Group. Co-op Group have not declared a dividend to members since 2013. They switched to a member rewards system - instant cashback. Not a retrospective dividend payment. This is what really killed the affinity scheme. So you could use your other society card in a Co-op Group store, but it would achieve nothing as no dividend is paid. Cashback could not be paid to other society members in the same way as each society runs their own system. Meanwhile Co-op Group members could still use their card in Central or Midcounties stores and receive dividend from those societies in the usual way.

To this day, Co-op Group still send out 6 monthly dividend statements to members who have received dividend through the affinity scheme from other societies, or from the Co-op Members' Credit Card, but they are not making any payments the other way. You can see why the other societies are pulling out.

Lincolnshire Co-op, one of the societies that was never in the affinity scheme and has always been separate with different branding and a different card, recently moved to a "cashback" system rather than a slow retrospective dividend, but then cashback is potentially topped up by a dividend-like profits payment if the society has been profitable and members agree at the annual meeting. 

I think that's where Central are going to be going - moving to an instant cashback approach, long gone are the days of waiting 20 months!!

The regional societies are leading they way this time round -Co-op group have even ditched their cashback rewards scheme too, so no dividend payment and no "cashback" reward either. The only purpose of the membership card is to access member prices, which is their current focus.

Central actually trialled including other society cards for member prices (something Group have never considered) and this included Scotmid, East Of England and Lincolnshire who are nothing to do with the original affinity scheme. What Central do next might indicate how the trial went.

But long story short, make sure you join any Co-op you're likely to shop in! 

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