Central Co-op to end "member prices" and replace with new scheme

Stuart_W

Central Co-op (that's the Co-op society broadly located mostly across East Anglia and the Midlands) are ending their "member prices" deals next month in favour of a new instant-cashback system.

Central Co-op is separate from The Co-op Group (blue membership card) who will be continuing member prices.

Currently their member prices represent a big saving on many staples - £1.30 for 6 free range eggs, £1.55 for 4 pint milk, £1.00 for 500g buttery spread etc, often reducing the "convenience premium" of shopping locally, bringing them more in line with larger supermarkets (certain offers better). Central Co-op are not part of Co-op Group's Aldi Price Match, but some member prices, like the eggs, are better than the Aldi Price Match (although not many).

It looks like the new scheme, beginning in June, will be an "instant cashback" scheme, where you buy the item at the same price an non-members, but get an instant "reward" credited to your card that you can use on your next shop.

There is nothing more instant than paying less in the first place, so paying £1.85 for my eggs and then getting 55p cashback to spend on my next shop rather than just paying £1.30 the first time like I do now does have minimal appeal, but someone somewhere has dreamed this up as a good idea.

As far as I know, Central will also continue to pay a dividend, as they do now, which is an annual payment based on your spend, awarded at 0.5p in the £ last time. Co-op group scrapped paying a dividend payment in 2013 and haven't do so since. They did has a "cashback" system like Central are starting, which was 5p in the £ on own brand and 1p elsewhere, then 2p in the £, but they have since scrapped that too and only offer member prices as their member benefit, plus personlised offers on the app and bizarre discounts for Co-op Live events.