Central Co-op: Member Prices scrapped and replaced with "cashback"

Stuart_W

Central Co-op (who are mostly around eastern and central england) have scrapped their member pricing this week across all stores and replaced with an instant cashback scheme.

Examples - 
6 medium free range eggs were member price £1.30, they are now £1.70 with 40p member cashback.
White or Wholemeal bread loaves were member price 75p, they are now £1.30 with 55p member cashback.
4pint milk was member price £1.55, it is now £1.85 with 30p member cashback.

Member cashback accures instantly on the membership card and can be spent on your very next shop.

This change seems utterly pointless. In order to achieve the old member prices, you can split your shopping into two - put all items with member cashback through first to instantly redeem on the second bit of your shop. Member prices actually put my local co-op in the same Aldi/Lidl ballpark for prices (sometimes actually better) on several key items [Central Co-op is different to Co-op Group who do the Aldi price match on a small handful of basics] but now the shelf price is just confusing - but it will help to sharpen my maths skills working out what I'll actually be paying.

Supposedly 20,000 members provided feedback suggesting this is what they wanted. I highly doubt this is exactly what they all meant when they said they preferred "instant rewards" rather than a very slow-to-pay-out annual dividend. 

Central do however still accept the NUS Totem card for 10% off and do still pay an annual dividend, neither of which Co-op Group stores do anymore.