Little-known change to Woolworths Rewards program at checkout
The decision by the retail giant comes after 'significant customer feedback'.
Woolworths has advised a subtle change to its Everyday Rewards program, following a shift in customer attitudes.
One perplexed customer noticed they weren't getting a prompt at a self-service checkout to use their $10 reward for every 2000 points and decided to find out what was going on.
"It was explained to me by Everyday Rewards customer service that you now have to tap the orange tab on the self-serve screen to redeem," they said on Reddit. "Not sure how long this has been a thing but I remember it automatically prompting and checkout... good to know how to redeem it at self serve, since they never explain that to anyone."
Why was the change made?
The recent decision at all Woolworths stores comes after "significant customer feedback", according to an Everyday Rewards spokesperson.
“We have removed the automatic prompt on the self service screen in Woolworths supermarkets and at BIG W, following significant customer feedback showing our members prefer to save their Reward dollars to use after they have accumulated a higher reward amount, as opposed to redeeming $10 each time they reach 2000 points," they told Yahoo News Australia.
"This allows our members to apply a larger saving to their shop when they need it most. Customers can easily redeem their rewards dollars at the checkout by selecting ‘Reward dollars’ on the payment screen.”
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Customers react to Woolworths' decision
While some like the poster on Reddit preferred to use their $10 reward "right away," many echoed the sentiment about wanting to accrue their Reward dollars before spending them.
"Maybe there are lots of people who are annoyed at having to hit no over and over because they don't want to spend their reward yet?" another said.
"I let mine go up to $120. Got a full tank of petrol out of it," a third person said.
"Save for Christmas I have $150 already in the bank," one person commented.
Shoppers can accumulate their points through 'Bank for Christmas' where you can only activate them during the festive season, as well as turn their Everyday Rewards points into Qantas Points and redeem points through fuel discounts at participating Ampol and EG Ampol locations.
But not everyone was impressed by the changes, with some suggesting 'hiding' the discount at the checkout was "scammy behaviour", while others thought the benefit of saving the rewards for Christmas was overshadowed by rising cost of groceries.
"Save for Christmas just means that your $10 will be worth less and therefore less of an expense to Woolworths," one person wrote.
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