I joined Replay – the Sam Goody/Suncoast bonus points club – three years ago. One of those days when you find a bunch of things you want in the store all at once, so I earned way more back in rewards than it cost me to join that evening alone. Overall, it worked well for me (and Mark, and Mike, and Brian and all the others that joined). It certainly helped that we had a Sam Goody right in town with a pretty cool staff. We always had a blast going up on Triple Point days and hanging out with whats-his-name, talking about Star Trek, games, classic rock, and his hot co-worker with the “fan club.”
But over the past year, the usefulness has dwindled. Soon I found myself going out of the way to find things to buy there so that I could push my points up to the next level. When you find yourself staring at the first season of Dawson’s Creek thinking, “Hey, that might be worth enough point to half pay for itself,” you know it’s time to let go. They just sent me an e-mail warning me that my membership is about to expire (January 31st, to be exact – way to keep on top of the e-mails, folks). Oh well, I missed out on using my last certificate (only 5 bucks), but at least I only left 168 points in my account (10,000 points = $5).
Right now I’m wondering how that company even stays in business. Come on, Best Buy offered Ju-on for $15.99 when it came out last week. Now it’s up to the regular price of $19.99. What does Suncoast have it for? $24.99! I just can’t stomach going in there anymore, hoping to find the one DVD that will make it worth it for me; looking for that one last fix to get me to the net certificate.
So I’m finally free of my addiction. I guess it’s time to check out Best Buy’s Reward Zone…
Ah, good times. I definately miss the conversations with Bronco (add wrestling to the topic list for me) and Marianna (when she wasn’t vacuuming :p). I don’t miss the price gouging, though. I still have a $5 replay cert I need to use but after that, I doubt I’ll head to sam goody anymore. Like you said, best buy is superior. I have to look into their program as well, considering how many dvds I buy there
Funny, I said the same thing when I was shopping for a copy of Shaun of the Dead, and they had it for $29.99 (I got it at Suncoast for $22.) Ther really is no good reason for me to go in there, unless I can find something decent reduced to $10.
And with Best Buy on Rt 3 not too far from where I work… 🙂
So it’s unanimous – to Best Buy we go!