What's in your wallet? At a guess: a smattering of cash, a couple of credit and debit cards, a wad of receipts, your driver's licence and ID - and, if you're a keen shopper, a random array of loyalty cards for hotels, boutiques and supermarkets. That familiar question at the checkout - "are you a loyalty scheme member?" - is designed to make you want to feel at once cash-savvy (the sort of person who gets something back from the big corporations) and part of an exclusive club of regular and valued customers.
Air miles, loyalty cards, reward cards: return trade is vital for businesses and retailers, especially during quiet periods such as the past two years. Of course, the chances are, even if you can pull out the right card to give to the shop assistant, you rarely actually reap the benefits: the monthly statement is filed with the rest of the junk mail in the bin, the vouchers forgotten on your next shopping trip and the complexities of redeeming your points against gifts beyond you.
Yet at a time when, even post-recession, many people are keeping those belts firmly tightened, it can be worth digging through your stash of old reward cards. They can be, Up In The Air-style, a seriously good cash-saving device and a way to ensure that extra level of service, making them worthy of both their common monikers: a reward for you, and a guarantee of loyalty for the retailer. Of course, the main stumbling block for many of us is that you have to drop some serious moolah to really see the benefits of the card: in most, the bronze tier is a dull stepping stone to the rather exciting silver tier, but you have to keep your spending up to hold your spot, and the goodies available on silver are nothing as to the riches and discounts on gold.
The rewards for the many upmarket stores, such as Boutique 1 (www.boutique1.com), are more about making you feel an emotional, almost familial attachment to the brand. The Circle card (note the exclusive, clubby tone to the name) offers treats ranging from sale previews and personal shopping services on the lower tiers (which you retain by spending a minimum of Dh6,000 a year) up to chauffeur services, fashion shows and the ability to pre-order looks directly from the catwalk on the Black Card membership, which requires a minimum spend of Dh60,000 - not to mention that all-important 10 per cent discount, rather than the mere four per cent on White Card membership.
The Al Tayer Group has a similar scheme called Amber (www.myamber.ae), which has the distinct advantage of being redeemable at almost all Al Tayer locations - and the company owns a huge number of brands, ranging from car hire and restaurants to high jewellery and fashion and, of course, the major department stores Harvey Nichols and Bloomingdale's. Fashion shows and offers such as free jewellery polishing and repair and priority alterations are nothing if not upmarket: for those with the know-how to keep track of special bonus-point offers, there are some valuable services included.
This minimum spend, though, can be a stumbling block: for example, at Al Tayer, a minimum of 10,000 points needs to have been earned in a year before you can start redeeming, and if you have more than one of these cards it seems like a full-time job to remember the sometimes complex rules, which differ from card to card and tier to tier. Those for whom a reward card is less about living it up at fashion shows and getting into sales before everyone else and more about finding a way to get more for your money, a new loyalty scheme, which will be launched tonight at a glamorous bash at Atlantis, aims to make things a little simpler. Apparel UAE, the owner of brands such as Mango, Tommy Hilfiger, Aeropostale, NineWest and Bally, is introducing Club Apparel (www.appareluae.com), which offers instantly redeemable points in its 275 stores. There is no minimum spend, no vouchers and, most significantly, no physical card: the points are simply stored against your mobile phone number.
"People don't need to carry any more cards," says Nilesh Ved, the chairman of Apparel. "I'm fed up with getting my statements from the bank on paper, so we're trying to go paperless and no cards. So your cell phone is your loyalty card. You can get your points at Nine West, walk out of the shop, into Tommy Hilfiger, and use it instantly. And you can use 87 points or 63 points: usually it's always in certain denominations."
Think it all seems like another way to get you to part with your hard-earned cash? Well you're right. That's exactly what it is. But after all, you have to speculate to accumulate.
