Waitrose has been criticised for changing its loyalty scheme so that “weekly” vouchers may now only be delivered from “time-to-time”.
Under the change, personalised discount vouchers given to members of the supermarket‘s myWaitrose loyalty scheme each week that offer money off are no longer guaranteed, and may take up to four weeks to arrive, according to The Telegraph.
Shoppers were previously “entitled to two vouchers each week,” which could be spent in-store or online the next week.
The vouchers were sent out every Wednesday and needed to be spent before midnight the following Tuesday.
However, the retailer’s new terms and conditions, which were updated on 14 February, now state: “If eligible, the customer may receive vouchers for personalised offers on products from time-to-time.”
Waitrose said the change, implemented to bring the programme in line with “industry standards,” would not impact the majority of shoppers.
It insisted that any delays to being sent the vouchers would never surpass four weeks and should be shorter for the majority of shoppers.
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A Waitrose spokesman said: “While the vast majority of members will see personalised vouchers as usual every week, there may be short breaks between these. But don’t worry, they’ll be back soon.
“Our loyalty scheme is used by millions of customers, with benefits including free hot drinks and exclusive discounts across hundreds of products.”
He added: “We’ve also made improvements, like giving customers the ability to reselect their personalised vouchers if they change their mind, or an item is out of stock.”
In response to the news, Waitrose said it had not changed the frequency of its vouchers, and that customers still received these weekly.
However, it noted its terms and conditions reflected the fact that there may be brief windows when its vouchers didn’t update.
The retailer added that these were very infrequent and only ever impacted a very small number of shoppers, whose vouchers would return very soon.
The change to the membership programme, used by around 9m shoppers, has resulted in some customers switching to rival chain M&S.
The two upmarket grocers currently hold 3.8% of the market each, but this marks a decline for Waitrose from 3.9% the same time last year, while M&S’ market share has climbed from 3.6%.
In a bid to retain shoppers, Waitrose has committed to investing £30m in slashing prices of 200 of its own-brand goods, and has vowed to bring in additional price cuts later this year.
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