At first the novelty was interesting but it has reached a critical mess now. The idea of store cards has to stop. The first one I saw was the Starbucks card. Interesting way for companies to make money. They get your money in advance and earn interest on it. You get … coffee. You lose the card you get … screwed.

Everywhere you go now you see a store card for sale. Canadian Tire, the Bay, Thrifty’s and on and on and on.

Today I saw one for Subway. Argh. Enough already. I have enough crap in my wallet I don’t need 10 more plastic cards in there. A debit card works just great. Now, if maybe they had a universal no-pin needed, load anywhere use anywhere kind of card I could get on board. That is essentially a debit card (without a pin) though.

Sigh.

Identity silos are a real pain. Brand lock-in is a real pain. Consumers want choice. This consumer wants choice.

Other random thoughts:
Granted store cards are nice for gifts, but whatever happened to the old fashioned Gift Certificate?

They can also be a good thing for budgeting (I am allowed $X per month at Starbucks).

How much waste is produced by these cards each year?

People returning merchandise without a receipt to stores with their own cards usually end up with a store card in the amount of their return. Not the worst thing in the world I suppose, but there is another card I need to dispose of.