Too Many Cards

It seems like every business these days has some kind of card that they try to get you to sign up for - preferred customer card, punch card, brand credit card, reward card, loyalty card. I'm getting really tired of being asked every time I check out at a store, "Do you have a card with us?" Sometimes I just want to scream, "NO! I don't have card, and I don't want to ever be asked that question again!"

I get why businesses have these sorts of cards. They usually reward customers with a discount for shopping at their store, thus prompting repeat business from that customer. So I guess that is OK if you have only a very few stores that you like to shop at. But what if you like to shop around? If that's the case, you could easily find your wallet bursting with a million 'loyalty' cards. Doesn't it seem contradictory to have loyalty cards to five different grocery stores? Ten different gas stations? Twenty different clothing stores?

Few people these days are loyal to specific stores because almost everything is big business and no one is really friends with big business. They only go along with it because it gets them cheap prices. If I had things my way, we would all do away with cards and show our loyalty by actually shopping somewhere frequently. Of course that won't happen, so I do the next best thing and refuse as many cards as possible. Besides, we all know that having a customer card doesn't mean you are loyal. It just means you caved in to the question you have been asked too many times - "Do you have a card with us?"