Retail Watchers

storewanderer wrote: ↑April 4th, 2024, 12:08 am
Do they not blanket the area around a new store with free memberships where you are?

Maybe they only do that in some markets.

Absolutely not, and I have never heard such a thing being done as a 10+ year employee. I know in areas of new stores, they would set up sign-up stations either outside of where the store is going or some semi-public place in the vicinity (I think they've set up a kiosk in shopping malls a few times), with maybe some incentive to sign up (gift cards, promotional items, etc.) but certainly not free memberships.

mbz321 wrote: ↑April 4th, 2024, 7:11 pm

storewanderer wrote: ↑April 4th, 2024, 12:08 am
Do they not blanket the area around a new store with free memberships where you are?

Maybe they only do that in some markets.

Absolutely not, and I have never heard such a thing being done as a 10+ year employee. I know in areas of new stores, they would set up sign-up stations either outside of where the store is going or some semi-public place in the vicinity (I think they've set up a kiosk in shopping malls a few times), with maybe some incentive to sign up (gift cards, promotional items, etc.) but certainly not free memberships.

Tents everywhere all across Murrieta, CA for months before the 2022 Grand Opening. Tents at Home Depot, Lowe's, Kohl's, both Target stores, basically every shopping center in the city limits except Walmart and Sam's. The incentives between gift cards and coupons more than paid the customer to get a membership. Driving around town they must have had at least six membership tent kiosks set up simultaneously. Costco reported back to the city that it was the absolute highest grossing US store Grand Opening in the history of the company. It took at least two hours to get the initial line into the building after it wrapped the entire perimeter of the property AND the entire perimeter of the store AND started to double back on itself.