I’ll be honest with you. I’m old enough to remember when supermarkets didn’t need to bribe us with points to get us through the door. You just rocked up, bought your stuff, and left. Revolutionary concept, I know.

But somewhere along the line, Australian supermarkets decided that wasn’t enough. They needed to know everything about us. What we eat, when we shop, whether we prefer Tim Tams or Mint Slices (it’s Tim Tams, obviously). And they were willing to pay us in plastic collectables and fuel discounts to get that information.

Welcome to the bizarre evolution of Australian supermarket loyalty programs, where we’ve somehow convinced ourselves that scanning a card to save four cents per litre on petrol is the height of financial savvy.

The Dark Ages (Pre-2000s): When Loyalty Meant Actually Being Loyal

Back in the day, supermarket loyalty was simple. You went to the same shop because it was close to your house, or because your mum went there, or because the bloke at the deli counter knew your name. That was it. No cards, no apps, no gamification of grocery shopping.

The closest thing we had to a loyalty program was the old “divvy” system at co-ops, where you’d get a dividend based on how much you spent. But that was about actual money, not points that somehow never quite add up to anything useful.

Some independent grocers had stamp cards. Buy ten loaves of bread, get one free. Straightforward. Honest. Everything a loyalty program should be but never is anymore.

Flybuys Takes Off (1994): The Beginning of the End

Then Coles had to go and ruin everything by launching Flybuys in 1994.

At first, it seemed harmless. Scan a card, collect points, get some stuff. The points actually felt like they were worth something back then. You could save up for a toaster or a set of saucepans. Real things. Tangible rewards for enduring the weekly grocery shop.

But here’s what Coles (and later Wesfarmers) really got out of the deal: data. Mountains and mountains of data about what Australians were buying, when they were buying it, and how much they were willing to pay for it. The loyalty card was basically a Trojan horse full of consumer insights.

Flybuys became a juggernaut. Before you knew it, you could earn points everywhere – Target, Kmart, Bunnings, even some petrol stations. It felt like you were winning. Spoiler alert: you weren’t.

Woolworths Everyday Rewards (2007): The Duopoly Doubles Down

Not to be outdone, Woolworths launched Everyday Rewards in 2007 after buying out the old Ezy Rewards program. Because if Coles was going to spy on its customers, Woolies wanted in on the action too.

Everyday Rewards started with a similar model – collect points, get stuff. But Woolworths had a secret weapon: a partnership with Qantas Frequent Flyer. Suddenly, your groceries could help you fly to Bali. Or at least get you 10% of the way there if you bought enough toilet paper.

The Qantas tie-in was genius, really. It made people feel like they were jet-setters just for buying bread and milk. Never mind that you’d need to spend about $12,000 to earn enough points for a single economy flight to Sydney. It felt aspirational.

The Fuel Discount Wars: Making Everyone a Bit Poorer

Somewhere in the mid-2000s, both Coles and Woolworths figured out that Australians would do almost anything for cheap petrol. Even if that meant spending $30 they didn’t need to spend on groceries they didn’t really want.

The fuel discount voucher became the ultimate carrot on a stick. Spend $30 or more in-store, save 4 cents per litre. Spend more, save more. It didn’t matter that you’d just spent extra money to save money on fuel. The discount felt like winning.

Coles teamed up with Shell (and later Coles Express). Woolworths had their partnership with Caltex (now Ampol). Both programs required you to do mental mathematics while filling up your tank, calculating whether the discount was actually worth driving past three other service stations to get there.

Here’s the thing though: the fuel discount model worked brilliantly for the supermarkets. It drove foot traffic, increased basket sizes, and made customers feel like they were getting a deal. Never mind that petrol prices fluctuate so wildly that your 4 cents per litre saving might be wiped out by the fact that fuel went up 15 cents overnight.

The Points Devaluation Era: When Everything Became Worth Nothing

By the early 2010s, both programs had hit their stride. Millions of Australians were scanning their loyalty cards religiously. Points were being accumulated. Data was being harvested. Everyone was happy.

Then the supermarkets started quietly devaluing the points.

Flybuys changed its redemption structure. Those toasters and saucepans you could once get for a reasonable number of points? They started requiring more points. Or they disappeared entirely, replaced by gift cards that felt less exciting than actual products.

Everyday Rewards went through several program changes, each one somehow making the points feel less valuable while Woolworths insisted they were “improving the customer experience.” They dropped the 1 point per $1 spent model and replaced it with… honestly, I’m still not entirely sure what the current structure is, which tells you everything you need to know.

The genius of the devaluation strategy was that it happened gradually. Like a frog in boiling water, we didn’t notice until we’d been collecting points for three years and could only afford a $10 gift voucher.

The Rise of Instant Gratification (2015-2016): Ditching Points Altogether

Here’s where it gets really interesting. Around 2015-2016, both programs realised that Australians had caught on to the fact that points were essentially worthless. The solution? Ditch the points entirely.

Everyday Rewards underwent a massive overhaul in 2016, scrapping the points system altogether (except for Qantas points, which they kept because people irrationally love airline points). Instead, they introduced instant discounts. Spend $30 in one shop, get $10 off your next shop. Simple. Immediate. Actually valuable.

It was a tacit admission that the points game had become too complicated and too devalued to be worthwhile. But it was also smart marketing – calling it a “fresh and simpler way to save” when really they’d just realised we’d figured out their original scam.

Flybuys stuck with the points model but started offering more instant rewards and bonus point promotions. They couldn’t fully abandon points because that was the brand, but they had to make it feel more immediately gratifying.

The Data Gets Creepier: Personalised Offers and Surveillance Shopping

As smartphones became ubiquitous, the loyalty programs evolved from simple cards to full-blown apps with more features than anyone asked for.

Now the supermarkets could track you in real-time. They knew when you were in the store (if you had the app open). They knew what you’d been browsing online (through targeted ads). They could send you push notifications about specials on items they knew you bought regularly.

The personalised offers were presented as a benefit. “Look, we’re giving you discounts on things you actually buy!” But let’s call it what it is – they’re using your shopping history to figure out exactly how much they can charge you before you’ll go elsewhere, and they’re using targeted discounts to keep you locked in.

Everyday Rewards got particularly aggressive with this. Their “Boost” feature lets you activate personalised bonus point offers before you shop. Very convenient. Also very “we know everything about you and we’re not even pretending otherwise anymore.”

Flybuys introduced similar targeted offers. Both programs started sending weekly emails filled with deals that were suspiciously relevant to your shopping habits. It’s helpful and creepy in equal measure.

The Collectables Craze: When Loyalty Programs Got Weird

Then, around 2015, someone at Coles had what they presumably thought was a brilliant idea: Little Shop.

For those who’ve blocked this out, Little Shop was a promotion where you got miniature versions of real grocery products every time you spent $30. Tiny Vegemite jars. Teeny Weet-Bix boxes. Lilliputian Milo tins. All made of plastic that’ll outlive us all.

Australia went absolutely mental for these things. Parents were doing multiple shopping trips to complete their kids’ collections. People were trading them on Facebook marketplace. It was Beanie Babies all over again, except somehow more embarrassing.

Woolworths looked at this madness and thought “we can do that too.” Enter Marvel Heroes discs, Disney Words tiles, and Lion King Ooshies. Each promotion more elaborate than the last, each one creating more plastic waste while making shareholders very happy.

The collectable promotions were genius from a business perspective. They drove customer frequency and spending through the roof. People would buy things they didn’t need to hit the $30 threshold. The collectables themselves cost the supermarkets bugger all to produce, but they created immense perceived value.

The environmental cost? Well, let’s just say that when your loyalty program involves creating millions of tiny plastic objects that most people will throw out within a year, you’re not exactly covering yourself in glory.

Delivery and Digital: COVID Changes Everything

When COVID-19 hit in 2020, online grocery shopping went from “something old people and lazy people do” to “the only way to get toilet paper without joining a thunderdome.”

Both Coles and Woolworths had to rapidly scale up their online operations, and the loyalty programs came along for the ride. Suddenly, you could scan your digital card online just as easily as in-store. You could track your points or rewards in the app. Everything became seamlessly digital.

The pandemic also made both chains realise that delivery subscriptions were the future. Woolworths launched Delivery Unlimited (later rebranded as Delivery Boost), offering unlimited deliveries for a monthly or annual fee. Coles followed with Coles Plus.

These subscription services essentially created a new tier of loyalty. You weren’t just scanning a card anymore – you were paying a membership fee for the privilege of being extra loyal. It’s Amazon Prime for groceries, except you’re already shopping at a duopoly so you don’t really have anywhere else to go anyway.

The Current State: Too Much Information, Not Enough Value

In 2024, both Flybuys and Everyday Rewards are still going strong, but they’ve become infinitely more complicated than they were at launch.

Flybuys now has partnerships with dozens of retailers. You can earn points at Bunnings, Kmart, Target, Liquorland, and a whole host of other places. The points supposedly add up faster, but they also feel more diffused and meaningless. When you can earn Flybuys points everywhere, do they really mean anything?

Everyday Rewards has similar sprawl. You can link your Qantas Frequent Flyer account, you can boost your points with targeted offers, you can use your card at participating BIG W stores and BWS outlets. It’s all very integrated and seamless and designed to keep you within the Woolworths Group ecosystem.

Both programs now offer:

1. Digital cards (because plastic is apparently only okay when it’s miniature collectables)
2. Personalised offers (because privacy is dead)
3. Bonus point promotions (to distract you from the fact that base points are worthless)
4. App-exclusive deals (to make sure you’ve always got their marketing platform in your pocket)
5. Integration with other retailers (to ensure total market domination)

The modern supermarket loyalty program is less about rewarding loyalty and more about creating an inescapable ecosystem. They’ve moved beyond just tracking what you buy – they’re now shaping what you buy through targeted discounts and personalised promotions.

The Independents Try to Fight Back

IGA and other independent grocers have tried to compete with their own loyalty programs, but it’s tough when you’re up against the marketing budgets and data infrastructure of Coles and Woolworths.

IGA’s Everyday Rewards partnership (yes, the same name as Woolies once had) never really took off the way they hoped. It’s hard to convince someone to join a new loyalty program when they’re already locked into the points ecosystem of the big two.

Aldi, to their credit, have steadfastly refused to play the loyalty program game at all. No cards, no points, no data harvesting. Just cheap groceries and a constantly rotating selection of random middle-aisle products. It’s refreshingly honest, even if it means they know nothing about their customers beyond “they seem to really like that $30 Instant Pot we sold out of in three hours.”

What It All Means: Are We Actually Loyal?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: supermarket loyalty programs don’t create actual loyalty. They create switching costs.

You’ve got your Flybuys points accumulated, so you keep shopping at Coles even though Woolies might be cheaper this week. You’ve got your Everyday Rewards boosts activated, so you drag yourself to Woolworths even though you’re closer to an IGA. It’s not loyalty – it’s lock-in.

The programs have also fundamentally changed how we shop. We’re not just buying what we need anymore. We’re buying to hit thresholds, to activate deals, to earn bonuses. The supermarkets have gamified grocery shopping, and we’ve all become players whether we wanted to or not.

And the data collection? It’s only getting more sophisticated. The supermarkets now know more about our eating habits than we do. They can predict when you’re about to run out of laundry detergent. They know if you’ve switched from regular milk to oat milk. They can tell when your shopping patterns suggest a new baby in the house or a health kick that’ll probably last three weeks.

Is this worth saving a few bucks here and there? Depends on how much you value your privacy and whether you enjoy playing grocery shopping as a points-collecting game.

The Future: More Surveillance, More Subscriptions

Looking ahead, supermarket loyalty programs are only going to get more embedded in our lives. We’re probably heading toward a future where:

1. Subscription models become the norm, with different tiers offering different benefits (Coles Plus and Woolworths Delivery Boost are just the beginning)
2. Facial recognition technology gets integrated with loyalty programs, so they know who you are the moment you walk in (terrifying, but probably inevitable)
3. More partnerships with financial services, health providers, and other data-hungry industries
4. Even more personalised pricing, where the discounts you see are different from the discounts your neighbour sees based on your shopping history and price sensitivity
5. Carbon footprint tracking integrated into loyalty programs, letting you earn “green points” for buying sustainable products (while ignoring the environmental impact of the entire system)

The supermarkets will keep telling us it’s all about “enhancing the customer experience” and “providing better value.” And we’ll keep scanning our cards because, well, it’d be silly to leave money on the table, right?

The Bottom Line

Australian supermarket loyalty programs have evolved from simple points cards to sophisticated data-harvesting operations wrapped in the language of rewards and savings.

We’ve gone from earning toasters to earning data profiling. From simple stamp cards to AI-driven personalised marketing. From shopping based on what we need to shopping based on what promotions we’ve been algorithmically assigned.

Coles and Woolworths have convinced us that we’re winning by collecting points and discounts, while they’ve won the much bigger prize of knowing everything about our shopping habits and using that information to extract maximum value from every customer.

And the really clever bit? We thank them for it. We feel like savvy shoppers for using these programs. We recommend them to friends. We’d feel like mugs for shopping without scanning our cards.

That’s the evolution of Australian supermarket loyalty programs: from a nice idea to a comprehensive surveillance and manipulation system that we’ve all voluntarily opted into.

But hey, at least we’ve got those miniature grocery collectables to show for it. They’ll make great fossils for future archaeologists to puzzle over when they’re trying to figure out what the hell we were thinking.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to check my Everyday Rewards app. Apparently, there’s a boosted offer on Tim Tams, and I’m not made of stone.