In a post written nearly a year ago called WWGD — What Would Grandma Do? — I forecast the wholehearted return of those favorite financial products beloved of our grandmothers — including the layaway plan and the Christmas Club.
Now, in a move that pretty much proves my psychic abilities, retail giant Sears is encouraging consumers to save before they shop for Christmas, using their Christmas Club card. Instead of functioning like a credit card (as many store cards do) the Sears card allows users to “load” the card beforehand—just like paying money into a bank account. If they do this before November 14, card participants who join before October 31 will be entitled to a jolly reward of 3% extra to spend in Sears, Kmart and associated stores. Considering the current meager interest rates on savings accounts, before you can say ‘horsefeathers!’ Mrs. Consumer looks almost as wise as Grandma.
As always, Twitter is swarming with retweets about various Christmas Club giveaways:
kngmckellar RT @jollymom Sears and Kmart Rewarding Customers Who “STASH THEIR CASH” For The Holidays {Christmas Club $50 Gift Ca... http://retwt.me/jpv2
shawnmh Win a $100 Sears Christmas Club Card simply by following on Twitter @SearsHTS every day Oct 5 to Oct 20! http://bit.ly/Home
Interestingly, Independence Mall in Kingston, MA has created a Christmas Club Facebook fan page. This seems like such a natural for malls I can't help but wonder why more aren't jumping aboard -- and why Sears itself hasn't created a Christmas Club page. Brandweek reports the corporate giant's social networking sites, MySears and MyKMart are all over the promotion. But I could only find one mention of it on MySears -- a single blog review -- which attracted few comments, mostly negative. As I wrote in an earlier post about MySears, one of the concerns with social networking sites of this ilk is the inevitability that customers will use them as a dumping ground for customer care issues.
As for Sears, reviving the Christmas Club system just may guarantee them a share of the Christmas market in advance.
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