Divided loyalties

There are certain things that will always get my attention:

1. Free stuff. Even if I don’t want/need it.
2. Competitions. I win things cos I enter them. Only the free ones, mind you. I don’t care if I only win because others don’t enter; I do, and love winning stuff. Even if I don’t want/need it.
3. Loyalty cards. I have dozens of them, mostly for coffee and ice cream (which I rarely eat but still have cards for).

How can one be loyal to dozens of places, I hear you ask? Easily. Have a look at some of the coffee cards I carry around with me:


Usually I know which ones to grab and can present them at the counter, but occasionally I am caught out and have to offer a fistful of cards and ask the cashier to pick their one. Even if I don’t think I’ll be going back to a café very often, I’ll still take a coffee card and get it stamped or clipped. You never know when you’ll be back and be surprised with a free coffee …

We don’t yet have a work office in Wellington, but I am, after all, a Café Chick, so I’ve had three café meetings in the past two days with different work colleagues. I’ve had my cards clipped for Bordeaux Bakery (aka work’s Wellington office), the Dixon St Deli (times two, as my colleague was an out-of-towner), and Café St Paul (times four – we were there for a while). I now have a free coffee at the Dixon St Deli/Brooklyn Café, am over halfway there at Bordeaux, and have re-started St Paul’s … where I also put my business card in the jar. After all, you’ve got to be in to win.