Personally I'm not sure how effective loyalty cards can be. I prefer to shop places where the perceived prices are reasonable over shops that offer big discount

Personally I'm not sure how effective loyalty cards can be. I prefer to shop places where the perceived prices are reasonable over shops that offer big discounts through loyalty programs (e.g. Trader Joe's vs. just about any supermarket chain). The reasoning is that I prefer the freedom to do without mental calculations over rewards programs over actual dollar savings. That is, I'd rather pay more not to have to think about cards, stamps, rewards, etc.