As my wife and I adapt to our new entrepreneurial lifestyle as international property developers (we bought an old disused barn to renovate as a holiday home - equal amounts of excitement and stomach churning panic!), we decided since we are going to be over here a lot that we would download the leclerc shopping app and loyalty card. We don’t really speak French (although we are trying to learn) and i can’t read enough the info on the app to know how it works.
I scanned it at the checkout today and other than showing me my receipt it hasn’t really added anything that i can see. I noticed whilst shopping that there were various posters up with %'s off with leclerc card. Is this the same as the card in the app? Like a nectar card or tesco clubcard?
I suppose my question is quite simple: How on earth does it work?
Welcome, @nathan_purton! Nice to meet a fellow entrepreneur, though my work is mainly in foreign exchange (making sure I refuse the offered conversion rate at ATMs, mainly).
Like you, we got one, but don’t really understand how it works, apart from the general impression (from E.Leclerc) that you get loyalty points and “Clubcard prices” - though, if the Tesco comparison is accurate, that’s no benefit!
Good luck with the barn conversion! If you feel like it, post some pictures.
Yes it’s pretty similar to a Tesco Clubcard or a Sainsbury’s Nectar card.
You can add “bons” i.e. coupons to your card so that you get discounts on specific products, or with some offers you earn “Tickets E Leclerc” which are like Nectar points.
If you didn’t get any Tickets it probably means that you didn’t buy any qualifying products and / or hadn’t activated any “bons”.
There’s a similar appli / virtual card available for Super U and also Intermarché, by the way.
ETA: if you have an iPhone, add the Leclerc card to your “Wallet” app so it’s easy to find when you get to the checkout.
So it’s not like a Tesco card where you automatically get money off at the till for stuff on offer? Reckon I save better than 10% on average with that.
BTW welcome Nathan. You will probably find like we have, that some things look just like those available in the UK, but in practice are rather different to use. This may be one of them. Unlike you, we are only part-timers .
Lidl has one too and is very easy to use. A number of offers appear and you simply activate the offer before you shop. The best one is a 4 or 5 euro discount if you spend over 35 euros. Sometimes there is an item offered for free!
Forgot to say - for those like me who are not yet French resident but pop over, you can sign up for the Leclerc and SuperU cards with a UK address / mobile number - however I think the Intermarché one is not available in the UK App Store.
Most of the money figures (as opposed to percentages off) go into a pot to spend later rather than being immediate, ie, if your 5€ mop says ‘1€ reduction with carte Leclerc’, you will pay 5€, and your leclerc account will be credited with 1€ which you can either save and add to, or take off your next shop. To spend it (on a self service till at least), it will say that you have 1€ on your carte and you can either redeem it off your shop, or not.
After several years of steadfastly ignoring every single loyalty scheme here, I’ve finally relented since I’ve bought a few big ticket items at leclerc recently which had 30€, 50€ or even in one case 100€ back with the carte so I forced myself to get one rather than wasting the “reduction” since it wasn’t just an immediate one off the ticket price!
We relented a few years back. Not LeClerc as don’t have one, but SuperU, BioCoop and Jardival. The SuperU card usually collects enough for our end year holiday festivity’s shopping, Jardival doles out €5 coupons every now and then which the dog gets to choose treats with (he loves going to Jardival) and BioCoop helps us feel better about their prices. So am a convert.
Leclerc catalogue for offers usually valid from following Tuesday to either following Sunday, or for 1 more week as well, usually appear online Saturday p.m. sometime, or possibly Sunday.
Some stores have more than 1 catalogue active at a time with grocery discounts, and some catalogues’ dates of validity overlap in some weeks. Within the more dynamic promo catalogue for the store, fresh food offers, eg cheese, meat, fruit & veg, sometimes are only valid for a few days (look at the top of the page).
95% are credited to your card for which you will have to set up a 4 digit pin - customer services instore can help. You can’t spend your accrued promo balance on the day it’s earned. It credits immediately and is on your receipt. If catalogue or promo labelling at shelf says Immédiat then it’s money taken off at the till otherwise every promo is a credit to card balance.
To use the balance off the card, pass your new shopping through till, then when it comes to pay hand card to cashier or hold the barcode on the back up to be scanned, as usual. Then before paying ask cashier “Est-ce qu’il y a un solde?” They’ll tell you how much, and ask if you want to use it towards these groceries. If so you’ll have to type your leclerc card pin code into the card reader. Then pay remaining cost of shopping as normal.
Leclerc catalogue is always worth checking to do this strategically.
I’ve done ok with Leclerc but I find the SuperU program (once you find which of the many SuperU apps actually covers your store) more interesting. The Intermarché one is worth joining as many of their advertised discounts, which can be decent, have in quite small print somewhere that promo is only given if membership card is passed through the till on the purchase.
Oh, and the website name is not intuitive. For store main site it will begin www.e.leclerc.com… For catalogue likely www.e.leclerc/mag…
PS Not found the Leclerc app a lot of use. i just use weblinks above. SuperU app is actually needed to get the tastiest easiest of their program.
We have a Point Vert loyalty card that’s very useful when one regulalrly buys comparatively expensive items such as for pellets for the stove - we get a double discount by buying half a pallet (max that’ll fit in the car) so avoid delivery charge, also big sacks of Royal Canine cat and dog food. Buying local wines there is cumulatively rewarding too.
Thanks for explaining that, @KarenLot . I was writing a guide to the E. Leclerc card but yours is much more succinct It’s a surprisingly complex system…
We’ve knocked up over 50€ on our Leclerc card in the last 6 months and only go once a fortnight for a big shop.
The app is very useful as your receipts are immediately shown on there. No need for cashier to print it out.
The UK Lidl card has dropped its offers and benefits considerably. Now, £150 spend gets a specified free item worth about £1 and £250 spend gets 10% off next shop but within a 7 day limit. Weekly discounted items with 10-20% reduction every week.
It’s a surprisingly complex system…