Sale Gimmick! Watsons 20% sale

Why it is not a real sale, see below for my reasonings

The terms & conditions in small print stated that the items entitled to 20% discount must not be a sale item in itself. It includes item that is having “buy-2” promotion, even if you buy only one and paying no promotion price for it, it is still not entitled to 20% off.  There is even a worse t&c, those items that manufacturing printed extra 20% on the packaging selling at normal retail price are also classified as sale item!

If you step into the shop, almost all items are on sale. From hygiene to makeup…

There is a minimum purchase of $38 to be entitled to 20% (note: not all items in your basket). I often encountered my purchase which has not a single item of 20% off.  So if you buy one item with no promotion (lucky to find one that you need to use), you have to buy other stuff to top up to $38 just to enjoy the 20% off that single item.

Moreover, the sale item may not be cheaper than what you will find in other shops like NTUC.

So if almost all items are going on sale, why bother to have another 20% off where the customers are not able to enjoy anyway?

To conclude, it is a sale gimmick to make you spend more ($38 & above) and buy unnecessary items.  

Boycott this gimmick!

AsiaMalls - The latest to jump on the bandwagon of retail mall reward programme

Called AMperkz, Asiamalls is currently the latest to join the bandwagon of reward programme.
The points earning programme is generally the same as CapitaLand malls.

A quick look
1) Min $20 per receipt
2) 1 point for every dollar except for supermarket which is 1 point for every $4.
3) 1000 points redeem $5 Asiamall voucher.
4) Points valid for a year


Limitations:
1) No app yet
2) Only 6 participating malls (2 in tampines)

Register at https://www.amperkz.com.sg/

Suntec City Reward Programme

Recently I started to frequent Suntec City again and chanced upon the reward programme when using the wifi.

A minimum of $20 in a single receipt is required
5 points for every $1 general
3 points for every $1 F&B
1 point for every $1 Supermarkets

$5 evoucher for every 5000 points.
They have a tier system for members.

Can find out more here

To register, click here.

Shopping mall rewards - Capitastar

This reward programme is far ahead of any other malls in Singapore. We have been using it for at least 3 years. My family ended up shopping often at Capitaland malls most of the time since shops are more or less than same in SG. We usually exchange about $100 vouchers per year. Look out for special promotions eg they give out 5000 points for some minimum purchase ($120, $150, $200) at certain malls. every 5000 STAR$ can exchange for $5 voucher.

Pros

• cardless
• mobile app available
• membership is free on condition 6 transactions per year
• passion card member get 1.5x

Cons

• must scan within 2 days
• maximum 5000 STAR$ allowed per day
• be careful when you scan the receipt as sometimes it will be rejected for "funny" reason
• my advice is to always keep a copy until the STAR$ are given.
• points are non transferable
• minimum spend of $20 to be able to earn STAR$

can find out more here
http://www.capitastar.com.sg/en/

Orange Bear order online

Have you heard of the taiwanese brand Orange Bear?

I chanced upon this website when I was looking for hello kitty stuff many months ago.
I started browsing for the items and find the items to be fashionable and their prices to be quite reasonable. However, I did not make any purchase.

About 4 months later, I recall the website and started to browse again. The prices were very attractive and upon reading the shipping charges, I decided to try it out. I selected 12 items on the cart which amount to about S$150 and sleep over them for a night.
The next day I decided to go ahead. The shipping cost was less than $15. So I apportion out to each item and it is less than $1.5 each, which is quite acceptable to my standard.
I made the purchase on Sunday evening. The goods were ready to deliver on wed afternoon. The speed of delivery is beyond expectation, very fast. The order update online was also very efficient.

Note: Remember to provide a residential or office address.

I have yet to check out the quality, will update again once I check them.

review of vpost charge

when I got a promotion leaflet from vpost in my mail together with dbs bank, i thought i do a personal review of the service provided.

first i signup for an account with vpost, which is quite easy. after that I proceeded to surf the internet aka online shopping from vpost website and landed on a japanese shopping bag. I chanced upon a very lovely bag which was having sale at about $35 and decided to place an order. I checked out the item and found that they do ship direct to Singapore. At the checkout, shipping cost will be advised by the seller before they shipped the item. I was quite pleased with such a service and decided not to use vpost which i have no idea the shipping cost. I placed the order on 6 August and to my delight the shipping cost was less than $20 using EMS and I got the item delivered to my doorstep on 12 August. The bag weighs 600g. I still have not given up on testing vpost. So on 7 August, I shopped from another item from the same website and found a lovely shorts, this time I checked out with shipping instruction to my vpost japan account.

Immediately they indicated the delivery charge of ~S$2.10. The shorts costs about S$18. I was thinking vpost cant be more expensive than EMS since their delivery is much longer. I only received an email on 13 August 3pm informing me that the parcel arrived that the Japan venue. I login to ship to Singapore and my gosh!!! the shipping cost is a whopping $23.25, cost more than the shorts itself, and the weight is only 200g. I was so disappointed! Not only that, the estimated delivery is 20-23 August, a good 7-10 days wait!!!! But what to do, still got to pay right, since the item was already paid for. Luckily I got the 30% off shipping to help me defray the cost!