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There’s something about supermarket fuel vouchers that makes me feel dirty, kind of like I’ve just visited a Catholic priest for “confession” and can’t get the taste of his arse out of my mouth. In a way, when you go to the supermarket and they give you a voucher for a discount at a particular service station chain, it feels like they’re trying to think for me. I don’t like other people thinking for me...unless “other people” happen to be the world’s most powerful telepath Professor Xavier from the X-Men. I want to be able to drive up to any petrol station and fill up, without having to remember whether or not I have a torn up shred of a shopping docket to get a discount. The worst thing about the whole system is that I’ve already paid for the discount. In order to cover the cost of any discount scheme, someone has to pay for it at some point in the chain, and that someone is always you and I — the consumers. The supermarket and the fuel companies aren’t going to lose out. Every time you fail to use a supermarket fuel voucher, you are throwing away something you’ve already paid for. Which comes back to forced choices: the big businesses want to limit your choices for consumer outlets. Discount vouchers are anti-competitive. Unfortunately our weak as piss pseudo-consumer protection racketeers the ACCC can’t be fucked doing anything about it. So the only way to rid ourselves of annoying fuel vouchers is to stop shopping at the places that use them. Given that every fucking supermarket now has them, this makes the choice of shopping location somewhat difficult. But who could be bothered changing their shopping habits anyway?
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