A TikToker’s alleged “life hack” for saving a couple dollars at the grocery store has gotten them 2.9 million views on the platform.
Shared by @realfitnesswill on TikTok, the video shows him selecting the “forgot card” option at Stop & Shop self-checkout so that he can get all the rewards card discounts. He also inputs “0” when the self-checkout asks how many bags he used. Overall, this saved him about $5.
What the poster appears to be doing is essentially getting a small benefit of having a loyalty card for the grocery store chain without actually having a loyalty card. Since he’s not using it for anything else, none of his grocery shopping for this visit, or any other visit, will count toward any kind of point system, and he will also receive no gas purchase benefits.
This is a quick fix that will work in a pinch, but he actually loses the savings he would earn if he used a loyalty card. This was not lost on some of the commenters, who pointed out that the card itself was free.
“Aren’t those card free tho??” one commenter wrote. “Like just sign up for one.”
An some who already knew about the “hack” questioned if the video was a “joke.” “Is this a joke? Who doesn’t know this?” one questioned.
The popularity of the video combined with the regional nature of Stop & Shop, a grocery chain concentrated in the Northeast, also had people wondering where this kind of hack actually works. Major chains like Target and Walmart do not offer the use of a rewards card without signing up for one, and whether customers are paying for grocery bags is dependent on their location.
Other commenters who claimed to work for Stop & Shop claimed that people do this all the time, and that store associates also have a card that can be used if a customer “forgets” theirs.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @realfitnesswill on TikTok and Instagram as well as Stop & Shop.
