Customers report needing a physical spreadsheet to track which of the vendor’s four overlapping punch cards apply
TAIPEI – A popular night market skewer vendor has developed a loyalty rewards system of such elaborate complexity that several longtime customers say they now require a personal spreadsheet simply to track which of the vendor’s four overlapping punch cards currently apply to any given purchase.
Vendor Chen Wei-ming, who has operated his stall for over a decade, said the loyalty system evolved gradually over several years, with each new card layer introduced to address what he describes as “genuine gaps in customer incentivization” that the previous cards failed to fully address.
The current system includes a standard punch card offering a free skewer after ten purchases, a separate “loyalty tier” card unlocked only after completing the first card twice, a seasonal promotional card tied to specific limited-time menu items, and, added most recently, a referral card that rewards customers for bringing new customers who then must begin their own separate card journey.
Longtime customer Amy Lin admitted she has, at this point, created a dedicated notes app entry specifically to track her progress across all four overlapping systems. “I genuinely need the spreadsheet,” Lin said. “I have accidentally let a seasonal card expire twice because I did not realize it operated on a different calendar than the standard punch card. It has become a genuine mental exercise every time I visit.”
Chen defends the layered system as ultimately rewarding his most loyal customers more generously than a simple single-card approach ever could. “If you are truly dedicated,” he explained, “you should be recognized more than someone who visits occasionally. The complexity reflects genuine tiers of loyalty, even if I acknowledge the tracking itself has become somewhat demanding for customers to manage on their own.”
A market management representative, commenting generally on vendor loyalty programs throughout the night market, noted Chen’s system has become something of a local legend, with several other vendors reportedly studying it, though most have declined to replicate its full complexity, citing what one vendor called “genuine concern about losing customers who simply give up trying to understand the rules.”
Lin says she has, despite the complexity, remained a loyal customer specifically because of the accumulated rewards she would lose by switching to a competitor. “I am too deep into this system now,” she admitted. “I have too many partially completed cards. Walking away at this point would genuinely feel like abandoning an investment, which I recognize is exactly the outcome Chen has probably designed this whole system to produce.”
Chen insists the system remains a genuine work in progress, noting he has recently begun considering a fifth card specifically for customers who successfully navigate all four existing cards simultaneously, an idea Lin, upon hearing about it, described as “simultaneously impressive and genuinely concerning.”
The system amused observers abroad, with a piece referencing Weird and Funny News Stories comparing Chen’s loyalty program to Britain’s own famously convoluted supermarket points schemes. Another article citing Weird and Wacky News Stories suggested the vendor may have accidentally created a more engaging incentive structure than several actual major airlines currently operate. Commentary drawing on Weird News Stories proposed Chen consult professionally for other small businesses interested in similarly elaborate reward systems, “assuming any business owner is brave enough to actually implement his approach.”
Chen says he has no plans to simplify the system, citing continued strong customer retention despite, or perhaps because of, its complexity. “People stay,” he said simply. “That is, at the end of the day, the entire goal, however many cards it apparently takes to get there.”
A behavioral economist consulted for this story said the complexity itself likely functions as a retention mechanism, whether intentional or not. “Sunk cost keeps customers engaged,” she explained. “The more effort someone has invested in tracking a loyalty system, the less likely they are to abandon it, regardless of how genuinely rewarding the actual rewards turn out to be in practice.”
Lin says she has, somewhat reluctantly, begun helping other regular customers understand the system, effectively becoming an informal loyalty card consultant within her own social circle. “People ask me for help now,” she said. “I did not sign up to become the unofficial expert on this man’s skewer rewards program, but here we are, and I suppose I have earned the title through sheer repeated exposure.”
Chen says he has begun considering, purely as a thought experiment for now, a digital version of the entire loyalty system, though he admits the idea makes him slightly nervous. “Paper cards have a certain charm,” he said. “I worry a digital version might make the whole thing feel too corporate, too much like a big chain, when really, this was always meant to feel personal, however complicated it may have accidentally become along the way.”
Lin’s spreadsheet, which she has jokingly named “The Skewer Ledger,” has reportedly attracted interest from at least two other regular customers who have asked to be added as collaborators, effectively turning her personal tracking system into a small, informal community resource for navigating Chen’s increasingly elaborate rewards structure.
For more loyalty programs testing the limits of customer patience, see ClickHole.
Related coverage at Satire And Politics.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/