A free bag and a card in the drawer
A customer hands over a completed feeding club card for a premium dry food brand and takes home a free large bag. The staff member rings it through at zero, staples the card to the till receipt and puts both in a drawer marked claims. Another brand's scheme works through its own app, so that customer's free bag is confirmed on a phone screen, and nobody keeps a copy. A third brand asks for barcodes cut from the bags, which are in a carrier bag in the stockroom.
Each brand wants its claim sent differently: a form in the post, an upload on a retailer portal, an email with a spreadsheet. The owner means to do them all at the end of the quarter. By then some cards are missing, the portal login has expired and one brand's deadline has passed. The free bags were given away; the credit never came back.
Why brand claims fall through
Feeding clubs are good for customers and for loyalty, but the admin sits with the shop, and every brand runs its scheme its own way. The till treats the free bag as a zero price sale, so there is no reminder that money is owed back.
- Each brand has different rules, evidence and claim deadlines.
- Free bags are rung through at zero, with nothing to show a claim is due.
- Evidence such as cards, receipts and cut barcodes is kept loose in a drawer.
- Claims are batched up and done when there is time, which is rarely.
- Nobody checks whether the brand's credit actually arrived.
What unclaimed free bags cost
A free bag given under a brand's scheme is meant to cost the shop nothing, but an unclaimed one is a full bag given away at your expense. Premium foods are often the ones with feeding clubs, so each missed claim is a meaningful amount, and they build up across brands over a year.
There is a customer side too. When staff are unsure of a brand's rules, they either refuse a free bag that was due, which annoys a loyal customer, or give one that the brand will not credit. Neither is good, and both happen at the till in front of a queue.
Feeding club tracking and ready-made claims
- We record each brand's scheme as rules: which products and sizes qualify, how many purchases earn a free bag, what evidence the brand wants and the claim deadline.
- Qualifying purchases are recorded against the customer at the till by phone number, so the count does not depend on a paper card, while paper cards are still accepted.
- When a free bag is given, the till records it as a feeding club redemption for that brand, with a note of what evidence was kept, instead of a plain zero sale.
- Photos of cards, receipts or barcodes are captured on a phone or tablet at the till and attached to the redemption.
- At each brand's claim interval, the system produces the claim in the format that brand asks for, with the evidence attached, ready to post, email or upload.
- Claims are tracked until the brand's credit or payment arrives, and matched in Xero, QuickBooks or Sage.
| Step | Drawer of cards | Feeding club tracking |
|---|---|---|
| Counting purchases | Stamps on a card | Recorded at the till, card optional |
| Free bag given | Zero price sale | Redemption recorded by brand |
| Evidence | Loose in a drawer | Photos attached to the redemption |
| Claim | Done when there is time | Produced at each brand's interval |
| Credit received | Not checked | Matched in your accounts |
Each brand's scheme terms are theirs, and we build to what they publish or send you. If a brand changes its rules, the scheme settings change with it.
Free bags that are paid for
At the till, the staff member sees that the customer has reached the free bag for that brand, records the redemption and photographs the card. There is no guessing about which sizes count. The evidence is filed against the claim as it happens.
When the claim date for each brand comes round, the owner opens a list of claims ready to send, checks them and sends them in the way each brand wants. A few weeks later the credits appear in the accounts and are ticked off. The drawer marked claims is no longer needed.
Are you funding brands' free bags yourself?
- Feeding club free bags are rung through at zero with no record.
- Claim evidence is kept loose in a drawer or bag.
- Brand claims are done late or missed.
- Staff are unsure which bags count for which scheme.
- You do not check that brand credits arrive.