Chicken Enchiladas, Winn Dixie and going Green – what in the world do they have in common?

So Bride had fixed Chicken enchiladas for my Sister who flew in for my Nieces graduation. They are world famous enchiladas and they are GREAT!!! She made them up early in the day and put them in the fridge, to be taken out 60 minutes before cooking. We took them out and then we went down to the river to watch the sunset, Sister and Niece stayed behind and Bride and I went home to prepare diner. Mostly it was bride but I put out a bowl of Tostito’s and salsa. Little did I know that the salsa I put in little containers was meant for the enchiladas – OPPS. After realizing that I may have messed up dinner I made a rush trip the corner Winn Dixie to get an additional bottle of Pace medium chunky salsa. That is where the madness of the world became apparent to me.

So I run into Winn Dixie and the Salsa is right there at the front of the store, I grabbed a bottle and started looking for an express lane. No luck on that, there were three lanes open and all were full and had lines. I headed for the courtesy counter with my one bottle of Pace picante sauce. I was pulling out my Winn Dixie card out as I approached. That little rewards card gets me additional discounts over any other discounts. I have to fill out an application to get it, they know who I am, where I live and what I buy when I visit the store. All throughout the year I accumulate bonus points as well. The advertised benefits are as follows:

• You'll get instant discounts on thousands of items, specially-marked throughout the store. And, you can still use manufacturers' coupons...so you can save twice!

• See the savings on your register receipts.

Look for Customer Reward Card items highlighted in our weekly circular and marked with special signs in the store. When you present your customer Reward Card to the cashier, the discount will automatically be deducted.

• Enjoy exclusive Winn-dixie shoppers' rewards.

Winn-Dixie Customer Reward Card cardholders automatically participate in special programs and promotions not available to non-cardholders. It's our way of rewarding your loyalty to Winn-Dixie.

Well, I want to circle back to the single jar of pace picante sauce I was there to buy. The clerk smiled and said hello and then asked if I had a Winn Dixie card, to which I whipped it out and said yes. She scanned the bar code on my card then the bar code on the Picante sauce, that will be $3.79 she tells me. To which I swipe my debit card and mash in my secret numbers and this is when it came to me. All of the sudden the register starts spitting out the receipt and then another little device, the coupon machine, started spitting out as well. When it was all said and done I got three pieces of paper, the main receipt was 3 inches wide and 15 inches long – for one bottle of Pace picante sauce, it was taller then the jar of sauce, crazy right? The other two pieces of paper 2.25” x 10” long, coupons for Beneful dog food and the other was for coffee mate cream. I commented that it looked like we burned up a tree just too properly document my picante sauce purchase, the clerk looked confused but smiled as I walked away.  Here is a picture of the paper I came home with. 

On my way home I got to thinking about that some more, that was A LOT of paper and wondered if it could be done with less or none. First off, I thought about the receipt. I need that in order to enter it into my banking, we use Quicken to keep track of our checking account. Once I enter them into banking I wad them up and throw them away. And then the coupons, I like those because in this economic times every little bit helps. Then it dawned on me, the entire solution popped into my head like a flash, like a jalapeno popper stuffed with picante sauce.

So here is my idea, and yes I am sending this blog to Winn Dixie. First of all, lets make it an option to get a receipt. The clerk asks the questions, do you have a Winn Dixie card and then also asks, would you like to help save the planet by not getting a printed receipt. They would stroke a couple of keys and no receipt would be printed.  For those in the Winn Dixie club, yes you rewards card holders, that receipt could be sent to you electronically via email or text if you wish. That would allow me sit at my computer when I got home to pull up the text or email to get the total and enter it into my banking. That could be a selection when filling out the card application, or it could be done via some slick web based interface. Insto-presto I would imagine there could be easily a 20-40% reduction in register tape usage, saving Winn Dixie money that could then be reinvested in some localized green community projects.

Secondly back to the coupon machines and their tree burning processes. I already have a Winn Dixie card, they know what I buy, when I buy it and how often I buy it so here is my solution to that paper. Have a computer algorithm search my actual purchases and provide me with coupons for stuff that I actually buy and use, it could even be tailored to the time of year. Say around thanksgiving, throw me a 30 cents off the can off pumpkin. That is but one example of how they could provide me with more useful coupons. Next, stop printing them out, start adding them to our entry in the big Winn Dixie database in the sky, there is already a database keeping track of our every move, make that bad boy start working for us more AND go green at the same time. No more paper coupons and another benefit to this is you can market the card as being smart. Knowing what you use and giving you coupons based on that consumption and it could all be done electronically with a slick web interface – it might even get them more people signing up for the card.

If Winn Dixie were to market this correctly they could show that they are leading the way in the green revolution and at the same time save a ton of money, that could be reinvested back into the community – which would raise their standings even more.

So how about it Winn Dixie, whaddayathink?

BTW, the chicken enchiladas Bride made were FANTABULOUS!!!