Problem:
My wallet is too fat. This is not due to an abundance of money, it's an abundance of grocery store discount cards that makes up much of the bulk. These things take up the space of a credit card, just to have a little bar code to identify me and market products to my needs in exchange for a discount.

Failed Solution:
Grocery stores thought up the concept of making smaller ones that can fit on keychains. This just makes your keychain more bulky. I carry things in my pockets, and the less in my pockets the better.

Another Failed Solution:
You can usually type in your phone number instead of using your card. Like most people, I'd never give these marketers my phone number and made one up. The problem is I'll never remember the number I made up.

Solution:
The Club Card Pen is a pen with a small window that shows a bar code. Rotating part of the pen allows you to select which grocery store card you would like displayed. Simply provide the Club Card Pen company with a list of your bar code numbers for all of your cards, and for $20 you can put your wallet on a diet.

Compromise:
This does mean you'll have to have a pen with you when you go shopping, but I often feel I need a pen with me in life anyway.
-- Worldgineer, Jul 23 2004

In the Safeway Club Club idea someone suggested using (012)345-6789, which is valid for most clubs. The problem is, I want the $20 back for spending $x, and custom coupons, air miles, etc., which is a secondary benefit to these clubs and something you won't get by entering a shared number.
-- Worldgineer, Jul 23 2004


But I don't want your cheese.
-- Worldgineer, Jul 23 2004


//My wallet is too fat//
Now I'm picturing Worldgineer as looking something like George Costanza.
-- ldischler, Jul 23 2004


A pen is necessary for signing checks, debit stubs, service reciepts. Adding to this proven necessity equates to bunnery!

In the future: Phone capabilities? Pen rolls out horizontally, like a small projection screen, with thin film organic LCDs, for computer interface? The point of the pen scans the products in the store, as you walk around, and you then scan the pen at the checkout, and the cooresponding items are loaded into your car free of hassle?

The Pen is the Future.
-- daseva, Jul 23 2004


Most cards I have have magnetic strips.

If you can figure out a way of also storing swipe cards on the pen, perhaps you could have a magnetic head tip that you click out and stick in the scanner.... I would buy it in a second.
-- eulachon, Jul 23 2004


Wallet summary:

Cards with bar-codes: 4
Cards with magnetic swipes: 3
Cards used for identification: 4
Receipts: 15
Business cards: 5
Punch-cards for a free item: 2
Currency: 4

Total thickness: 7/8"

The cards with magnetic stripes are credit cards and I think they need to physically look at those to make sure they are authentic. The best option in that list to get rid of are the bar code cards. I think that until someone creates the Club Card Pen I'll create one thin laminated card with my 4 bar codes on it - two for each side.

[eul] Ask for the keychain version - most stores have bar codes on the keychain version.
-- Worldgineer, Jul 23 2004


The latest Somerfield (UK high street small supermarket - less pikey than Spar but lower down than Tesco Metro) reward scheme gives you a keyring which has the bar code on it. Perhaps it would be possible to have a keyring with rotating barcodes. I only suggest this because my handbag eats pens. A big bunch of keys is marginally harder to lose in a small black bag.
-- hazel, Jul 23 2004


Yeah when I think about it it's probably better that an easy credit card copying device doesn't exist.

Wondering now... if I took photos/scans of the barcode cards, and put them on my PDA, could they scan them off the screen? I'll have to try. PDAs have nice high contrast screens these days.
-- eulachon, Jul 23 2004


[hazel] This idea isn't really for people who carry bags. A big keyring full of plastic tags just won't work when you have to shove it into your front pocket, but would work fine with a bag. The addition of one of those keyless entry remotes, along with a fat plastic handled car key (that has a chip in it, or I'd just have it copied to a small key) has already made my keyring much larger than I'd like.

[eul] Please try that idea - I'd love to know if it works.
-- Worldgineer, Jul 23 2004


I live in a nearly cashless society. Bills are in there for vending machines and the occasional very-small store that doesn't take credit cards.

I do have to admit that one of the reasons for listing my wallet content was to try to shatter [ldisc]'s conception.
-- Worldgineer, Jul 25 2004



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