KARORI MUM LOSES 14,000 CLUBCARD POINTS AT 11.47PM ON A SUNDAY

Right, so I'm down at the local Tuesday and Mitch sits down looking like his dog died. Known him since intermediate. His mum lives up the hill in Karori, does her shop at the New World, been loyal to that place for years. Overnight she's lost fourteen thousand points off her Clubcard because she didn't use them inside the "engagement window". Her words. Or the supermarket's. Hard to tell at this point.

Now I'm told — third-hand, mind, from Mitch's cousin who pulls beers on Cuba — that half of Karori has gone spare. There's a Facebook group. There's a spreadsheet. A woman called Denise has printed her transaction history back to 2019 and plans to take it to the customer service desk "in person, with a witness".

"Mum was saving them for the Christmas ham," Mitch told me, on his second Speights. "Fourteen grand in points. Gone. Email came at 11.47pm on a Sunday. Who sends that at 11.47pm on a Sunday? A coward."

A spokesperson for the supermarket — and look, I'm paraphrasing off someone's phone — said the expiry was "clearly communicated in the terms" and customers were "encouraged to engage with the rewards programme regularly". Mitch's mum engages regularly. Twice a week. The checkout girl knows her grandkids' names.

Bloke two tables over reckons the same thing happened in Onerahi a few months back and it nearly kicked off. Could be bollocks. He'd had a few. But he was sure about it, and he had the look people get when they heard it off their sister-in-law.

Last I heard Denise is running a "slow shop" on Saturday — everyone fills a trolley, then asks about their points one item at a time. Mitch reckons he'll go. I might too. (sips) That ham was meant for me at some stage.