Loyalty to Carluke pays off for shopper Marilyn

“I’m delighted to have won,” said Marilyn. “I shop all the time in Carluke.

“The lady in the tanning salon told me about the loyalty card, and I’m glad she did.

“I use the shops, the hairdressers, chemists and butchers all the time.

“I think more businesses should be promoting this and telling their customers about it.”

That sentiment was echoed by district team director Christine Warren.

“We expected it might take a while for this to build interest for businesses, but it has been popular with customers from the start,” she said. “It’s important that businesses promote this and realise it can be a big help for them.

“The scheme couldn’t be easier for businesses. All they do is stamp the customer’s card. The BID does the rest.”

There are almost 80 businesses in the scheme already. Shoppers have to use three types of business to qualify by getting their loyalty card stamped at three of each, from retailers, services and food and drink outlets.

Jim McNally, manager of the BID team, commented: “Marilyn has got us off to a flying start.

“The scheme is only a couple of weeks old, and we didn’t expect people to have filled their cards already, but we did get a handful of entries, and Marilyn was the lucky winner.

“People are already using several cards at once, collecting stamps from the goods and services they use most often, then starting another card.

“I’m just relieved we ordered an extra 5,000 cards.”