I was getting myself a couple of beers at the local Big Barrel last night, at the checkout the guy asked me if I was already a member of their new "Mates Club" program. He said I could sign up right now if I wanted, but I said thanks I'll take one of the 5,000 fliers they had home and read it while eating my curry. Mmmmm, curry.

At home I read up on the conditions. To earn a $10 gift voucher for use at the store, you have to accumulate 100 "mates" points. To get 1 point, you have to spend $25. Mates points expire after 12 months. To earn enough mate points to get a $10 voucher, you have to spend $2,500 in a year at Big Barrel. That's $48 per week on booze. And once you claim your $10 back, that's an overall discount of 0.4% on the cost of your booze.

Mates don't let mates spend $48 a week on booze for 52 weeks of the year!!