Kachingo was a short-lived "card free" customer rewards programme in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. Every time a customer spent over a certain amount at any one of the participating retail outlets, the customer would receive a ticket with a Game Line on it and could receive additional game lines by spending a higher amount or purchasing certain items in store. Each Game Line gave the customer a chance to win money.
Despite plans to launch the concept globally, the program never spread elsewhere; and closed down in New Zealand 2003, after about three years of operation.
History
Kachingo was invented by Chris Berryman and sold to Strathmore Group in December 1999, run by Global Online systems. At the time it was a notable
Linux-based system.
The programme was first trialed at
Super Liquor outlets across New Zealand in December 2000. In October 2001,
BP,
Woolworths,
Big Fresh
Big Fresh was a New Zealand supermarket chain. The first Big Fresh store opened in 1988 in Mount Wellington, Auckland. In 2003, the Big Fresh brand was shut-down by its owner Progressive Enterprises, with branches converted to Countdown or W ...
,
Price Chopper Price Chopper may refer to:
United States
* Price Chopper (Northeastern United States), a supermarket chain based in Schenectady, New York, with stores in eastern United States
** Price Chopper Tour Championship, a golf tournament in the Albany, ...
and
KFC (Auckland North only) all joined the Kachingo programme offering rewards to customers shopping at participating stores.
Originally Kachingo included 3 draws from the one ticket, the first draw was a daily draw for $1000, the second a weekly draw for $10,000 and then a monthly draw for at least $250,000. In order to win the top prize the ticketholder needed to get all six numbers and the power number. In April 2002 the daily and weekly draws were dropped and the weekly draw was now for $100,000 each week, smaller prizes were for $5, $20 and $1000. As a bonus sometimes shoppers received instant prizes when making a Kachingo purchase these prizes included chocolate bars,
Coke and
Cadbury Creme Egg
A Cadbury Creme Egg is a chocolate confection produced in the shape of an egg, originating from the British chocolatier Fry's in 1963 before being renamed by Cadbury in 1971. The product consists of a thick chocolate shell containing an enzym ...
s.
Checking tickets could be done on the Kachingo website, on
Teletext
A British Ceefax football index page from October 2009, showing the three-digit page numbers for a variety of football news stories
Teletext, or broadcast teletext, is a standard for displaying text and rudimentary graphics on suitably equipp ...
and in the store of any participating retailer. The Kachingo website rapidly became one of the most frequently visited in the country. Some stores had self checkers that customers could use to check tickets themselves prior to redeeming any winning tickets at the counter. Staff at the store could also check for winners by using their Point of Sale system.
Closure
Kachingo ceased operations in New Zealand in March 2003. This followed the withdrawal of KFC, Progressive Enterprises and BP, and rumoured financial problems as redemptions rates increased. In announcing the demise of the program, operator Global Online claimed that the concept was to be launched elsewhere, this appears not to have come to fruition. In April 2003, Strathmore Group announced a write-down of NZ$492,000 associated with the demise of the program.
References
{{reflist
Customer loyalty programs