Have you ever noticed that organizations that thrive on membership no longer reward you for being a loyal long-term customer? It’s all about new signups. First month free. New phone with new account. Half price video rentals for the first month. Once you’re a customer and they have your demographic information for their database, they don’t care about you beyond the full price fees you add to their revenue.

I’m just old enough to remember a time before every establishment wanted to track everythin their customers did and thought, a time when you got better deals as time went on, not worse. I miss those days.