Bed Bath & Beyond adds rewards — for a fee

How many Bed Bath & Beyond coupons are you hoarding? You know, the "20 percent off one item" coupons that come in the mail or the "$5 off any $20 purchase" coupon?

Some BBB customers could easily have nearly a dozen going back to 2016 because the retailer accepts its own expired coupons.

Building off its coupon success, Bed Bath & Beyond earlier this year introduced its version of a loyalty program, called Beyond+. For $29 a year, program subscribers get 20 percent off every purchase made in stores or online. The fee is lower than Amazon's $119 per year or Restoration Hardware's Grey Card loyalty program, which charges $100 annually for a 25 percent discount.

"We're going to see more of this," said Dave Brennan, professor emeritus at the University of St. Thomas Institute for Retailing Excellence. "It's a way to lock in customers and keep them from going elsewhere."

Some may balk at paying a fee, but frequent shoppers will earn it back.

"We know how much our customers enjoy our 20 percent off one item coupons," said a Bed Bath & Beyond spokesperson in a statement. "We wanted to be able to offer our most loyal customers an easier way to receive 20 percent off their entire purchase and free standard shipping on all of their purchases."

Membership has some exclusions, similar to the coupons. The discount does not include more than 100 brands listed online including Breville, Dyson, Under Armour, Vitamix, Weber, diapers and baby food. Plus, heavy items such as furniture are not eligible for the free shipping.

Consumers who have a stash of those 20 percent or $5 off coupons may want to use them up before joining. However, in the long run, those who need to buy for college students or a new house might get more bang for the buck with the membership since the 20 percent off coupons are only good for one item.

Plus, consumers may at some point find that the store will no longer accept the expired coupons. It seems likely that the company will put out fewer coupons to encourage sign-ups in the loyalty program.

JOHN EWOLDT

Has "baby daddy" become an acceptable term of endearment?

American Greetings, an Ohio-based greeting card company, apparently thought it had and put those words in big pink letters, overlaid on a picture of a black couple kissing, on the cover of a Father's Day card.

"You CANNOT be serious Target!!!!" Takeisha Saunders, a Dallas-area woman, posted on Facebook in a post that has since been widely shared. "This was the only Father's Day card that featured a black couple!!!!!!"

The flare-up prompted Minneapolis-based Target to start pulling the card from its stores. The card was in stock at about half of Target's 1,800 stores.

This week, American Greetings also said it will pull the card from the thousands of other retail, grocery and drugstores where it was sold.

"We want all guests to feel welcomed and respected when they shop at Target," Joshua Thomas, a Target spokesman, wrote in a statement.

"We were made aware of some concerns about this card last week and are working with our vendor to have it removed from Target stores. We appreciate the feedback and apologize. It's never our intent to offend any of our guests with the products we sell."

"You're a wonderful husband and father — and I'm so grateful to have you as my partner, my friend, and my baby daddy! Happy Father's Day," the inside reads.

Still, she said the company acknowledges that the front of the card, taken out of context, "can communicate an unintentional meaning that we are strongly against perpetuating and is not consistent with our company purpose and values. We should do better in the future, and we will."

KAVITA KUMAR

John Ewoldt • 612-673-7633