Scott Hanselman

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LifeHack: Carry Fewer Club Cards with BarCodes and lose the Costanza Wallet

February 22, 2007 Comment on this post [7] Posted in Musings
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I've been meaning to scan the six stupid "club cards" that The Man uses to track me as I do my shopping around town into one single card like this guy.

This has been more on my mind since I started using the Umbra Bungee Wallet exclusively. I freaking love this wallet. No more Costanza Wallet for me.

Now I've created a custom single uber-club-card (Yes, I know they are tracking me, and No, these aren't my real numbers) using JustOneClubCard.

It's just a little web app with a list of stores (mapped in the background to that stores barcode-style) that generates little double-sided cards for your wallet.

Elegant, clean, simple, very Web 1.5. Now I have six fewer key-chain dealies to carry around.

Thanks to JustOneClubCard, the Mark of the Beast is now that much more convenient to carry.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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Comment on this post [7]
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February 22, 2007 19:02
Interesting idea but won't grocery store scanners get confused by it? It will end up hitting on the wrong barcode a high percentage of the time, slowing down the cashier, and ticking off the people in line behind you while the cashier futzes around even longer trying to get the right barcode to scan.
Tim
February 22, 2007 19:08
Scott there appears to be something wrong with the time being shown in your comments. The previous comment was left at 10:02 AM Eastern Standard Time, yet it's showing as being posted at 12:02:48 PM Pacific Standard Time. Shouldn't it be saying 07:02:48 AM Pacific Standard Time?
Tim
February 22, 2007 20:46
I'm not sure about the first question - depends on their aim, I'll let you know.

As for the second, yes there's a timing problem, I think it's TimeZone related, but I haven't gotten to it yet.
Scott Hanselman
February 22, 2007 21:36

I would fold the paper at each code section and show the proper section to the cashier. If I am a cashier and this card practice gets common, I would get annoyed spending time glancing down the bar code list trying to find my store's bar code. A little courtesy goes a long way.
Abdu
February 22, 2007 22:22
The all-ett is a fraction of the size of the Umbra Bungee Wallet. Highly recommended.

http://blogs.vertigosoftware.com/jatwood/archive/2007/01/12/Optimizing_Your_Wallet.aspx

That Umbra is effing huge! 0.75" depth?
Jeff Atwood
February 24, 2007 5:23
I use and enjoy the Jimi wallet (http://thejimi.com/). Make sure to tri-fold your bills, you can fit more that way. I like to tape things to the outside of the wallet (bus pass, magnetic key card, etc). My JustOneClubCard will definitely go on the outside.

Regarding the comment about store scanners getting confused, you could try grasping with your fingers to expose only the intended code.

I had been trying to figure out how to do exactly what this site does, but my idea involved scanning and formatting the upc symbols. This is much simpler - just enter the numerals (duh). Goes to show what a little domain knowledge can do for simplifying design. Thanks, Scott!
Ryan Smith
February 28, 2007 7:36
Scott,

Are you using the Umbra Wallet or Umbra Card Wallet? This post you link to the larger wallet, and in an earlier post (where you talk about portable apps) you link to the card wallet.

(which color did you go with?)
Bryan Nystrom

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.