Sainsbury’s look like they’re ditching Argos so it remains to be seen if Argos will remain a Nectar partner long term.
This would obviously have implications for the Nectar scheme directly but also Avios indirectly should people be collecting and converting their Avios across to the Sainsbury’s run points scheme to use in Argos.
I find it odd that they’d sell off Argos, to be honest. The fact that most of their retail space is being moved into Sainsbury’s stores just makes sense - everything that is daily goes into Sainsbury’s, everything else into Argos.
collect both while doing your shop
Argos was part of Nectar before part of Sainsbury’s, albeit for redemption only. It may just be that it’s slimmed down rather than ditched.
Old news. The Sainsburys CEO has contacted all staff to inform in no uncertain terms that the deal is dead.
It must’ve been a terrific offer in the first place to have even been considered given the extent to which the two chains are now combined - hardly any of the dedicated back office support team still exists, it’s all been replaced by group-wide functions. Argos retail was never historically wildly profitable due to its reliance on expensive leased retail - all the real money was made on the finance side which has now been sold off. The retail side now is profitable because of the massively reduced lease bill. A buyer would have to either pay JS for the space or extract themselves; essentially go online only and in the process kill their unique selling proposition.
Sainsburys would go back to having a chunk of underutilised supermarket space.
Just makes no sense.
FWIW tho - using Nectar points at Argos is also a waste, given how easy it is to purchase Argos vouchers for a 5%+ discount. Better spent on fuel where no such saving is possible.
NatWest are effectively issuing Nectar/Avios now that they’ve taken over Sainsbury’s Bank.
They will actually directly be issuing Nectar points from Oct 7th. Be interesting to see if they open a new product with Nectar issuance or if it remains limited to transferred customers.
Either way, it’d have to be a significantly better rate than Sainsbury’s Bank offered to get me interested!
The credit card terms are staying exactly the same so no difference in Nectar/Avios rate.
For the existing product on day 1 of the transfer. I’m on about a hypothetical product.
Nobody should be wasting their time with the rewards on the existing scheme unless they can’t get any other credit.
It would interesting to see if Argos is actually even profitable. They’re effectively competing with Amazon which mostly operates free click / delivery - so no business rates along with Luxembourg corporation tax.
The TU and Habitat brands could stay with Sainsbury’s anyway if they ditch Argos like Tesco ditched Tesco Direct.
1 nectar per £5 spent outside Sainsburys & Co so below 0.1% of actual value… Fan’ Dabi’ Dozi 
It is. Somewhere in the region of £80-100m annually.
Other than the very few remaining standalone Argos branches, their rate bill is effectively nil because they use underutilised supermarket space.
Both Argos and Amazon will pay rates on warehouse space.
It’s my go to if they don’t take Amex so I’ve not used it much in a good while.