Festival Foods: the grocery program that reads your whole cart and remembers none of it.

Festival Foods just relaunched its loyalty program. Festival Rewards: 2% back on everything, 10 points per dollar, 500 points for a dollar off. A $5 welcome bonus the moment you sign up. A free item every week through December 1 for the chain's 80th anniversary. Credit where it's due — the welcome bonus is instant gratification done right, and a weekly freebie is a real reason to come back. For an 80-year-old grocer, the refreshed app and the clean point math are a solid start.

But here's the thing. The problem isn't the 2%. It's that every cart earns exactly the same way.

Grocery is the one category where you shop every single week. Festival sees your entire basket — the brands, the swaps, the Thursday-night run, the week you suddenly stopped. No category on earth hands a brand more behavioral data more often. And Festival Rewards does nothing with any of it.

Who bought the same baby formula every week and hasn't in three? Who just traded the name-brand coffee for the store label — the quietest churn signal there is? Who shops like clockwork on Thursdays and skipped the last two? Who walked the organic aisle for the first time last Sunday? A flat 2% can't tell any of them apart. It pays the loyal weekly shopper and the once-a-month drifter the identical rate.

The fix costs nothing but the data they already have: "Hi — you usually grab your oat milk by now. Here's 500 points if it's in your cart this week." That's not a discount. That's a store that noticed.

A great point balance makes a customer feel thrifty. A reward that shows up the week they were about to drift makes them stay.