CARD DATA SHOWS WHO AMERICANS KEEP BUYING FROM AND WHY

Summary from the TLDR Marketing newsletter

The brands leading repeat-purchase rankings this quarter did not win with better rewards - they won by making it structurally costly to leave. A subscription bundle for Amazon, a membership fee for Costco, and 220 million enrolled profiles feeding pricing decisions for McDonald's. That distinction only shows up in deterministic transaction data, not brand surveys, since self-reported preference and actual repeat spending diverge once a real switching cost is in place. McDonald's illustrates the limit of that advantage: its loyalty base grew 13% while US foot traffic fell 4.5% in the same quarter.