Brookshire’s latest marketing ploy unveiled in 2017 seems to be equally unpopular with customers and employees -- in fact, it has really bombed.

(UPDATE: Brookshire's sent out a mass email May 26, 2017 with the heading, "it's Back!" reinstating the rewards program to its original terms. The notice adds that customers complained and the food chain listened.)

Several months ago with a lot of advertising fanfare, Brookshire’s announced it would be decreasing “thousands” of prices in the store. That sounded good until customers learned at the cash register that they would no longer earn Thank You card reward points for food or gas credits unless they spent at least $25.

“I agree,” one cashier at a Brookshire’s store recently said. “It’s ridiculous.” Another employee said in response to a similar complaint, “I don’t like it either.” The employee said the complaints made dealing with customers more stressful.

It was the second time for the food chain to cut the program without warning. Previously, it eliminated wine and beer as a product earning reward points about a year after starting the program.

Curiously, purchases made in the pharmacy continue to earn reward points when the copay made by the customer totals less than $25.

Brookshire’s grocery enjoys a virtual monopoly on Cedar Creek Lake these days so corporate marketing officials probably didn’t expect much backfire. Many people don’t want to fight the crowds in the parking lot and inside the store at Walmart in Gun Barrel City to buy groceries so Brookshire’s with its higher prices often becomes the destination of choice.

What’s more, Brookshire’s has nothing to worry about from local newspapers. The newspapers would never criticize the food chain for fear of losing their largest advertiser.

It all could change though. It has become painfully obvious that Brookshire’s has also reduced the number of employees dedicated to sacking groceries and helping customers carry groceries to their cars. That’s clearly the case, judging from the number of grocery carts sitting in the parking lot.

Customers can be pushed just so far before they revolt, and store employees on the front lines know that better than corporate bigwigs.

“I think they are about to do away with the $25 minimum,” an employee said this week.

That may be true, judging from the absence of the “thousands” of price decreases advertising.