’80s ‘Jenny’ Phone Number Is Local And In The News For Odd Reason
If you grew up in the 1980’s or if you listen to K 104.7 lots, then you’re probably familiar with the Tommy TuTone song ‘867-5309/Jenny’. And if you know the song, you sing the number instead of saying it. You have to! Now the song is back in the news locally for a very odd reason.
According to WCNC, a man here in Charlotte, Chris Och, is the owner of the number. Buying the 704 version of it more than a decade ago, Och wanted a number for his business that folks could remember. He picked a good one!
Like many of us, Och is not only using the number for his business, but he is also using it for things like grocery store rewards. If you shop at certain grocery stores, your phone number is associated with your rewards card. I have one for Harris Teeter, Food Lion, and Ingles. Och does lots of shopping at his local Food Lion, and when he’s checking out, he uses his phone number to claim rewards.
Recently Och says his receipt showed a savings of $92,965 for the year. If you’re thinking like I am, that seems a bit excessive for a year. Heck, that’s a lot of savings for a lifetime!
Why Are The Rewards So High?
Och is guessing that folks who don’t have a Food Lion rewards card are putting in his famous number so that they can snag some savings while checking out. Telling WCNC that due to the amount of savings his card has racked up, the store shut off his rewards, saying his number cannot be used anymore. The company took his number out of their system.
Food Lion is saying that they were alerted to misuse, since so many folks were using the number. And since most of us average savings of around $20-$30 a month, the massive total associated with Och’s number was a red flag. Not sure how all of this will play out. I’m guessing the only way the store can stop folks from abusing the famous number is to only have MVP rewards available using a card.
Living in Gastonia, that number was so popular it caused a ruckus in the 1980’s. 704-867-5309 was the number to Southwest Junior High in the 80’s. At least that was what everyone was saying back then. Makes sense to me! There are lots of phone numbers in Gastonia starting with 867. Growing up in the 80’s, our home phone number started with that prefix.
Much luck to Och figuring all of this mess out. Hopefully Food Lion will figure out a solution to the problem soon. Of course, now I want to go to my local Food Lion and put in the number just to see if the rewards work. LOL! Once an 80’s kid, always an 80’s kid!
