There is a battle brewing between Grocery Store chains that will benefit savvy customers.
Recently, King Soopers made news in the Denver, Colorado area with its rewards program offering up to $1 off each gallon of gas purchased at King Soopers’ gas stations or affiliated Loaf n Jug gas stations.
Basically, each dollar spent when using the grocery store’s loyalty card, called SooperCard, earns one point. When you have 100 points, customers can get 10 cents per gallon savings on gasoline purchases. Safeway has a similar program.
King Soopers Gas $1 Off Program
The waves started coming when King Soopers upped the ante this summer.
Typically, customers with more than 100 points simply start earning another discounted trip to the gas pump. For example, a shopper who spent $200 on groceries would earn two fill-ups with a 10 cent discount. For many shoppers, this accrual rate is higher than how fast they purchase gas. The program rewards reset every quarter, so many households don’t use all of their 10 cent off gas rewards.
Recently, however, King Soopers changed the deal to allow rewards to accrue for multiple 10 gas discounts on a single fill-up, up to $1 per gallon discount.
Now, when that same shopper spends $200, they can get 20 cents off per gallon, or for every $1,000, a full dollar per gallon discount.
Safeway Also Offers $1 Per Gallon Discount
Things just got interesting. According to a flyer in stores, Safeway is offering the same gas discount as King Soopers, up to $1 per gallon off of gas.
As it turns out, there are some nuances to the program that can help savvy shopper save even more money faster.
For starters, Gift Card purchases earn 2 points per dollar. I never advocate buying something more than you would use anyway as a way to earn a discount. Doing so does nothing more than make you poorer while you feel good about it.
However, if you buy gift cards as gifts anyway, it makes sense to buy them at the grocery store and get bonus points earned for a bigger gas discount faster.
An even better deal is to look for gift cards to retailers you already patronize and buy their gift cards. It’s money you would have spent anyway, but now you get a bonus for it. Be careful. Don’t over-buy gift cards for more than you normally use just to get more gas rewards points.
Even Bigger Savings on Gas
With gas prices so high, any savings is good news, but using smart personal finance tricks can save you even more.
Combine your gas discount with a gas rewards credit card or cash-back credit card to reduce the cost of filling your car with gas even more. You could also use them to earn points to redeem, like with the Capital One Rewards catalog or the Citibank rewards catalog.
For example, buying 20 gallons at $3.00 per gallon costs $60.00. Use your dollar-off discount from the grocery store to save $20.00 on that tank of gas. Buy the gas with a 1 percent cash back card and earn 40 cents. All total, that $60 tank of gas ends up costing you $39.60, a savings of 33 percent on your gas purchase.
The best news for shoppers is that you won’t "lose" your gas rewards when the quarter ends since you can batch together multiple $100 worth of purchases, that $300 you spend between fillups becomes 30 cents off per gallon instead of 3 different discounted trips to the gas station.
This program is not a nationwide offering. The Safeway brochure says the offer is only good in Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Texas, Virginia and Washington D.C. stores and gas stations. If you live in one of those areas, be sure to check the details and fine print and then enjoy your savings.
Gas Rewards Expire
There is a catch, of course.
Under the old grocery store gas discount program, your points expired each quarter. According to the brochure, they now expire the following month. So, if you earn 50 cents worth of discounts in July, you only have until the end of August to use your discounted trip.
Keep that in mind and be sure to fill up at month-end if you have rewards and a tank that’s less than half-full or your rewards will disappear.