Does your grocery have a loyalty card?

Our store started signing people up for their new rewards card last summer. I am really liking it. You actually need it to get the sale prices listed in their weekly ad. When you shop, either scan the card at the beginning of the transaction or just type in your phone number. You earn points when you buy specified store-branded groceries (Spartan) or spend a certain amount in-store. The points can be redeemed for free grocery items. Those items rotate every week.

Plus, if you register your email address, you get a message at the beginning of every month listing Free grocery items you can pick up. Again, all you do is scan your card or identify yourself and the cost of the items is taken off of your grocery bill. This month I get: One Antioch Farms Stuffed Chicken Breast, a seedless cucumber, a pkg. of Spartan Chocolate Cookies, and a bag of Spartan Pretzels. It feels like Christmas.

The items you get free each month must be based on what you spend or how much you shop the month before. Sometimes it's only 3 items for me, sometimes four. My sister doesn't shop there as often as I do, and she said this month she gets a free Armour Lunch Kit and $3 off an 8-pc Chicken Dinner.

Does your area do something like this? I tell you it really is making me more loyal to this store. I don't bother with Walmart much any more.

Noone here does that, I wish they did. HEB does do sales where if you buy something you get stuff, for example this week: buy Stouffers lasagna Party size @ 10.99, you get Fresh express bagged salad, Juicy juice half gallon, Frozen garlic bread, 2 liter store brand drink, Kraft salad dressing all free...averages out to about $10-15 free . They have coupons in store that tell you what to get and what is free.

My Kroger does. About every other month, we receive coupons in the mail for several free products and big cents off on others. We also have a Kroger 1-2-3 MC (which we only use at Kroger) and earn points for the amount of money we spend. A weird calculation, so many points for each dollar for instore purchases and you earn a different amount of points per dollar if you use the card for purchases other than Kroger... when you reach 1000 points, you get $10 checks (only usable at Kroger)

We normally don't shop Kroger as their prices are so much higher than Walmart or Aldi's, but you can bet, if they have a good deal, we stock up. They have the best produce in my city.

Food Lion also does loyalty cards, which we have, but rarely shop that store, as it's not as convenient (although it's only about 5 miles aways LOL this is a small town, so anything further than 4 miles seems like a days journey!)

Both Price Chopper and P&C (becoming Tops) have loyalty cards, have for years. Price Chopper earns us $$ off a gas fillup which is nice and we get exclusive coupons and such.

I am a sale shopper, i will go to five different stores and only buy the best deals. I probably haven't stepped in a Walmart in 6 months and never for groceries, combining coupons and sales they just can't compare to the grocery stores with higher everyday prices.

but you can comp at Walmart... is if a higher price store has a great sale on something and rather than make a seperate trip, we comp. Like this week, Kroger has 16 oz cottage cheese for $1.00... I don't like their's, too wet. So Chuck comps at Walmart for their store brand which I like because it's on the dry side. And strawberries, all summer long, Aldi's has them for 99 cents for a lb, but run out, so we can comp at Walmart (who is never less than 1.89 for the 99 cent price.

I use to do that but it's too much work when you get a snotty cashier that needs to see each and every ad and analyze it, plus the coupon attitude. Then again, almost ANYWHERE on a bad day can top Walmart customer service on a good one. I can double up to 99cents at the grocery stores, every couple weeks they run a double or triple any coupon promo. I can stack store coupons with manufacturer ones or use the competitors store coupons. If there is something I can't get cheap there is always Aldis.

Back in KC, we used a loyalty card with Price Chopper... but they didn't earn us points or anything! Maybe they changed in the last 2 years?

Here in Texas for HEB, they don't have anything. I wished they would b/c they run out of their coupons ALL the time. GRR!

It was about 2 years ago when they started the gas program, and I am fairy certain it started here in NY and worked it's way out.

I have a Winn Dixie card, but all you get with it is the sale prices. They do have sales like were mentioned - buy xx item @ x price, get x, y & z for free.
As for price matching at Walmart, they would not price match Aldi & they wouldn't match store brand sale with their store brand either. Some cashiers are so pissy about price matches, they won't even allow diet Dr Pepper, if the comp ad only says Dr Pepper. They also don't do % off or bogo. They call that a gimmick and don't match gimmick ads. Somehow, many Walmarts try very hard to make people upset and hate them. They seem to have it down to a science!

I have so many loyalty cards from so many stores, I have to carry a separate keychain. I have one from Kroger, Marsh, CVS, Walgreens, Vitamin World, Vitamin Shoppe, Home Depot, Lowes, Gas America, Speedway (another convenience store), True Value Hardware, and those are just off the top of my head. It seems if you want the sale price on anything around here anymore, you have to carry their loyalty card.

I'm not sure about the other cards, but with Kroger, if you spend a certain amount during the month at the store, you save 10cents a gallon on gas at either their stations or at Shell gas stations. They also ocassionaly send out coupons for free stuff.

I don't mind the loyalty cards, it's just they are a pain in the butt to remember to take with me.

Tanya

Lawblaw's/ Superstore/ whatever else the chain is calling themselves has been doing it for years. If you bank at one of their kiosks (I actually do because it's no fee banking backed by a big bank here) and use your debit card when you buy groceries from them you earn points towards free items at the store. 20 000 points = $20. At first it took a while for me to build up any points, but now that I'm buying groceries for a family of 4 they accumulate in a hurry.

Brookshire Bros (our only grocery store in town) dosnt do the loyalty card anymore. - They quit a while back- only other place to shop is walmart.

and sometimes our walmart gets a bug up its ass and wont comp ads more than 20 miles away- (or whatever the blanket corp policy is) - which means I have to call Bentonville and pitch a bitch- (1-800-walmart is your friend)


We have NO stores EXCEPT brookshire bros with in 50 miles. and mostly they only put their own brand on sale. which is never thesame size/amount of the walmart brand.

Well I have to add in that our Walmart must be the most friendilest in the States... never have a problem with comping... Kroger Brand Cottage cheese a $1 for 16 oz, no problem get the Walmart brand. Aldis has strawberries for 99 cents? No problem, Walmart comps even when they're are $2.50. Local meat market with chicken tenders for 1.99 #? No problem we can get Tyson...

Our Walmart is great... no questions asked. Each check out keeps copies of all the local adds at their registers ....

I didn't know that Walmart did that...although I hardly ever grocery shop there and usually I just want to be done with the place by the time I get to checkout.

I have so many loyalty cards and if I don't have one for a particular place, I can punch in a random family member's phone number and usually find a winner.
oh and if you don't have one, I know some cashiers will punch in a phone number for you...my aunt uses my parent's number all the time and I use her number to get her employee discount at Albertson's.

We do most of our shopping at Sobey's here and they offer Air Miles and money off gas at Irving Stations. I don't use the gas coupons (it is usually $0.01 off per litre but you can use multiple coupons, but I still don't bother, LOL). I love the Air Miles tho. That is how we flew to Disney this year. It took about 10 years of saving and basically just using Sobey's and one other place for air miles. We now use other places, but my mother works at a store that offers air miles and whenever someone buys gas and doesn't have a card, she swipes our card (well half the time, the other half she uses her card of course). Her boss doesn't care when they do it because gas was purchased anyway. She has gotten us a lot of miles by doing that (about 900 since May/June).

You must have the gem Dee. Ours will NOT match Aldi, nor any store brands at all, they use to but stopped. Plus no % off even if the price is listed in the ad. Consider yourself lucky.

Our Walmart is a gem, however, they never accepted b1/g1 or % off.