Changes to Kroger fuel rewards progam

[Brian Lutz]

While visiting one of the local Fred Meyers this evening, I saw that they seem to be modifying their fuel reward program somewhat, allowing fuel rewards to be stacked for larger discounts (up to $1 per gallon off for 1,000 points.) If you buy gas at Fred Meyer fuel centers you can choose how many of your stacked discounts to use at once, but if you buy at a Shell station, you have to use all of them. This probably doesn't affect me much since I rarely manage even 100 points in a month, but the 10-cent discounts don't really amount to much on their own, so being able to stack will probably make the program more attractive to people who shop there a lot.

[storewanderer]

Smiths just changed its program. Smiths old program was quarterly accumulation of "points" and 100 points yielded a .10 off up to $2 off at Smiths, Shell, or Quik Stop. Or if you did not use points, at least 500 points got you a $5 off Smiths coupon good on any purchase.

The new program is as you describe, 100 points is .10 off up to $1. And accumulation is now only monthly rather than quarterly.

The positive to this, I guess, is Smiths purchases will finally "blend" with other Kroger divisions for fuel points. Prior, the Smiths points were under a different "bank" of points. Yet Ralphs, Frys, QFC, Fred Meyer, Dillon, etc. all posted my fuel points to the same "bank" when I visited multiple divisions in a given month.

Smiths old program also awarded 50 points for a prescription and 5 points per reusable bag. I am not sure how this new downgraded program will impact those things.

It won't change my shopping habits any; Smiths has better mix and pricing than anyone else in this market, the fuel reward means very little to me.

[Brian Lutz]

At Fred Meyer and QFC, the fuel program has always reset your points monthly, and gives you only a month to use them. Either way, I rarely accumulate enough to even use in a month, so this probably won't affect me much.