GIANT EAGLE
Giant Eagle announced a new FoodPerks program offering discounts on gas at their GetGo stations with the purchase of groceries. Any extra way to save more money is good, but there are some caveats to the program.
It’s a reverse of their FuelPerks program where you get discounts on their gas by purchasing groceries. Kroger has a similar program. The program should help Giant Eagle attract customers to get gas at their gas stations outside of just when they need to redeem FuelPerks.
Those with large grocery bills will benefit the most. For instance, in order to maximize your saving it allows you to save 20% on a maximum of $300 spent for a savings of $60. Many people may find it difficult to reach the maximum savings using the 20% discount since $300 needs to be spent and it doesn’t count with gift card purchases.
Since I use coupons that double I rarely spend more than $50 at Giant Eagle. Every blue moon I may spend more than that, but rarely since I typically save over 70% on my grocery shopping there. Say if I spent $100 and wanted to use my 20% savings, I would get $20 off. I would’ve missed out on $40 in potential savings because I don’t spend that much grocery shopping.
If you fill up a 15 gallon tank each week with gas it will take about 4 months to get the 20% discount.
As a comparison, Speedway’s 10 cents off per gallon gift cards that are sold at Marc’s (and I believe Acme) will save you $20 on 200 gallons of gas and earn points for their SpeedyRewards program.
Again, it’s a new way to save money so I’m all for it. However, using double coupons will still save more money by far. For instance, I saved over $141 for a savings of 76% on my last shopping trip to Giant Eagle plus it printed out a $9.00 off on my next shopping trip coupon. The shopping trip before that one I saved 100%. I didn’t pay a penny.
If I use three .75 cent coupons each week that double, over four months I will save more than $60. That compares to having to spend $300 in one shopping trip to earn $60 using my maximum 20% foodperks awards.
The PD did a story on it and they quoted me on it.
Here’s a link to the story:
http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/05/giant_eagle_1.html