NH&FR: Kroger fuel points

[naldridge]

Okay I realize this is probably a MM relevant thread but thought I'd see what you ladies have to say first. I am a pretty loyal Kroger shopper because I love fuel points and drive a LOT. Every once in a while, they have 4x fuel points when you buy gift cards but if nothing else, they're always at least 3x.

So, for things that I can buy at Target or other stores with giftcards available at Kroger, wouldn't it pretty much always make more sense to buy a giftcard and shop elsewhere? It seems like a terrible marketing scheme for Kroger but maybe I'm reading too far into it...

[gummybear]

So you are saying you get 3 or 4x the amount you spend on gift cards in gas points, but the gift cards are for elsewhere so you are getting gas points to go spend your money somewhere other than Kroger right?

I am am guessing that they have marketing information that leads them to believe this is profitable. Like, when people see this promotion they go into Kroger and end up buying things other than the gift card. It gets them in the door. How often to you go in and JUST buy the gift card?

ETA: It's kind of like how Costco has the gift cards: $100 for $80. I don't see how this is particularly profitable for anyone but it gets people to actually go to the restaurants providing the deal under the guise of a discount. And it gets people to go/join to Costco and spend money on other things.

[Susie]

We don't have Kroger here, but our grocery store (Price Chopper) does a fuel savings thing that sounds pretty similar. And yes, you can buy gift cards to other stores at the grocery store, get the fuel points for the gift card purchase, and then spend the gift cards at other stores. I am not organized enough to pre-buy gift cards in the amounts I would spend - I'd end up losing money in unfinished gift cards laying around - but if you're more organized than me, win for you.

[bluedaisyus]

Yeah, we do this ALL the time--although we used to be loyal Kroger shoppers and switched to Giant Eagle because their program was just so much better for us and how we shop and use gas points. We buy groceries there because we get points on those, but we also get GCs any restaurant we're going to, or Amazon, BBB, Home Depot or Lowe's, wherever we are going to be buying something from. We only buy them when we know we're going to eat/shop there, we don't stock up or anything. We got something like 5k+ in free gas last year because we remodeled our kitchen and used GCs we bought at GE to pay for a good chunk of the cabinets from Lowe's.

[wambam]

I do this all the time. Take advantage!

[elletr13]

We've actually thought about doing this is a way of budgeting--for example, buying a $400 Visa card to use for groceries for the month. Haven't actually done it though.

[zoidberg]

We do this at Christmas, both for giving gift cards and buying gifts with them. I love it. And places like target, I know I will eventually use those so I just grab them when the special is on. Same with petco (for buying dog food).

[trigal]

Aug 7, 2013 14:31:41 GMT -5 Susie said:

We don't have Kroger here, but our grocery store (Price Chopper) does a fuel savings thing that sounds pretty similar. And yes, you can buy gift cards to other stores at the grocery store, get the fuel points for the gift card purchase, and then spend the gift cards at other stores. I am not organized enough to pre-buy gift cards in the amounts I would spend - I'd end up losing money in unfinished gift cards laying around - but if you're more organized than me, win for you.

This, but Price Chopper does not sell Target gift cards.  Usually they are for chain restaurants (like Applebees) or places like Lowe's, Home Depot, Amazon, Macy's, iTunes, etc.  We've even bought Southwest Airlines gift cards.  But they never sell them for a place that would be considered their competition.