Monday, March 24, 2014

Grocery shopping not just about the groceries

With the grocery store "rewards" cards for the major grocers, it's not just about the groceries anymore. Add the fact that the big grocers of Kroger and Tom Thumb have apps, it makes it even easier to learn about or get deals.

A few months or more ago, I moved from one side of the neighborhood to the other...basically about a mile across town.

The previous side was closer to Kroger so I shopped there more for my groceries with my Kroger Plus card. Originally, the Kroger Plus card gave gas points that I could use at the pump depending on how much I spent. It only worked at the gas stations that were Kroger gas stations. The Kroger I shopped at has a gas station in the parking lot but it is a Chevron. So, these gas points were useless to me except for when I drive through Euless, TX which is the only place where I know a Kroger with a Kroger gas station exists and is in my paths of mostly traveled. A couple of years ago Kroger teamed up with Shell to provide these points and so the same gas benefit was now available. Good since there is a Shell a few blocks from the Kroger. I grocery shopped at Kroger a lot for this "benefit" as well as they were the only close grocery store that had self-check out registers.

My current side of the neighborhood is closer (very close) to a Tom Thumb where I use my Rewards Club card for groceries. This store is much smaller than the Kroger where I used to shop and it doesn't have self-check out. The convenient location is great but the selection isn't always for what I'm looking. I occasionally have to drive to another Tom Thumb which is a few blocks or so down from the Kroger I used to frequent. Anyway, I always use my Rewards card when shopping at Tom Thumb because it gives me really good BOGO deals or cheaply-priced items that I frequently purchase.

A little sidebar—I sometimes, but rarely lately, shop at Albertsons because each store has their own good pricing on certain items I like and Albertsons has had many a good deal, on meats particularly. Although Albertsons no longer uses a rewards card (marketing ploy), they do have some very good deals once in a while. However, Albertsons is far from either side of the neighborhoods I've lived.

I mentioned it before that one of the perks of the rewards cards is gas points. Since I've been shopping at Tom Thumb, I've earned some fuel points here and there. Recently, I earned $1.70 off my price per gallon at the Tom Thumb gas pump. The price on the receipt below shows $2.09/gallon. The price before using my fuel points was $3.79/gallon. That shit's unheard of!

So I guess the point of the post is use your grocery rewards cards, especially if it's for a Kroger or Tom Thumb.


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