Yesterday I went to fill up a car that was really low on gas. Typically there are two places that are the cheapest in town where I live. One is Kroger, especially if we are at the point that we get $0.10 off each gallon on a fill-up.
How the program works, as you spend money at Kroger on groceries it adds it up on your little Kroger Plus/membership/tracking card. If you spend over $100 in a month you basically get one credit for a time to get $0.10 off. When you don’t have a credit you get $0.03 off if you let them track you … err, I mean, scan your Kroger Shopper Card.
When the system was put in place, I had one small issue, the $0.10 off was automatically used if available. What did this silly system of incentives do? Made me generally avoid their gas pumps unless I was almost on empty. I mean, why waist your $0.10 off if all you needed was a small amount of gas.
::: Would you like to use your discount? :::
Yesterday, when I went to get gas, and knew I had a “credit” so I drove up, scanned my Kroger card, and the display screen asks:
Would you like to use your discount today? y/n
This floored me, I was thrilled, this does a few things that I have thought of since:
- allows you to choose when to use it, as opposed to force you to
- tells you when you have a credit/discount to use, as opposed to having to purchase something in the store and remember to look at your receipt
- eliminates a reason to avoid getting gas there
I am sure there are more, but the big thing is I want to congratulate Kroger for making this system better.
