FALMOUTH, Mass. -- Christy's of Cape Cod LLC is starting its own gasoline discount promotion and is prepared to combine it with a Stop & Shop promotion to offer customers an even deeper discount, reported Cape Cod Today. Christy Mihos, owner of the convenience store chain, said that starting September 20, customers who pay cash for gasoline at Christy's will receive a discount of 10 cents per gallon.
Mihos added that Christy's would be conducting a test promotion at its store Falmouth. Customers who have a valid Stop & Shop coupon, which offers a discount of 20 cents per gallon, [image-nocss] also would receive the Christy's cash discount, said the report, resulting in a savings of 30 cents per gallon.
"If it goes well, we roll it out next Friday in all stores," Mihos told the newspaper. "Now, if the Stop & Shop customers make their voices heard and for whatever reason Stop & Shop continues the 20-cents-off promotion, then Cape customers will get a real prize."
Grocery retailer Stop & Shop had been running the 20-cents discount program with Christy's for the past year, the report said. Shoppers who bought at least $50 in groceries at Stop & Shop would receive a 20-cents-per-gallon discount at Christy's, which consists of 12 stores on the Cape. More than 250,000 of the discount coupons were redeemed during the promotion. The two companies split the cost of the program, which came to $60,000 a week.
Earlier this month, Stop & Shop notified Mihos that they planned to end the promotion September 18, although valid coupons would be honored for two weeks after that date. Stop & Shop said it also was discontinuing as of September 18 a 10-cents-off gasoline promotion offered at its own gas stations off-Cape, according to the report. Stop & Shop's decision led Christy's to start its own gasoline discount promotion.
Mihos said he has learned that Cape customers, already facing higher gasoline prices in general than off-Cape residents, were upset about the ending of the 20-cents-off promotion. "We hear lots of calls have been made to the Stop & Shop headquarters," he told the paper.
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