The program will not begin until Saturday, May 2, but Jim Trout, Acme vice president of sales and merchandising, said he wanted to take two weeks to get customers their cards so there wouldn't be delays when the [image-nocss] program officially starts.
Acme President Steve Albrecht acknowledged the chain is hoping to increase store sales with the program. Competitor Giant Eagle has its Fuel Perks program, which earns discounts at the chain's GetGo gas stations based on total purchases. "We definitely think there's a segment of shoppers out there who are very interested in fuel costs and saving money at the store," he told the newspaper. "We do hope we attract as well as retain customers to Acme."
Acme piloted the program at its Parma store last month, said Trout. (Click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage.)
The Acme program is different from Giant Eagle's, as Acme will allow customers to earn free gasoline based on products they buy, said the report.
Each week, more than 3,000 items will be marked with green tags that show the fuel savings if that product is purchased. A large number of items will be Acme's private label brands, such as Food Club and Top Care, but there will also be name-brand products. Rewards will range from 5 cents to $20 in free fuel (on large purchases, such as patio furniture) and shoppers could quickly turn savings into free tanks of gasoline, said Trout. There will be no limit on the number of items with rewards a shopper can buy.
Shoppers will have two cards: they earn savings using existing Acme Fresh Market Savings card at the register. Within 48 hours, the free gas will be loaded onto the Fuel Rewards card, which can be used only for gasoline at Circle K.
The rewards will never expire, unless the card has a zero balance and no activity for six months or a balance and no activity for two years, the report said. The Fuel Rewards card is reloadable. Only one Fuel Rewards card can be linked to each savings card. Households can have two Savings and Fuel cards, but each would earn its own Fuel Rewards.
Acme's partnership with Circle K is the convenience chain's first fuel reward partnership of its kind in the United States or Canada, Bill Bartolomeo, Circle K director of marketing for the Great Lakes Division, based in Akron, told the paper. It's possible eventually that customers could redeem free gas at Circle K locations nationwide, he said.
Bartolomeo said redemptions of free gasoline from the Parma trial have gone well and each week the amount of free gas Acme customers were earning was increasing. "Everybody is excited by how it's gone," he said.
He estimated there are about 100 Circle K stores in Northeast Ohio in the counties where Acme has stores. The redemption stations will have pumptoppers with the Acme Fuel Rewards logos to let customers know they can use the pumps, the report said.
The Fuel Rewards program will be available at all 16 Acme stores, including the Henry's Acme in West Akron, a franchise store, said Trout.
Acme is not raising its prices to accommodate the Fuel Rewards program, he added.
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