Bigg's offers Pump Perks

By John Eckberg .jeckberg@enquirer.com . January 2, 2009

Bigg's starting the new year with an ambitious program that offers customers discounted gasoline.

The grocer Sunday will launch its Pump Perks program, a venture with 14 local Sunoco gas stations that works this way:

- Shoppers get a discount of a penny per gallon for every $10 spent at a bigg's store. That means, for example, a $200 grocery basket brings a discount of 20 cents per gallon of gas.

- Between 3,000 and 5,000 items per store will be marked with a Pumps Perk tag. Buying those items brings even more savings on gasoline.

So, for instance, an item with a 1 cent Pump Perks discount lowers the gasoline bill by a penny a gallon, or 20 cents on a 20-gallon gasoline purchase.

A 3 cent Pump Perks tag has a value of 60 cents when the same 20 gallons is purchased.

"It can add up very quickly," said Jimmy Nichols, vice president of merchandising and marketing at bigg's, a division of Supervalu, Inc., based in St. Paul, Minn. "What better way to help household budgets than by offering lower fuel costs by shopping at bigg's."

Pump perks will accumulate when a card or key fob, available to customers starting Sunday, is scanned during check-out.

The marriage of gasoline and groceries tends to bring grocers more customers and could increase spontaneous purchases by those shoppers, said Greg Buzek, a Delhi Township native and president of IHL Group, a retail consulting firm based in Franklin, Tenn.

Publix, Cincinnati-based Kroger and Meijer have similar programs, but those companies usually have gas stations on the premises, Buzek said.

"It's going to be a little more difficult for people to have to remember to go to Sunoco," he said, "but these programs have been very successful."