This is big news for those who shop at BI-LO, Fresco y Más, Harveys and Winn-Dixie.
Plenti announced today the addition of their first entrance into grocery store loyalty by partnering with Southeastern Grocers LLC, parent company to BI-LO, Fresco y Más, Harveys and Winn-Dixie. The full roll out follows a successful Plenti launch in Harveys Supermarkets late last year.
As of today, you can signup for the program, and on April 5 you’ll be able to start earning points. Each $2 in grocery purchases equals 1 Plenti point. More points can be earned when buying products with bonus point tags across the store.
We wrote previously how Winn-Dixie and BI-LO stopped being part of the Fuelperks! program, and they are now transitioning to Plenti. For more information and to signup, visit http://www.bi-lo.com/plenti or http://www.winndixie.com/plenti.
I consider this big news for two reasons: the earning side and the redeeming side.
From the redeeming side, if you have one of these grocery stores in your area, you now have a fool-proof way of cashing out Plenti points at one cent per point. That’s great, both for points earned at the grocery and elsewhere.
Technically, Exxon/Mobil is a pretty good way of accomplishing this one cent per point goal. However, some people don’t drive, some people find Exxon more expensive, some people always buy their gas at a discount using fuel points, some people find that the Plenti card doesn’t work at the gas station, etc.
From the earning side, you’ll now earn .5% back on all grocery purchases. A half of a percent isn’t huge, but pretty nice savings for a staple store like groceries. Bear in mind that all other grocery programs earn fuel points which are inherently limited in many ways. This new program is literally .5% cash back on all groceries which I consider excellent. Of course the larger angle here is whether points will be earned on gift cards. Seems like it doesn’t work on variable-load cards.
Plenti reached out to let us know about this. They indicated that they are committed to adding partners that members shop often, with a focus on expanding into the grocery category. Hopefully, we’ll see more grocery partnerships in the future. In my view, the grocery angle really changes the game for Plenti, I just wish it worked in my area.
