Free groceries
Posted on March 11th, 2009 – 11:30 AMBy Kara McGuire
Supervalu, you made my day.
The company announced today that it is launching a “Refund Rewards” program to help consumers stretch their food dollars.
Basically, for every $250 or $300 gift card you purchase, the grocery store will tack on an additional $25 $20 or $30, respectively. This tax-time deal is good from March 15th through April 15th. Each household can buy a total of $1,250 worth of gift cards, not including the bonus amount.
The program is similar to the program Cub offered when we received our lump sum stimulus rebates last year….except you don’t need to bring in a tax refund check or deposit slip to take part. That’s good for me, because I owed a fair amount to Uncle Sam this year.
I took advantage of last year’s deal and plan to again this year. If you shop at a Supervalu-owned store and you’re organized enough not to lose the gift card, what’s to lose? If you purchase a $300 gift card, it’s like shaving 10 percent off your grocery bill or earning a 10 percent return on your money. Either way you look at it, it’s definitely a deal of the week!
Even if you mix up where you shop, it’s worth consideration. These gift cards don’t expire; I just finished my card from last summer in February.
If you were planning to use your tax refund to pay off debt, that’s probably the better choice. But if you were simply planning to save it, given the low return on CDs and savings accounts these days, you’re probably better off prepaying for your groceries and then transferring the dollar amount you normally spend on food into savings on a weekly, or monthly basis.
2 Responses to "Free groceries"
“Grocery gift card purchases may not exceed $1,250 per household, not including the bonus amount. Bonus amounts cannot be used for the purchase of alcohol, fuel, tobacco, lottery tickets, dairy products, prescription drugs or additional gift cards. ”
Dairy products?
Thanks for the info, we also took advantage of the program last year and just finished using the gift cards in January. The following retailers are part SuperValu:
The refund rewards program is available March 15 through April 15, 2009, at the following SUPERVALU stores: Acme(R), Albertsons(R), bigg’s(R), Cub Foods(R), Farm Fresh(R), Hornbacher’s(R), Jewel-Osco(R) and Shaw’s/Star Market(TM).
