New kind of price war at the pumps

I found this article interesting. I'd certainly start buying groceries at a store that would allow me to spend less on gas.

Giant Eagle ("Jine Iggle" in local parlance) is the big supermarket chain here, and I've cashed in on the program once so far. I ended up rolling into the station on fumes so I could maximize the reward (they only discount a single fillup) and ended up getting a 14 gallon tank filled up for $0.59 a gallon or something when gas was $2.30/gallon or so .

It's a decent reward, but I can't imagine it's any better than some of the rewards/discounts other supermarkets give with their loyalty cards. Plus, since it's only valid at Giant Eagle's own stations, they could presumably jack up the base price of the gas to offset any losses from the rewards program (not that I've seen evidence of that.)

But yeah, it's cool. I just don't do enough grocery shopping to cash in very often.

we have a similar thing here. the supermarkets have a few cents off associated petrol stations. The smaller stations got together with local business to offer a better deal. It's one that is a better deal to the local economy as you get more off per litre the more retailers you have dockets for.

Over here (UK) it's something like 4p per litre if you spend more than £50. Current average price is 90.2p/litre ($6.14 / US gallon)

Gareth