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Happy Money Monday!

This one is a bit of a tricky one to write about as there’s many parts to it, and some controversies going on as well. I’ll give the lazy version.

This one is about Safeway and it’s many names.

First off, the parent company Albertsons, behind several grocery store chains from Tom Thumb, to Safeway, to United Markets, has a combined rewards program. If you sign up for an account at one of their markets, you basically signed up for all of them. And while you can search any of their markets on any of their “Sincerely” mobile apps, you need to use the correct mobile app for the store you are shopping from to clip coupons, online orders, pharmacy purchases, and more.

Within an account with Albertsons Company, there’s actually TWO rewards programs!

The first one is simple, buy groceries, earn points back for dollars spent, often with multipliers and ways for the points to add up. Personally, my main use of the points is buying gas from the accompanied gas stations at many Safeway locations. For 100 points you get 10 cents off each gallon, so if I earned 700 points, that’s 70 cents off each gallon when fueling my car. I try to do a grocery run near the time my gas tank is low so I can take the most advantage of this program. You can also redeem points for small coupons toward your grocery purchases, but I find the best use is toward gasoline. The best part is that purchases at ACME will count the exact same as purchases at Safeway, and so on, which works well for points awarded for minimum spending events. It is important to note that these points expire at the end of the next month, so points earned in August expire at the end of September.

The next program is also unified across all of the Albertsons apps, and this one is tied more closely to their pharmacy program. “Sincerely Health” allows you to earn a whole separate batch of points for things such as healthy habits, stepped synced from your smart devices, monthly challenges, and some pharmacy spending. These points are redeemable for coupons toward your groceries in a much greater manner. Smaller point-valued coupons are available toward individual healthy products, and then larger ones allow for discount on produce purchases, and the largest ones which I personally go for, discount toward your entire grocery purchase. To earn points, the easiest way is to ensure you login at the end of each month to sign up for the next month’s challenges, and to check in for about two minutes each day for your habits and goals. Most of the challenges require 5-10 check ins or completing syncing a certain number of steps from your smart health system (Google Health Connect, Apple Healthkit, Strava, etc). The goals and habits usually require checking in about 4-5 times a week. Goals should be set to the longest allowed setting, usually 12 weeks, and points are earned each week. Habits require you to pick up to 5 healthy habits each week. The current program allows you to pick 3 long-term goals and 5 short-term habits. The Sincerely Health portion of the app is usually hidden under More on the apps, or under Health under Deals of the apps. Unlike the regular grocery points, these points expire after 1 year, making it easier to accrue for better rewards.

Now for the controversies, the coupons in the apps can be targeted to you. The accounts learn about your ongoing purchases and can potentially serve you targeted coupons under their “Deals forU” program, which can potentially be considered surveillance pricing. Surveillance pricing is the idea that online and in-store purchases may cost different amounts to different people based on their income class and likelihood of purchases. Many states are beginning to ban surveillance pricing, but this doesn’t mean that circular weekly coupons are going away.

Information about the Albertons/Safeway referral:
You will get a $5 off coupon when you shop your first purchase of $25 or more. The link provided is for Safeway but it should work across Albersons Company markets after you sign up.