This seems insane to me. I live in a city where maybe 50-60% of people have cars, and most don’t drive them that much. Yet every grocery store I’m aware of with the sole exception of the expensive Whole Foods has a fuel rewards points program. Reasons this should be controversial enough to enable a low-cost alternative:
- Many people don’t drive and therefore pay a little more for groceries because it includes a perk they don’t use
- It seems like a very ardent pro-fossil fuel move that you’d think would cause some sort of negative attention from environment activists.
- The subsidy typically applies as an amount off per gallon, so you end up really subsidizing big vehicles with big gas tanks. Again, really makes some customers subsidize others and you’d think people (other than me) would be annoyed at this.
But yet, virtually every grocery store does this. Anyone know why? Does the fossil fuel industry somehow encourage this?
It’s a way to keep people shopping at the same store. Since most fuel perks are something like 10 cents off a gallon for every $100 spent, if you spend a lot of money at a store then you get more off of a gallon. It then discourages you from going to a different store because you may not have as many fuel perks and would have to spend more to get the same fuel perks you may already have with the first store. The stores of course don’t want you to go to their competitors, so it’s a win for them.