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Lowes Foods drops Greenpoints

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Comments (6)

Friday, October 2, 2009

(Updated 8:13 am)

By Winston-Salem Journal

Customers will no longer be able to earn and redeem Greenpoints at Lowes Foods after Sunday.

The supermarket chain will start a new rewards program called Fresh Rewards on Monday.

Any Greenpoints that customers have in their accounts will be good for two years and can be redeemed for products and gift cards online at greenpoints.com. Greenpoints can also still be earned by shopping online with various merchants.

Barbara Saulpaugh, a vice president of marketing and merchandising for Lowes Foods, said that the chain decided to stop honoring Greenpoints because many customers said that the customer-loyalty program was somewhat confusing, especially when they went to redeem points from their accounts.

Here's how the Fresh Rewards loyalty program works:

Customers who are enrolled in the program will earn rewards on all eligible purchases every time they shop. Also, a variety of promotional offerings will allow them to earn rewards at an even faster rate.

Each time customers earn $5 in rewards, a cashier will award them a "Fresh Rewards cash" coupon that can be used toward their next purchase. There is no limit to the number of coupons that can be earned and customers can redeem as many as they would like on a single trip.

''It will be much easier for customers to see the real value of shopping with Lowes Foods on a regular basis," Saulpaugh said. "The more they shop, the more they will earn and the rewards will be earned in cash discounts off their next order."

All current Lowes Foods customers with a rewards card will be automatically enrolled in the new program and can begin earning rewards on Monday. New cards will be available at that time, but customers' current rewards cards can be used.

Customers can enroll using a touch-screen kiosk in stores or online from their homes. They can also choose areas that interest them for future customized offers, including pets, gourmet and global cuisine, wine and families on the go.

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truth

October 2, 2009 - 8:41 am EDT

Kudos to Lowes for finally ditching this outdated rewards program. It sucked.

Instead of coming up with some other promotion, just offer lower prices. Every time I've been to Lowe's to get an item that was on sale "Buy One Get One Free", they have been out of the item. I mean EVERY time.

Stock what you have on sale and stop with all this nonsense about earning points.

Lakeshia

October 2, 2009 - 9:20 am EDT

Why not do as WalMart does and give everybody the same low price ? WalMart shoppers don't go thru the hassle of those silly and irritating plastic type discount cards and this means that everybody gets the same low price, card or no card. Thank goodness for WalMart !

Boots

October 2, 2009 - 11:01 am EDT

http://wakeupwalmart.com/

histrion

October 2, 2009 - 10:07 am EDT

Welcome to the future, Lakeshia. Businesses want to be able to track what you buy from them and profile your consumption habits. At least in this case it's a little bit of quid pro quo: You allow them to collect information about your habits in exchange for a lower price. Doesn't bug me, personally -- at least it's fairly transparent, which will not always be the case as technology evolves -- but it's a bit creepy, to be sure.

My wife and I used to shop at Lowes off New Garden all the time when we lived in that part of town, but my last trip there was a real disappointment. They really aren't any less expensive than Harris Teeter now, and the cleanliness of the store and quality of the product left much to be desired. A lot of rotten produce (and what I did end up buying didn't last long), high meat prices... really sad. Used to be my favorite grocery store. I doubt switching rewards programs is going to lure me back. This was about a month ago, so maybe (hopefully) they've made some changes.

coasterguy65

October 2, 2009 - 2:58 pm EDT

Here's what Lowes and Harris Teeter need to learn. If I go to Wal-Mart and buy a Stouffer's meal it costs me $2.27. If I go to Lowes and Harris Teeter it costs me $3.99. No amount of rewards can fix this. It used to be that Lowes at least made up for it with alot of good buy one get one free deals that brought the price down, but lately they haven't been that good and it seems like the prices are raised just before the BOGO offers come out.

It seems in the last two years Lowes seems to think it can charge the same high prices Harris Teeter does but not give the same quality of food or services that HT does. Most of the time I go into Lowes anymore I get waited on by a 17 year old who is too busy flirting with the bagger to give me any kind of service. They can keep their new rewards program. I'll keep shopping at Wal-Mart.

SusanBAnthony

October 4, 2009 - 1:52 pm EDT

Lowes is not the store it used to be. The service is at the bottom of the scale compared to other stores. Also, the error rate is high. Prices don't scan correctly much too often. And prices are not competitive. I don't think they can last much longer. I do prefer the non-card stores like Walmart, Aldi, and Whole Foods.