As we’ve done in the past here on Milenomics, today we’re debriefing the recent Gift card deals at Safeway and Albertsons. Because both ended on 12/3 I decided to lump the debrief together into this one post. If you reply, include a “S:” or “A:” in your reply so we’ll know which promotion you’re talking about.
Safeway:
I never ran out of Giftcards at my Safeway. I Believe this was due to the promotion being advertised for $100 Mastercards, and my purchasing of Variable Load Mastercards instead. The promotion ran for nearly a month as well, giving us plenty of time to take advantage of it.
I also successfully turned one cashier who was firm cash/debit to credit, which will help me in the future for sure. I appreciate your tips in this thread for what you used your $10 coupons for, I have a couple more left and can use those ideas. Thanks!
Error reporting: I had a report from one reader who was never able to load her variable MC GC to her Bluebird at WM. In the past she has had no trouble, so this did seem odd to me. I didn’t have trouble at my WM, but would be interested if others had trouble.
Albertsons:
My closest store ran out of $100 cards sometime during Thanksgiving weekend. By the time I came back from my trip the store was dry. I did find myself near another Albertsons on Monday, and they seemed well stocked, but my costs for this deal would have started to go up if I had kept going there.
Wrap-Up
From a mile earning standpoint Safeway was the better of the two deals–but for free Groceries and some miles, Albertsons was good to me too. I also don’t usually shop at Albertsons, so the promotion was successful in re-introducing the store to me.
Sometime this weekend come back here and share some of your tips for other Milenomics readers to learn from. While I can’t guarantee one or the other of these deals will come back, the Safeway deal has been consistent every other month or so, and if it does return I’ll let you know.
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I don’t live near an S or an A, but I have had troubles recently loading variable MCs to BB at WM. Tried a pair of them last month, couldn’t get either to work. Ending up liquidating via AP.
MLH: I appreciate the feedback; what was the issue you had? The other reader reported she would swipe and the “Change Payment” button would flash for much less time than ever before and disappear. Not even enough time to press it, then it would just fail as a credit load. My “Change Payment” stays on the screen for the same it always has, enough time to hit it.
That happened time at a neighborhood market Walmart but I went to the big store a few miles down and it loaded just fine
CVS also has some promos right now- $10 ECB for buying 3 Amex GCs and $5ECB with the purchase of 2 HIGCs or Visa GCs
I took advantage of both A & S and I wanna thank you because you my friend saved or helped me save alotta money on groceries. I will Keep posted in Case you Know if any of this awesome deals Come back
Thanks Ivan, It probably won’t help you because the grocery chain has a small footprint, but the Stater Brothers chain has a $10 off $10 WYB $100 or more in Visa Gift cards right now. Variables count. This one is so regional (southern California) that I won’t do a full post, but wanted to share in case it helps you.
Lots of luck at local Albertsons, but $100 MasterCards were cleared out by the last day so my last purchase was one $50 MasterCard and $50 ($25×2) in Amazon credit. I went for five or six total purchases on an IHG Visa from Chase for 2x points, spread over a few days. I would have previously used HHonors Amex, but of course the value of that program went away some time ago.
I totally forgot about the other gift cards! I should have done just this my last trip out. Instead I wasted my time and came up empty handed (increasing my costs). Ugh! Thanks Hua.
haha, Yeah… I sort of freaked at the lack of MasterCards but realized Amazon would come in handy for Christmas. (And the $50 MC is cheaper than the $100 by a buck.)