Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market chain has announced it is launching a loyalty card program similar to Tesco's popular Clubcard beginning this fall.
The initiative, which the company called an evolution of its "Friends of Fresh & Easy" email program that began in 2008, will first be tested in seven Bakersfield, CA area stores before it is rolled out chainwide. The "Friends" progam currently has 360,000 members from Fresh & Easy's 176 stores in Arizona, California and Nevada.
Shoppers enrolled in the program receive one point for every dollar spent at Fresh & Easy. They can then exchange points earned for cash-back rewards. Members receive bi-weekly emails from the chain with updates on their points as well as bonus point offers.
"We wanted to create a program that was designed to thank our customers for being our friends," said Fresh & Easy CEO Tim Mason, in a statement. "The program will be digital so points can be online and communication to customers can be sent via email. This model for Clubcard will work well for our U.S. customers and is a great fit for our Fresh & Easy business."
Fresh & Easy maintains that its program has a key advantage over cards offered by other food retailers. "Friends will not penalize customers who do not use their card with higher prices -- it is not designed to be a key to unlock special prices. Fresh & Easy's everyday low prices will remain the same for everyone," said a company release.
Tesco continues to look for ways to turn Fresh & Easy around. The chain, which debuted in 2007 to much fanfare, has yet to turn a profit in the U.S.
According to the Financial Times, a key difference between the "Friends" program and Tesco's Clubcard is that dunnhumby will not be analyzing the U.S. data because of an exclusive deal it has with Kroger. Fresh & Easy will crunch its own numbers here.