4.13.22
The world of points and rewards is typically geared toward earning and using points associated with credit card spend, but that isn't the extent of the points sphere. Most retailers, as part of their advertising and marketing strategies, use some form of rewards program to incentivize buyers and promote brand loyalty. Giant Eagle, the Pittsburgh, PA based grocer, is no exception. Grocery stores and gas stations are very active in the rewards space as they compete for your business. There are over 400 Giant Eagle locations in OH, PA, WV, and MD as well as over 250 Getgo gas locations. Around 2017, they implemented their Fuelperks loyalty program, but more recently have introduced MyPerks, the successor to Fuelperks. In this post, I will compare the two programs to assess which one may provide the best value as a Giant Eagle customer.
Fuelperks
The Fuelperks program allows you to earn one "Perk" for every $1 spent on groceries and gift cards, 5 perks on every prescription filled, and two "Perks" for every gallon of gas pumped at Getgo.
You can then redeem every 50 Perks for 10 cents off per gallon of gas or 2% off your grocery bill (up to 20% off per visit). Sometimes GE will offer bonus opportunities to earn more than one perk on certain gift cards or items for a select time. Fuelperks expire on a set Tuesday, 2 months after they are earned, so you do need to be cognizant of how long they last.
MyPerks
The new Myperks program is a little more complicated as their are two versions, a "Member" and a "Pro" version. The Pro version gives you 2x perks on gift card purchases and the rest of their earning structures are outlined below:
Giant Eagle is offering Pro for free for 90 days and then you have the ability to "keep" it going forward by either earning 2500 perks in 6 months or by spending $5 inside or pumping 5 gallons outside 25 times at Getgo in a 6 month span. Confused? Just wait.
The use of Perks is different in this program also, as now 50 perks can be used for $1 off your total gas or grocery bill.
Giant Eagle is currently offering a promotion of 3x perks for members and 5x perks for pros through April 17, 2022. This is certainly an attempt to get people to switch to the new MyPerks program. Because GE isn't eliminating Fuelperks, shoppers still have 2 programs to choose from, so let's compare which might be right for you.
Comparing programs
Like any aspect of rewards, which program works for you depends largely on your shopping and gas habits. Purely from a redemption standpoint, it appears the new MyPerks program falls short of Fuelperks.
For example, assume you waited and used 50 perks for a full fill up at Getgo or a large shopping trip. You could redeem 50 perks to save $1.50 at Getgo (assuming 15 gallons at .10 savings per gallon) or $2 at Giant Eagle (assuming 2% off a $100 grocery bill). Obviously, it's not advantageous to redeem Fuelperks for small shopping trips or fill ups.
Under the same assumptions, with MyPerks you could only earn $1 off your gas or grocery bill with the same 50 perks. So you are getting back 50-100% less than with Fuelperks, assuming again you are redeeming them for big trips and fill ups. If your gas or grocery bill is larger than the assumptions I've made, you're losing out even more.
Also note that the assumption I made above would lend itself to using Fuelperks for a large grocery trip vs filling up at Getgo. But if you have a large vehicle and can pump 20 gallons up to 30 which is the max per visit, it may make more sense and create more value to use Fuelperks there. I encourage you, though, to use an app like Gas Buddy to compare gas prices in your area, because using Fuelperks to save money off per gallon is negated if gas is .20 cheaper down the street anyway.
Because the regular Myperks member and Fuelperks earn perks at essentially the same rate, I would generally conclude than switching to MyPerks will not save you more money. This is assuming you are maximizing perk redemption as I outlined above and not letting perks expire. The Myperks Pro version does have elevated earning levels, so let's see if that program may make sense.
Because you earn 50% more perks with the Pro version, you can earn perks faster and that may help bridge the gap when redeeming the perks. In my example above, I received $1.50 back in gas and $2 back in groceries from 50 points with Fuelperks. In order to match that with MyPerks pro I would have to use 75 perks for gas (redeem at 50 perks=$1) or 100 perks for groceries (again redeem 50 perks=$1). So to earn the necessary perks with Myperks Pro's elevated earning structure I need to would fill up 25 gallons of gas at 3x perks, which is the same as Fuelperks, requiring 25 gallons at 2x perks. For groceries, I would have to spend $50 to earn 50 Fuelperks, but would require $66 spending (at 1.5x perks/$ with Pro) to earn the 100 perks required to break even. So while the gas earning seems to be a wash, the grocery spending required is higher in the new program.
Conclusion
Math this complicated shouldn't be required for assessing a grocery store reward program. Nevertheless, unless you were really taking advantage of the 2x perks on gift cards or filling prescriptions with the Myperks Pro program, it appears that there isn't much incentive to switch from the old Fuelperks. And that is assuming you can meet the requirements necessary to achieve "Pro" status, which requires quite a bit of loyalty with the brand as well as making sure you keep the pro status once achieved. The value in the old Fuelperks program is the ability to earn either .10 off per gallon or 2% off per grocery visit on the total spend, thus enabling you to multiply the redemption value when making large trips or fill ups. This advantage has been taken away with MyPerks.
One caveat to consider is that with the Fuelperks program, you don't earn any rewards for the whole shopping trip that you are redeeming perks on. Myperks does allow that feature. So in my initial example above, the Fuelperks user that is saving $1 more per 50 perks used over Myperks is not earning 50 perks on that trip, while the Myperks user is earning 50 (or 75 if Pro) perks. Those 50-75 perks are worth $1-$1.50 so now our gap is smaller or eliminated between the programs. Considering this aspect of the program requires levels of math and hypotheticals even beyond what I've examined here, and frankly no rewards system should be this complex. Crunching numbers based on your shopping habits is required to see if losing out on perks when you redeem renders the previously described benefits of Fuelperks obsolete. There are other factors such as gift card purchases, prescription, and brand/bonus day perks that are different for every shopper to factor in as well. I hope this has helped you to look at the Giant Eagle rewards programs through an educated lens, so you can decide which is right for you.