Safeway eliminates club card

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/04/2014 (4440 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you notice the check-out lines at Canada Safeway stores moving a little quicker today it might be because the grocery company terminated its Safeway Club Card program as of today.

The program has been operating for 16 years and was one of the longest running loyalty cards in the market.

Company officials said discounted items — an average of 4,500 per week — will now be available to all customers.

John Graham, Safeway’s Manitoba spokesman, said the company has been hearing from people for a long time that they are inconvenienced by a growing number of loyalty and credit cards in their wallets and they’d like to be able to enjoy the discounted items without the card.

He said the move is Safeway-specific and does not necessarily have anything to do with the integration of Safeway’s operations with its new owners, Sobeys Inc.

Sobey acquired Canada Safeway last year for $5.8 billion.

Graham said customers will now benefit from an additional 1,500 items per week that will be discounted in the wake of the elimination of the Safeway Club card.

That means shoppers should see about 6,000 discounted items out of an average of 40,000 items found in a typical Safeway store.