Readers Chuck and Bitachu sent this tip my way. Get $10 towards future Safeway purchases when you purchase $50 in participating gift cards. Make sure to read the terms in the second image below.
Related post: 20% off Lowes and iTunes gift cards
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I’ve done this a few times now, though I haven’t tried to work it too hard. (It’s as much for the amusement value as the real value.)
Bought a $50 Staples card all by itself.
Bought >$10 of groceries, got $10 credit.
Bought gas; got $0.50 off per gallon on 12 gallons (some of this was pre-GC.) Unfortunately, the only SWY gas in my area is normally inconvenient to me, so I won’t use this benefit much.
Sold GC to CardPool for Amazon credit (44.10).
-50 +10 (-40) +6 (-34) +44.10 (+10.10)
Net: $10.10 value, plus 50 UR points.
Second pass:
Bought a $50 Staples card all by itself.
Bought >$10 of groceries, and another $50 staples card; got $10 credit, receipt indicated a new $10 credit pending.
Sold GCs to PlasticJungle, for Amazon credit (88.20), via TCB ($3.53).
-100 +20 (-80) +88.20 (+8.20) +3.53 (+11.73).
Net: $11.73 value, plus 100 UR points.
(Have not yet tried accruing multiple credits before redeeming; has anyone?)
Still potentially available on the second pass:
gas: $0.40/gal savings (figure +4.80)
and if I had my Blue Cash Preferred, there’s be a 6% cashback: +6.
Potential net from second pass: $22.53.
(All assuming you count Amazon credit as cash-equivalent. If you insisted on cash, you’d only get $42 for selling the cards.)
Now, the one I just noodled out tonight (which I’m not going to bother trying): PH above noted that the Staples cards could be used to buy GCs at Staples. If so, then one could use the $50 Staples GC to buy a $50 Michael’s GC, then go to Michael’s and buy Lowe’s GCs for $40 for $50 in face value. Bit of a house of cards, but theoretically possible, I think. YMMV, etc.
[…] reported this deal in the post “ Save on gift cards at Safeway”. Read the comments of that post for […]
This promotion is live in NorCal, even if there might be a specific San Francisco store manager who didn’t know about it, since it appears in the weekly flyer.
The Staples gift cards are the most attractive IMO, as they can then be converted into any of the gift cards that Staples carries. (I don’t choose to resell gift cards, making the decision that it is not worth the hassle for me.)
If you have groceries to buy at Safeway anyway, I confirm that you can cycle as follows: buy a $50 qualifying GC and get $10 credit loaded on your Safeway club card, use the $10 credit to buy groceries the same day at the same store, then repeat the entire cycle. (As already noted, you can’t load multiple $10 credits onto your Safeway club card and use them in a single large transaction. I never put anything like that to the test, as I simply purchased the groceries I needed in approx. $10 increments, never trying to load more than one $10 credit at a time.) I did this twice at one store and three times at another store, in each case multiple visits on the same day. I decided to stop there as I’ve bought all the groceries I want for now, plus I’ve maxed out the gasoline savings. Gift card purchases count 4x toward Safeway gas savings, so $250 in purchases counts as $1,000 in purchases which is 10 gas rewards, redeemable all at once for a $1.00 discount per gallon of gas in a single transaction. (I’m not sure if there might be some large limit on how many gallons of gas you can get the discount on, to ward off people with RVs being able to get more discount than Safeway was planning on.) So for investing $250, I collected $50 in groceries credit and anticipate saving about $10 on a future gas fill-up where the Safeway gas station price is already competitive with all but Costco.
Thanks lairdb. I bought a Lowe’s $50 GC. The Vons receipt will say, “You have purchased $50 or more in participating gift cards. You have earned $10 Off on your next purchase of $10 or more. Exclusions apply.”
I subsequently bought a Shell $50 Gift Card. I was not able to use the earned $10 to get a discount on another Gift Card. I also did not earn $10 more since a Shell Gas Card is not on the list of participating cards.
I found the flyer on the official website (pick a SoCal store (try 92121 if you need a zip), weekly specials, weekly ad starting 6/3, page 3.)
Stopped at Vons: promo prominently displayed. Bought a $50 Staples card; nothing else. Receipt says “You have purchased $50 or more in participating gift cards. You have earned $10 Off on your next purchase of $10 or more. Exclusions apply.” (Also got a Catalina saying “$10 off next shopping trip of $50 or more.” I believe this is entirely separate; part of the Just for U.)
Sold the Staples card (via mail) to CardPool for $44.10 in Amazon credit. Forgot to go through TopCashBack first.
I just looked through the SF stores promotions, and despite having the same name ‘NorCal’ embedded in the URLs, they appear not to include this. What exact store did you use to get the image from?
Fred: I think the image was from a store in Hawaii. So, maybe this is a regional promotion. Sorry about that!
Safeways around here (San Francisco) have never heard of this promotion.
1. Just the merchants listed.
2. 4x in fuel credits
3. 5x UR points
4. $10 credit, one at a time w/ 2 week expiration
5. Any vale gc as long as total of participating is $50+
6. Plastic jungle buying $50 Lowes for $41.50, electronic submission, so fast turn around.
Does buying gas gift cards also work for this promo?
When albertsons ran this special it applied to more gcs. The terms seem to suggest other gift cards may be eligible sans the ones explicitly excluded
Yeah, i did the last one they had for mothers day – you have to purchase each gift card in a seperate transaction to earn the $10 safeway credit and that safeway credit can only be used $10 per transaction max. so you do have to do a lot of trips to the store or atleast to the next register.
AND i don’t know if they fixed it, but that $10 safeway credit only works well for non coupon items. if you try to use a physical coupon instead of a club savings (their frequent buyer card), then you get charged the full price for the item – then you have to go to customer service to get the adjusted amount (and depending on how smart/nice the manager at the service desk is – you may or may not get the adjustement)
Ok, one more update… It appears only one $10 redemption can be made per purchase. So if you bought 4 cards in 4 transactions, you will then need to do 4 transactions of $10+ in order to redeem all of the money. Bummer
Cardpool will buy physical $50 Staples cards for $42.
Setting aside postage, time, etc., and assuming Club Card credit is used at full value, one could net points plus $2 per $50 transaction.
Yes, I did mean that you can use all of your $10 individual credits all at once for grocery purchases. FYI, not all GCs are eligible, only the following: iTunes, GameStop, jiffy lube, jcpenney, rock bottom, regal, express, staples, lowes, old Chicago, bass pro shops, and Nike (at least these are the ones in my local ad).
Now that I reread the t&c limitation. Crud, lowes and staples is the only of value.
Staples, + Free after rebate vote +1