FLEMING SUPERMARKETS ADDS TO SHOPPER CARD

CHRIS O'LEARY

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Fleming Supermarkets of Florida here is stacking the deck in its favor by adding services to its Hyde Park Market store shopper cards.

The retailer's recently issued Valu Card doubles as a check authorization card and a phone debit card, while more programs, including frequent shopper, are in the works.

The shopper card was primarily designed for check verification, but "our thinking was that we wanted to be able to add other values to the card," said Lou Moore, controller for Fleming Supermarkets of Florida, a division of Fleming Cos., Oklahoma City.

Offering the phone debit service not only is a source of new revenue for the company, which collects commission on each phone call made, but also gives consumers more incentive to use the card.

"It offers our customers an additional use of the card that isn't offered elsewhere," Moore said. "[The card's] magnetic strip would allow us to add other promotional programs as well as to track customers."

The potential to track consumer purchases in the future makes the card a natural keystone for a frequent-shopper program, which Moore said is still in the planning stages.

The stores had issued similar check authorization cards before being acquired by Fleming Cos. in 1993. Printing of new cards became necessary in August, when the stores' retail name changed from Wooley's to Hyde Park Market.

"We replaced the previous card in conjunction with the name change," Moore said. "When we reissued it, we added an additional feature" with the phone debit service. The cards are manufactured by DiMark, Casselberry, Fla., and 30,000 to 50,000 are currently in circulation.