STOP & SHOP LAUNCHES TRAVEL REWARD CARD

CHRIS O'LEARY

QUINCY, Mass. -- Stop & Shop Cos. here is launching the first co-branded credit card in the supermarket industry to offer travel rewards instead of store-based rebates, chain officials said.

The retailer's card, launched late this month, enables consumers to earn discounts and free passes on airline flights, Carribean cruises and vacation tours at resorts like Walt Disney World.

Travel-based discounts, while fairly common in the credit card industry, are still a rarity in supermarkets. Most other supermarket co-branded cards reward consumers with 1% or 2% rebates on store merchandise each time they use their card, observers said.

"Our market research showed that rather than food, a better incentive is travel," said Mary-Jo Anderson, a spokesman for Stop & Shop. "People like getting free food, but it didn't excite them the way something like this did."

"Consumers get really excited when they've got something like this to look forward to and work toward," she added.

"Stop & Shop is proud to be the first supermarket chain in the Northeast to launch a co-branded credit card offering travel rewards," said Robert G. Tobin, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Stop & Shop, in a statement.

The card, which has no annual fee, is co-sponsored by MasterCard International, Purchase, N.Y., and the Bank of New York (Delaware), Wilmington, Del. Consumers earn two travel points for each dollar spent on the card at Stop & Shop, while purchases made at other retailers earn one point per dollar.

The amount of points needed to earn prizes varies for each goal. Compiling 1,000 points earns just $100 off a vacation package, while consumers who accrue 30,000 points earn a free round-trip coach airline ticket to any destination in North America.

Consumers who want to earn a free hotel stay for two nights at Walt Disney World must accrue 10,000 points, while those who wish to go for a 3-to 4-night Caribbean cruise must earn 20,000 points.

The Stop & Shop card is the latest in what has been an explosion of co-branded supermarket card introductions this year.

Since January, the Penn Traffic Co., Syracuse, N.Y.; Tops Markets, Buffalo; Dillon Stores, Hutchinson, Kan.; the Cincinnati/ Dayton division of the Kroger Co., Cincinnati; BJ's Wholesale Club, Natick, Mass.; and Price Chopper Supermarkets, Schenectady, N.Y., have each introduced their own credit card.