VONS MAY RE-ENTER PHONE CARD MARKET

JOEL ELSON

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Vons Cos. may enter the burgeoning prepaid phone card market permanently, following a highly successful in-and-out phone card promotion it ran in March.

By this summer the chain could be selling 30-minute and 60-minute Vons phone cards, according to a company source, who asked to remain anonymous. Company officials were unavailable for comment. "We'd like to get into the phone card market. We are considering offering the cards at checkouts similar to the way lottery tickets are sold. But we're not sure yet where or how they will actually be sold," added the Vons source. Vons' first experience with prepaid phone cards was in March, when it promoted a free three-minute phone card with the purchase of five Vons store brand products. The campaign was offered as part of a promotion to draw consumer attention to Vons private-label products.

It went over so well that some stores had to reorder supplies of cards before the promotion ended, local observers familiar with the program said. During the two-week promotion period, Vons dispensed between 200,000 and 275,000 phone cards at cost, observers said.