Schnucks Targets Health-Seekers With New Program

St. Louis-based Schnucks is expanding its Schnucks Rewards loyalty program with the launch of Good For You, a new program that tracks customers' purchases of more healthful grocery choices and offers savings on better-for-you fare.

Good For You is a partnership between Schnuck Markets and London-based Spoon Guru, a nutrition tech startup that generates and analyzes data on customers' purchasing behaviors to help food retailers make more data-driven purchasing, merchandising and marketing decisions. Membership in the Good For You program is free, voluntary and open to all Schnucks Rewards participants.

Schnucks Rewards members who opt in will see a tally at the bottom of their receipt of the number of designated Good For You items they just purchased and the percentage of their total grocery haul that was "Good For You." They'll also receive monthly reports showing trends in their better-for-you purchases.

Items are identified as "Good For You" based on the federal 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans as well as recommendations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and the American Heart Association, according to a Schnucks news release. Among the included items are single-ingredient fruits and vegetables, 100% whole grains, eggs and lean meats. Items must also be free from artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners and must contain less than 5 grams of saturated fat, fewer than 8 grams of added sugars and fewer than 600 milligrams of sodium per serving. 

"We evaluated all food sold at Schnucks stores to determine what is actually Good For You," Schnucks Health and Wellness Strategy Manager Allison Primo said in the family-owned grocer's news release. "The Good For You list simplifies making healthy choices to help Schnucks shoppers eat, feel and live healthier."

All Good For You participants will receive special offers as well as recipes and wellness tips, according to Schnucks. In addition, five customers who opt in to the program before Feb. 28 will receive $1,000 in Schnucks Rewards points.

The Good For You offering "will help dispel the common misconception that eating well is difficult and expensive," Spoon Guru co-founder Markus Stripf stated in the release. 

Schnucks, founded in St. Louis in 1939, has been leaning into the use of advanced technology to engage customers in-store, support more accurate and efficient inventory management and offer more personalized cashback promotions. In August, when the company promoted Ted Schnuck, a fourth-generation member of the founding family, to EVP of supermarkets, Schnuck Markets Chairman and CEO Todd Schnuck praised the younger Schnuck's operational savvy in the midst of the pandemic. "Through his strategic initiatives in data and analytics and operational excellence, we are positioned to compete and win in this competitive retail landscape," Todd Schnuck said at the time.