Festival Foods boosts employee discount to 15%

De Pere, Wisconsin-based Festival Foods on Wednesday announced it would increase its employee discount from 10% to 15% for all full- and part-time workers and members of their immediate households.

That’s a significant step up from 2021, when the grocer’s employee discount was 5%, according to reports on jobs site Glassdoor.

“We want to help our teammates stretch their dollars when it comes to buying the groceries they need to feed themselves and their families,” Festival Foods President and CEO Mark Skogen said in a statement. “A higher discount frees up some crucial dollars so they can use them on other areas of their budgets.”

As part of Festival Foods’ employee rewards program, every $10 spent in the store equals a penny off fuel purchases at Kwik Trip locations through the Festival Foods Gas Rewards Program, the grocer said.

Hy-Vee, another Midwestern grocer with stores in Wisconsin, has said it is working to revamp its employee discount program. About a month ago, the West Des Moines, Iowa-based chain said it would immediately suspend its 10% employee discount because of ongoing fraud. At the time, Hy-Vee said it would launch a revamped employee benefit program by mid-April.

“Over the past several months, a significant uptick in the amount of users utilizing the employee discount who were not living in the same household or living in other cities was identified, in addition to other fraudulent practices and loopholes that were occurring within the program,” Hy-Vee told WGB. “The discrepancies found were significant enough to signal a much broader issue that needed to be addressed immediately.”

Festival Foods, which operates 40 grocery stores across Wisconsin, said it wanted to differentiate itself from other food retailers with the increased discount.

“We are thrilled to increase our discount and give our team members—who are the foundation of our success—another reason to love working for a winning Wisconsin retailer. Right now, many companies are looking to cut costs and that often means reducing or eliminating the associate discount—we wanted to go in a different direction.”

Festival Foods opened its first store in 1946 and said it intends to open a new market in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, later this year.