MELROSE PARK, Ill., Nov. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Rewarding customers with free
groceries and exotic vacation packages, Chicagoland's leading food and drug
combination retailer continues to offer its patrons more for their money.
The Jewel-Osco Preferred Visa Card(R) is the first card of its kind in the
area allowing shoppers to receive discounts on grocery items, cash checks, and
accumulate "points" redeemable for a wide-variety of rewards including tickets
for air travel, cruises, movies, and museum admissions.
Introduced this week, points are awarded each time a shopper uses the
Jewel-Osco Preferred Visa Card at one of Jewel-Osco's 187 food and drug
combination stores, 79 free-standing Osco Drug Store locations, and 15 million
worldwide locations that accept Visa.
"Jewel-Osco is proud to team with U.S. Bank on this exciting new Visa
card," said Larry Stablein, senior vice president of marketing at Jewel-Osco.
"This is a great value-added service for our customers and I think they will
be pleased to see how fast the points add up."
The Jewel-Osco Preferred Visa works by crediting customers with two points
for every dollar spent on the card at any Jewel-Osco location, and one point
for every dollar spent on the card at any other retailer that accepts Visa.
Customers start earning rewards when 1500 points have been acquired. At
that level, customers can earn $100 off select vacation packages with Carnival
Cruise Lines or Royal Caribbean International.
Other rewards customers can earn include certificates for $25 worth of
free food at Jewel-Osco for 2500 points, or free American Airline tickets at
25-thousand points.
"This is a great credit card for Jewel-Osco customers," said Daniel Frate,
president of Payment Systems for U.S. Bank, of the new card issued by his
bank. "Not only are the interest rates very competitive with other co-branded
credit cards, but this card provides the extra incentive of generous rewards
for loyal Jewel-Osco customers."
Customer's point totals will be indicated on monthly Visa statements. To
redeem a reward, customers simply call the toll-free number listed on their
statement and their reward request will be fulfilled. The appropriate number
of points will be deducted from their statement at the same time.
In addition to the reward incentive plan, the Jewel-Osco preferred Visa
Card automatically gives the same benefits as their current customer loyalty
Preferred Card, including automatic store discounts and check cashing
privileges. There is no annual fee if the card is used three times in a
12-month period.
Applications for the Jewel-Osco Visa card are available at any Jewel-Osco
location, or by calling 1-877-JEWEL-88.
Jewel-Osco operates 187 stores in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Wisconsin.
Of those 165 are in combination with Osco Drug. Jewel-Osco also operates
79 stand-alone Osco Drug Stores in Chicagoland and the Milwaukee area. The
company is a subsidiary of American Stores Company (NYSE: ASC), Salt Lake
City, Utah, one of the nation's largest food and drug retailers operating
1565 stores in 26 states.
Jewel-Osco contributes over $1 million a year to support charitable and
community organizations focusing in three main areas; food and nutrition,
health, and education. For almost 100 years Jewel-Osco has demonstrated its
commitment to the community through its' charitable contributions and
community outreach programs such as neighborhood festivals and health fairs.
Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB), with $74 billion in assets, is
the fourteenth largest bank holding company in the nation and operates more
than 1000 banking offices in 17 states: Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Oregon, Washington, Colorado, California, Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota,
Nevada, South Dakota, Montana, Iowa, Utah, Kansas, and Wyoming. The company
provides comprehensive banking trust, investment and payment systems products
and services to consumers, businesses and institutions. It operates a network
of 4800 ATMs throughout the nation, and 24 hour, seven days a week telephone
customer service centers. The company is the largest provider of Visa
corporate and purchasing cards in the world, one of the largest providers of
corporate trust services in the nation, and the eleventh largest brokerage in
the nation. Among its successful co-branded cards are the Northwest Airlines,
WorldPerks frequent flyer card and the Amway card.
SOURCE Jewel-Osco
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Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/048750.html or fax,
800-758-5804, ext. 048750
CONTACT:
Karen Ramos of Jewel-Osco, 708-531-6511; or
Joyce Peppin of U.S. Bancorp, 612-973-2431
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