How The Just For U Program Works (Safeway, Albertsons, Vons & More)

Albertsons Companies, Inc is the second largest grocery store in the US (the largest is Kroger). As a result, its Just For U program reaches a significant portion of the population.

Just For U offers Reward Points on your everyday grocery shopping and bonus points when buying gift cards. Those points can be redeemed for savings on gas or groceries, so it’s more flexible than some other grocery store programs that can only be redeemed for fuel savings.

Here’s a guide for how the Just For U program works and how it can be maximized when buying gift cards. Let me know in the comments below if you have any additional questions about how the program works and I’ll do my best to answer them. Please also let me know if there are any quirks to Just For U that I’ve left out and I’ll include them in this guide.

How Do You Earn Just For U Reward Points?

You can earn Just For U Reward Points in a few different ways:

1 Point Per Dollar

• Grocery shopping
• Pharmacy purchases (including prescriptions)

2 Points Per Dollar

• Third party gift cards

Bonus Points

• Digital coupons when buying select gift card brands

What Grocery Store Chains Does Albertsons Own?

Albertsons Companies, Inc owns a large number of grocery store chains:

• Acme
• Albertsons
• Albertsons Market
• Amigos
• Andronico’s Community Markets
• Carrs
• Haggen
• Jewel-Osco
• Lucky
• Market Street
• Pavilions
• Plated (this is a meal kit service rather than a grocery store)
• Randalls
• Safeway
• Safeway Community Markets (these seem to have been become Andronico’s Community Markets)
• Shaw’s
• Star Market
• Tom Thumb
• United Express
• United Supermarkets

What Grocery Stores Use The Just For U Program?

Something important to note is that not all of the chains listed above use the Just For U program; instead, some of them use a program called Rewards!

Here’s a list of all the grocery stores that use the Just For U program where you can earn Reward Points. I’ve included links below to the Just For U page for each of them.

• Acme
• Albertsons
• Andronico’s Community Markets (This links to Safeway as you need to register there. You can then use your phone number/alt-ID at Andronico’s)
• Carrs
• Jewel-Osco
• Pavilions
• Randalls
• Safeway
• Shaw’s
• Star Market
• Tom Thumb
• Vons

When Do Just For U Reward Points Expire?

Reward Points expire at a couple of different times. At the end of every calendar month, every 100 points you’ve earned is converted to 1 Reward with any remaining points expiring at that point. For example, let’s say you earned 447 points in April. 400 of those points would be converted to 4 Rewards, with the remaining 47 points expiring on May 1 at 2am local time.

The Rewards you’ve earned don’t expire until the end of the following month though. Using the above example, the 4 Rewards you earned in April will be valid until June 1 at 2am local time.

How Do I Check How Many Just For U Reward Points I Have?

Desktop

When logged in to your account for your local grocery store, click on the Just For U tab at the top of the page, then click the ‘Rewards’ link on the left.

Mobile

Tap the menu button (the three horizontal lines in the top left corner), tap ‘Just For U’, then in the dropdown menu where it says ‘Coupons & Deals’ select ‘Rewards’.

App

Tap the ‘Rewards’ button in the bottom-right corner.

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You’ll then see three totals – the number of points you’ve earned towards your next reward, your current rewards balance and then the number of rewards you have that are due to expire at the end of the month.

How Much Are Just For U Reward Points Worth?

This depends on whether you redeem your Rewards for groceries or gas.

Grocery Savings

When redeeming Rewards for savings on groceries, you can get better value the more Rewards you have. For example, you can redeem 1 Reward for $1 off your groceries, or 7 Rewards for $10 off your grocery shop which is the best redemption ratio.

Just For U also offers the option to redeem Rewards for savings on specific products or certain sections of the grocery store such as produce or the meat department. Here’s an example of the savings you can get at each of the different Rewards levels (based on a comment by toomanybooks below, it looks like the Reward options might be the same for everyone regardless of which Just For U grocery store chain you shop at):

You have to load the Rewards to your account before checking out in order to receive the discount on your grocery shop.

Based on my limited experience when redeeming Just For U Rewards, I believe you can only redeem each specific reward once per month (let me know in the comments below if my understanding is incorrect).

That’s a shame because it limits your grocery redemption options if you’ve earned a ton of Rewards which could well be the case if you’re a gift card reseller and you take advantage of some of their gift card deals which offer bonus points.

Gas Savings

Every 100 points you earn can be redeemed for $0.10 off per gallon. You can therefore potentially get better value from your Reward Points by redeeming them for savings on gas.

That’s because your maximum savings when redeeming for groceries is $10 when redeeming 700 points (i.e. 7 Rewards). Redeeming 700 points can save you $0.70 per gallon which means you can end up saving more than $10 on gas.

How Many Just For U Reward Points Can I Redeem For Gas

You’re limited to redeeming 1,000 Reward Points per fill-up which is worth $1 off per gallon.

How Many Gallons Can I Fill Up With Using Reward Points?

You can redeem Reward Points to save on up to 25 gallons of gas per fill-up. That means the most you can save in one transaction is $25.

If your car takes less than 25 gallons, you can still potentially maximize your points by filling up another household vehicle at the same time.

Is There A Limit To How Many Just For U Points I Can Earn?

No, you can earn as many points as you like. If you earn a ton of points, your challenge will be having a chance to redeem them all before they expire.

Where Can I Redeem Points For Gas?

You can redeem Just For U points for fuel savings at any grocery store that uses the program and has a gas station on site. Some parts of the country also allow you to redeem points at Chevron and Texaco gas stations.

How Do I Redeem Reward Points For Gas At The Pump?

Simply enter your phone number or alt-ID at the pump when prompted.

Do I Have To Redeem Reward Points When Filling Up?

Nope – just don’t enter your phone number / alt-ID. While it might initially sound strange that you wouldn’t want to take advantage of fuel savings, it can make sense if you only need to fill up with a few gallons and want to save your points for the future when your tank is almost empty.

Can I Redeem Points As Soon As I’ve Earned Them For Gas Savings?

Unfortunately not as it can take up to four hours for them to become available for fuel redemptions.

Can I Change The Phone Number Or Alt-ID On My Just For U Account?

Yes. When logged into your account, go to ‘Account Settings’ and scroll down to the section where it says ‘Number Given In Store’. The number you enter can either be your phone number or any other 10 digit number you can easily remember that hasn’t already been associated with an account.

Do I Earn Reward Points When Buying Gift Cards?

It depends on the type of gift cards you’re buying. Third party gift cards (such as retailers, restaurants, airlines, etc.) earn 2 points per dollar spent on them.

Gift cards that aren’t eligible are Visa, Mastercard and American Express gift cards, along with other prepaid cards (e.g. Green Dot) and gift cards for the grocery store itself (Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, Randalls, etc.) Update: RM has advised in the comments below that gas station gift cards don’t earn Reward Points either.

Does Just For U Ever Offer Deals On Visa Or Mastercard Gift Cards?

Yes, there are sometimes digital coupons giving deals on Visa and/or Mastercard gift cards, although these tend to come in the form of instant discounts rather than as bonus point offers.

Something important to note is that the instant discounts come in a couple of different formats. Sometimes you have to buy fixed-value Visa or Mastercard gift cards, while other times you can buy variable load gift cards (i.e. cards that can be loaded with up to $500 of value).

Here are a couple of examples of digital coupons where you had to buy fixed-value gift cards. With the first one, you’d save $10 when buying two $50 Mastercard gift cards, while the second offered $15 off when buying two $100 Mastercard gift cards.

The other type of offer gives an instant discount which is valid on variable load cards. The screenshot below shows an offer where you’d get $10 off instantly when spending $100 or more on Visa gift cards. You could therefore save $10 when buying a $500 Visa gift card. The activation fee on those cards is $5.95 which made this offer instantly profitable even before taking into account the rewards you could earn by paying with a credit card that earned more at grocery stores.

Can I Earn Bonus Reward Points On Gift Cards?

Yes, the Just For U program sometimes releases digital coupons offering bonus points when buying select gift card brands. For example, in the image below you can see that you could earn 10 points per dollar when buying Adidas or AutoZone gift cards. Note that you have to add the digital coupons to your account before checking out in order to earn the bonus points.

Always be sure to read the terms of the digital coupon. In the above examples, you’d only earn 10x Reward Points when spending at least $50 on one of the eligible brands, so buying a $25 Adidas gift card would’ve only earned you 2 points per dollar rather than 10.

Also note that some digital coupons can only be used once (these will say ‘One Time Use’), while others can be used an unlimited number of times (these will say ‘Unlimited Use’).

When Should I Add The Digital Coupons?

It’s best to load digital coupons to your account straight away, even if you’re not certain you’ll use them. Coupons for some deals can disappear before their expiry date if you’ve not loaded them to your account, whereas they’ll still be available if they’ve already been loaded.

How Much Are Bonus Points Worth?

As mentioned earlier, the value of Reward Points depends on whether you redeem them for groceries or gas, with gas savings depending on how many gallons you can fill up with.

To calculate the maximum amount you can save on gas though, multiply the Reward Points earning multiple by 2.5 to get the percentage in gas savings. Using the above example, earning 10x on select gift card brands earns you enough points to save up to 25% on gas (i.e. 10 * 2.5 = 25)

Does Just For U Offer Discounted Gift Cards?

Yes. We’ve already covered the deals they sometimes run on Visa and Mastercard gift cards, but they also release digital coupons offering instant discounts when buying select third party gift cards.

Does The Just For U Program Offer Other Digital Coupons?

Yep! They offer digital coupons for certain products, plus every so often you’ll see other digital coupons for certain departments such as produce, meat and seafood, etc.

Buying Best Buy Gift Cards At Just For U Stores

Safeway, Albertsons, Vons and other stores using the Just For U program have velocity limits on the sale of Best Buy gift cards. There’s a $500 storewide limit which lasts up to 10 minutes from the last time a $500 Best Buy gift card was purchased.

If you try buying another card within that time – even if you’re not the person that bought the first card – your credit card will be charged but the Best Buy gift card won’t activate. If that happens, you’ll have to go to the Customer Service desk to get it resolved which is a bit of a hassle.

Can I Buy Gift Cards Online?

Unfortunately not. Unlike Kroger which sells third party gift cards and fixed-value Visa and Mastercard gift cards online (with payments processed by Blackhawk Network, owner of GiftCardMall and GiftCards.com), Albertsons, Safeway and other stores that use the Just For U program don’t sell any gift cards online.

Does The Just For U Program Work Across Different Albertsons Brand Companies?

Yes. If, for example, you set up a Just For U account with Safeway, you can go grocery shopping at another store like Albertsons or Vons and use your phone number/alt-ID when checking out to earn Reward Points.

Something to be aware of is that digital coupons can vary by store. If you’ll be shopping at a different store to the one set as your normal home store, it’d be worth selecting that new store in your account and taking a look at all the digital coupons available there. This particularly seems to be the case when shopping at different store brands (e.g. normally shopping at Albertsons but then shopping at a Safeway store, rather than switching from one local Albertsons store to another local Albertsons store), because I’ve noticed digital coupons I loaded for a Shaw’s store in Vermont have been unavailable at a Safeway store elsewhere.

Update: In the comments below, RM has provided some helpful additional information about how redeeming Rewards can be affected across brands:

(2) redeemed rewards, and the monthly limits that apply to them, are both regional (just like the coupons discussed above).

Point (2) has two consequences:

(a) if you redeem your rewards in one region (for example, 4 rewards for $5 off at Vons in LA), and then try to use that discount in another region (for example, Shaw’s in Boston), your discount won’t work;

(b) if you have lots of points and travel between regions, you can redeem points for the same reward in the same month in different regions by switching the preferred store on your account — for example, 7 rewards for $10 off at a Safeway in Denver, and another 7 rewards for $10 off at a Jewel in Chicago. Obviously, this is only relevant to frequent travelers.

Update 2: MichaelP has provided some extra info regarding earning rewards at one brand and redeeming at another:

Points earned in one area can be redeemed in another area when selecting that area store as the “current” store before selecting the rewards.

What Happens If My Just For U Account Doesn’t Register When Checking Out?

MichaelP also provided the following information in the comments below:

Entering the phone number after the cashier has hit ‘total’ will sometimes not register, meaning you will not get points or coupons won’t work. At this point ask the cashier to enter the number for you. It’s a good idea to have the cashier confirm the reward number has been accepted.

Questions

Is there anything else you’d like to know about how the Just For U program works? Or is there stuff you know about Just For U which I haven’t included in this guide? If so, please let me know in the comments below.