ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 5, 1997 TAG: 9702050072
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MINNEAPOLIS
SOURCE: KARREN MILLS ASSOCIATED PRESS
A CUSTOMER SPENDING $100 during a weekly grocery shopping trip would earn 52,000 points a year, plus bonus points for some items.
Some high-tech relief has arrived for people who have painstakingly licked thousands of foul-tasting trading stamps, pasted them into books and carted the lot to stores to redeem them.
Carlson Cos., marketer of Gold Bond stamps, has introduced its Gold Points Plus card, a credit card look-alike that electronically tallies points earned by shoppers.
As of this week, the program is available in supermarkets, general merchandise stores, service stations, specialty shops and hardware merchants in Minnesota. Carlson hopes to expand into 50 major markets nationwide within five years.
The Minnetonka, Minn.-based company has spent nearly five years developing the incentive program, which keeps track of a shopper's account until the customer is ready to claim a reward.
That could be a long time for the person wanting a Hewlett Packard Pentium desktop computer, which is available from the company's catalog for 1.65 million points. Or it could be a swift reward for someone needing a pack of three Wilson tennis balls, available for 5,600 points.
The company's 60-page shopping guide offers hundreds of items in between those high-and low-priced selections. Community groups may pool member rewards toward a common goal, such as that computer, playground equipment or kitchen appliances.
The points also can be used to make additional purchases at participating stores, to purchase airline frequent flyer miles and for discounts on air travel, lodging and meals.
The program was test-marketed in more than a dozen smaller markets in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas, and was begun in its current form in Kentucky.
Harry Greenough, president of Gold Points Plus Corp., a division of Carlson Marketing Group, said a key to the program's success is the speed at which a customer will see results.
A customer spending $100 during a weekly grocery shopping trip would earn 52,000 points a year, plus bonus points for some items. In the catalog, a Regal seven-piece cookware set is available for 41,900 points, an electric fry pan for 30,900 and a toaster for 18,100.
The new electronic incentives program eventually will be bigger than the Gold Bond Stamp program, started by company founder Curtis Carlson in 1938. The company expanded into the hotel and restaurant businesses after the trading stamp market peaked in the late 1960s.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Anne Berg registers a customer for the Carlsonby CNBCompanies' Gold Points Plus Card at a Rainbow Foods store in
Plymouth, Minn. The credit card look-alike replaces books of stamps
turned in for gifts. color.