Safeway Inc. has ended its offer of a 3-cent-per-gallon discount on gasoline sold at pumps outside its stores to customers with Safeway loyalty cards.
But the Pleasanton, Calif.-based grocer said it would continue to offer a sliding gas discount as a reward to its club-card customers based on purchases inside its stores, the Denver Business Journal reports.
The action follows a lawsuit by a Dixon, Calif., gas station owner who challenged Safeway’s discount offer under a California law that bars below-cost gas discounts aimed at hurting competition, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The suit led Safeway to end the discount at its Dixon store earlier this year, but the grocer denied that the nationwide policy chain was triggered by the legal challenge.
Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. also has a gas-discount program tied to store purchases.