Kroger Grocery Chain Offers Free Cell Phone Minutes

The Cicinati-based Kroger grocery chain has a new pitch for frequent shoppers: Free minutes for every $100 spent a month.

The company has teamed with its wireless phone marketing parnter, i-wireless LLC that will allow customers who use the KrogerPlus card to earn free cell phone minutes over the Sprint Nextel network on i-wireless phones sold at the grocery stores.

According to a Cincinnati.com story, shoppers will get 20 free minutes for every $100 spent a month, with a cap of $1,500 a month. Those using Kroger's branded MasterCard will earn 30 minutes per $100 spent.

The incentive program could allow a subscriber to i-wireless' $60 monthly unlimited talk plan to cut that cost to $30, (an unlimited talk and text plan could be had for $45 a month with $1,500 in monthly purchases). Company officials and wireless analysts say those costs would be the lowest in the industry, which has been lowering prices and adding features to draw new customers.

(June 3, 2009)