The Best Loyalty Programs For Grocery Shoppers Who Love To Save

You probably like saving money at the supermarket, right? Of course you do; everyone does. These days, though, it can feel as though grocery stores are having to push their prices ever higher, in a bid to beat the pressures of inflation on their business and maintain profit. That's where loyalty programs really come in handy. Although they can feel like a modern invention, retail grocery programs have been around in various forms since the 18th century, and physical coupon-based forms have been popular for almost 100 years. Now, you're more likely to find a loyalty program on a grocery store app and your coupons sent straight to your email.

Here's the thing, though: Not all loyalty programs are worth signing up for, and some of them take up unnecessary space on your phone. Plus, loyalty programs are increasingly moving towards a subscription-based model and charging customers to take part. So, how do you distinguish the good from the bad? We've done that for you. From Walmart to Albertsons, Hy-Vee to Publix, we've rounded up the stores whose loyalty programs are worth your time, and potentially even your hard-earned cash. Fire up the App Store, and let's get downloading.

If you're a regular shopper at Kroger and both its name-brand items and its private brands, Kroger Plus is a must. Kroger Plus has been around in various forms since 1998, and in the decades that it's been active, it's helped millions of customers save money on their purchases. Kroger Plus is now housed in a nifty app, and your free membership gives you access to a range of perks and savings. On the grocery front, each week you get access to more than $600 worth of digital coupons, with your offers becoming increasingly personalized the more that you shop. These coupons offer savings on everyday items like peanut butter, fruit, and breakfast cereal, and all the big brands are included. It's definitely not the kind of coupon section you skip, which can be the case with so many other supermarket apps.

As well as this, Kroger Plus allows you to accrue points while you spend on fuel and groceries. You can then use these points for money off your next gas purchase or your next shopping trip. For each dollar you spend, you get a point, and every 100 points will give you $1 off the price of food or gas. Other than these two flagship perks, Kroger Plus also gives you the ability to preview savings so you can plan your shopping, manage your grocery list online, and view receipts. Not bad, huh?

Target's aptly-named Target Circle has only been around since 2019, but in the time that it's been available to customers, it's generated some pretty great savings. The first year of its being active saw Target Circle help customers save almost $2 billion, and since then, it's continued to bring down the cost of grocery bills nationwide. Unlike its main competitor Walmart, which charges folks to sign up for its loyalty program, Target keeps Target Circle completely free. There are no points to build up, but signing up gives you access to a host of automatic and personalized savings, with a host of deals at your fingertips.

Target also runs a Prime Day-style event called Circle Week. For a full week, Target offers you up to 50% off certain groceries as well as further discounts across a wide variety of Target products. It's a great moment in the year to do a massive restock of dried and canned goods that can last for a while, and you can save a huge amount of money doing so. Furthermore, if you're buying furniture, clothing, toys, books, or cookware from Target, then it's definitely worth doing so during Circle Week.

You didn't think that Winn-Dixie would miss out on all the loyalty program fun, would you? Well, it hasn't. Winn-Dixie has had a loyalty program in place for several decades now, and its current form is called Winn-Dixie Rewards, a free scheme that provides shoppers with a host of bonuses. First off, Winn-Dixie Rewards has a point-building scheme that allows you to build up future discounts with each purchase. With a point for every $2 spent and a dollar off per 100 points, it's not the most generous offer out there, but you can still gain good savings over time.

Alongside this, Winn-Dixie Rewards has percent back offers each time you shop, and exclusive buy one get one free offers and discounts for its members. These offers, which are supplied through Winn-Dixie's Weekly Ad, are pretty good: While they change regularly, the retailer has offered savings like $55 per pound of pork chops, $11 per pound of salmon, or $4 per pound of deli meat purchased. To top it all off, Winn-Dixie will give you $5 off a $30 shop when you first sign up for its program. Oh, and you get a free item on your birthday. Not bad, huh?

Hy-Vee's two-tier loyalty program is good on both levels. The supermarket operates a free scheme and a paid one, and if you're not ready to stump up the cash for the more advanced version, the free program is still worth grabbing. The free program, Hy-Vee PERKS, provides you with access to exclusive pricing on various items. It also gives you a huge amount of digital coupons each week, and when you buy certain groceries in-store or online, you can earn some money off your next gas purchase.

If you're a particularly loyal shopper at Hy-Vee, though, you may want to consider going for the higher level: Hy-Vee PERKS Plus. This tier is definitely an investment and will cost you either $99 per year or $12.95 per month, depending on how you wish to pay. However, it may well be worth it if you get your groceries delivered weekly. The flagship offer with PERKS Plus is free delivery, which, over time, can save you hundreds of dollars per year. "Since I got my membership in January, I've had, oh, probably a dozen deliveries, so it's already paid for itself," says one shopper on Hy-Vee's website. You also save money with every gas purchase, earning 50 cents off per $200 off gas, which can help you make the cost of your membership back — and generate even more savings.

It's perhaps no surprise that Walmart felt confident enough to launch a paid loyalty program while the majority of its competitors have kept things free. In 2024, Walmart stores worldwide saw 255 million customers weekly, and it's the biggest grocery chain in the U.S., so perhaps it no longer feels that it has to entice people in with free offers. However, that doesn't mean that its loyalty program, Walmart+, is a con. Membership to Walmart+ gives customers a pretty astonishing amount of perks, both in the grocery department and in tons of other areas.

The main benefit that Walmart+ offers is free home delivery. This can provide a huge saving, and also give you the ability to bulk-buy items you normally wouldn't. "Not only has it saved me money there but because I've got access to free shipping and even some Walmart+ deals. There are some bulk items that I would have never purchased simply because I don't buy things online to ship to my house," said one customer on Reddit. "Now, I find deals I didn't think were possible and save on my total spending!"

Walmart+ also gives you the ability to earn Walmart Cash on various purchases, which you can then spend on your groceries. Plus, you get Early Access deals, and can generate savings on travel, gas, auto care, pharmacy purchases, and you get a free streaming service included in your membership. All of that for $98 per year.

Some free schemes are rather here not there, and it can feel pointless signing up for them in the first place. That's definitely not the case with Albertsons For U. In 2024, Albertsons For U converted to a points-based system, which accompanies a host of other savings to all add up to a program worth your time. Its new points setup gives you a point for every dollar spent, and $1 off groceries for each 100 points accrued. You also get $2 for every dollar spent on gift cards, and Albertson's periodically runs "multiplier events" that boost the amount of points saved.

Alongside all of this, Albertsons applies savings on various items, with personalized deals beamed straight to your phone. When you combine all of these things (and if you're lucky enough to gain access to further discount codes), the money off that you can gain is pretty wild. People have reported saving way more than half of their weekly shop once all of the savings are activated at once. "I've been so pleasantly surprised by the savings gained by using their app!" said a happy customer on Reddit.

The great thing about loyalty programs these days is that they know they have to stay competitive: It's not enough to offer just one thing, and instead, retailers have to provide customers with a range of ways to save. You can find proof of this at Meijer with its free mPerks program. Meijer revamped this scheme back in 2023 to give customers even more access to money off, and the results have been pretty awesome. The flagship offer is its points scheme, through which you gather points with every dollar spent. Points schemes are pretty common, but customers rate Meijer's offer particularly highly. "mPerks points accumulate like candy compared to Krogers. In my opinion Meijer has them beat on rewards programs," stated a loyal customer on Reddit, with another saying that "Meijer blows away all of the other local shops here."

Meijer also gives its customers a range of coupons that can generate great savings, particularly if you buy in bulk. Spend $20 on frozen pizza, for example, and you could get $5 off. That's all on top of Meijer's weekly ad, which advertises sale prices for a wide variety of items. Hopefully, none of those items will come back to haunt Meijer, either. 

Loyalty programs love to make you feel as though you're part of something exclusive, and this can extend to their very name. So it is with Club Publix, the retailer's free scheme that gives you a surprising amount of good savings. The discounts start the moment you sign up, with Publix giving you $5 off on your first purchase, provided that it's $20 or more. These little bonuses continue as time goes on, and each year you get a free birthday item when you're part of the program.

The main way you get savings with Club Publix, though, is with its digital coupons. These coupons cover a refreshingly large range of items, including many everyday name-brand favorites that you'll likely be purchasing fairly regularly. Hellmann's, Pillsbury, Progresso, General Mills, and Coca-Cola products are all included, with the exact items changing depending on the week you're buying them. Club Publix will also notify you when your favorite items are on sale, and you can also check out the weekly ad in advance to plan your shopping trip.

We love it when a loyalty program goes that extra mile to keep its customers interested, alongside offering them some premium savings on groceries. That's why we're huge fans of Sprouts Farmers Market's scheme. Sprouts Rewards is relatively new, having launched in July 2025, but already it's making waves for its ability to help customers save. It does this through a point-building scheme, which you can then use to redeem money off your purchases. You currently earn 10 points per dollar spent, and for every 1,000 points you get $2 off — making it doubly more valuable than comparable programs out there. You can quickly gain an impressive amount of money from your grocery bill.

In addition, Sprouts Farmers Market makes its Rewards program feel super high-end, thanks to its extras. The program offers members "expert-led wellness classes" and nutritious member-only recipes, and allows customers to give their opinion on new products coming into stores. It all makes the experience feel very exclusive, with Sprouts clearly trying to make its app a place for its users to spend time in, instead of merely dipping in and out for savings.

What we love about H-E-B's loyalty program is that it keeps things super simple. There are no annoying membership fees, and you don't have to spend hours scouring the app just to find one decent deal. You simply have to download the My H-E-B app and sign in, and you get immediate access to some excellent savings. My H-E-B offers access to a great variety of coupons, and the scanning system in the app allows you to check immediately whether you can save money on the item you want. "I like it because there are some really good deals," said one person about the My H-E-B app on Reddit. Deals are what we want, folks!

My H-E-B also gives you access to H-E-B's curbside and delivery services, which can save you a lot of time, and you can also reorder previous purchases. Plus, one particularly nifty perk of being part of My H-E-B is that the app will show you where your favorite items are in-store. No need to spend hours trawling the aisles anymore: You can head straight to the thing you want, grab it, and go.