Stinker Stores in September will debut the second generation of its app, highlighted by two big additions: the ability of customers to earn points for purchases and to place mobile orders for pickup or delivery.
Boise, Idaho-based Stinker Stores has been working on the app update for close to a year, Billy Colemire, vice president of marketing and brand, told CSP, and changed loyalty providers in the process. Stinker is now partnering with loyalty solution provider Punchh, which is part of Par Technology Inc., New Hartford, New York. St. Louis-based Rovertown is the app developer.
The foundation of the new program relates to customers earning “Pete’s Points”—named after the chain’s mascot, Polecat Pete—for each purchase. These points can be redeemed for discounts on fuel, fresh food and beverages and most other merchandise. Customers earn 10 points per dollar spent in the store and five points per gallon. “Giving our loyal customers the flexibility and freedom to choose how they want to redeem their rewards was of the utmost importance,” Stinker Stores said.
Another new app feature will be the ability of customers—in 85% of Stinker’s geographic footprint—to place mobile orders for pickup and delivery. In that footprint, 70 stores will provide cigarette and other tobacco products for mobile pickup and delivery, while 50 stores will provide beer and wine products. In a few months of launching, Stinker will begin accepting electronic benefits transfer (EBT) as a form of payment for all eligible items.
Stinker Stores, however, also is retaining popular parts from the first-generation app, which launched in 2022, including gamification, punch clubs and app-exclusive offers.
“There were different games you could play,” Colemire said. “There was a slot machine. We kept the games and actually created our own game called Stinker Speedway that we’re launching with the new app. Polecat Pete is driving the car.”
With these games, customers can earn points, prizes and various discounts, Colemire said.
Stinker Stores also is introducing a secondary sign-on feature with the new app, Colemire said. If a customer is in a hurry and does not want to open and scan their app, he or she can simply enter their phone number into the point-of-sale pin pad or fuel dispenser to receive app-exclusive pricing or redeem discounts.
“One of our key learnings the first time was we don’t have our customers for a long time inside the c-store,” Colemire said. “They’re in a hurry and a lot of people aren’t always comfortable pulling out their app and waiting for the QR code to load. So, having this secondary sign on so they can type in their phone number into the pin pad or the fuel pump and receive their discounts is going to be huge.”
In addition to the first-generation app’s games that are being retained for the second-generation app, Stinker also is keeping its punch clubs and app-exclusive offers. However, the new app will feature Punch Clubs and add new Power Punch Clubs. Punch Clubs reward customers by providing the 10th item free once nine like items have been purchased. Power Punch Clubs reward customers by providing the fifth item free once four like items have been purchased.
There also will be a graduated fuel offer:
- First visit: Save 20 cents per gallon (up to 20 gallons) and get a free fountain, frozen, or coffee beverage in any size.
- Second visit: Save 30 cents per gallon (up to 20 gallons); same beverage offer.
- Third visit: Save 40 cents per gallon (up to 20 gallons); same beverage offer.
Colemire called the new app “more robust.”
“It does a lot more,” he said. “It meets our customers where they’re at. If somebody wants to open the app and play games to win prizes and be incentivized that way, they have an option. If a customer wants to use secondary sign on and never have to pull out their app when they’re shopping in the store, we have it meet them there. We’re not forcing them to take on a learned behavior that they didn’t feel comfortable with before. The fuel discounts are huge. There was no fuel discounts on the first generation of the app.
“We check a lot more boxes as far as what our customers are looking for this round versus the first one,” he continued. “The first one was certainly a valiant effort, but now that we have the right team in place, we were able to secure a new loyalty partner and build this in the most meaningful way.”
“We check a lot more boxes as far as what our customers are looking for this round versus the first one.”
Colemire said he is proud of how “the brand comes to life through the app in several more ways than maybe you did with the first iteration. Over the last four years, we’ve revitalized our brand in a huge way, keeping in mind the moxie, the wit, the more historical elements, but certainly bringing it into the current year, the current century.”
One area where the brand comes through more is with the c-store chain’s mascot, he said.
“Pete looks completely different than he did when we first launched, and that was based on a full brand overhaul we did over the last few years,” Colemire said. “He’s more 3D now. He takes on a lot of different forms. There’s one point where he almost looks like a professor in a shirt and a tie when he’s trying to teach you how to use the app.”
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