Savvy B.C. grocery shoppers have something new to start collecting.
Montreal-based Groupe Aeroplan Inc. (TSX:AER) announced September 23 that, starting immediately, it's Aeroplan rewards program will be in effect at B.C.'s 20 Thrifty Foods stores.
Shoppers can now earn air miles by joining Club Thrifty Foods and converting any Club Thrifty Foods points they earn into Aeroplan miles. For every two Club Thrifty Foods points members convert, they receive one Aeroplan mile.
Aeroplan's expansion into B.C.'s grocery sector comes as the company deepens its partnership with Nova Scotia-based Sobeys Inc.
Sobeys is one of Canada's two national grocery retailers. Loblaw Companies Ltd. (TSX:L) is the other.
Sobeys has more than 1,300 stores in 10 provinces under retail banners that include Sobeys, IGA, Foodland, Price Chopper and, as of July 2007, Thrifty Foods.
Vancouver Island-based Alex Campbell founded Thrifty Foods in the late 1970s. It grew to 20 stores on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland before it was sold to Sobeys for $260 million.