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CAPITAL REGION
Price Chopper gas program lauded
BY AMEERAH CETAWAYO Gazette Reporter

    Price Chopper isn’t shy when it comes to talking about the success of its Fuel AdvantEdge program, which it credits with increasing market share levels to an all-time high for the Rotterdam-based chain.
    Jason Kennedy, manager of continuous improvement and supply chain initiatives for Price Chopper, gave some insight into how Fuel AdvantEdge has fared eight months after the program debuted in the Capital Region during an event at the Italian American Center Thursday afternoon. Nearly 100 members of the New York Capital Region chapter of the American Marketing Association gathered to hear details about the program’s creation, its implementation and what’s ahead.
    Price Chopper first approached gas station chain ExxonMobil about partnering up for the gas rewards program.
“They wanted nothing to do with us,” Kennedy said, saying that the company was focusing on its SpeedPass and that all of the backoffice software needed for Price Chopper’s plans was too electronically intensive, especially for the more than 32,000 Price Chopper AdvantEdge cards expected to be used daily.
    Kennedy said Sunoco has reaped the benefits of its more than $2 million investment for the technology needed, toppling Exxon-Mobil as the No. 1 gas retailer in the Capital Region for the first time in November.
    “Neil Golub’s baby,” as Kennedy referred to the program, was fi rst tested in Watertown three years ago. (Golub is Price Chopper’s president and CEO).
    From there, the company experienced growing pains, improving the technology behind the program that was later rolled out in markets all over upstate New York and the Northeast. ....................>>>>.....................>>>>...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01102&AppName=1