8 Vons Deals Californians Only Get If They Do One Thing First

You key in your phone number at a Bakersfield Vons before the cashier even asks for it.

There’s a reason for that.

Every 100 points you earn through the forU program turns into 10 cents off a gallon of gas, worth up to $1 off at a Vons-owned pump.

These are the Vons deals Californians only get if they do one thing first.

1. Weekly Personalized Deals

Creating a forU account is what puts Vons’ weekly personalized deals in front of you at all.

They don’t stop there.

Vons refreshes those deals every week.

None of them shave a cent off your total until you clip them onto the account before checkout.

Skip that step, and the same bag of navel oranges rings up at full price at the very same register where a clipped account pays less.

Vons builds the offers around what you already buy, so two forU accounts sitting at neighboring checkout lanes can see two completely different weekly deals.

2. Welcome Discount

Vons rewards a brand-new forU sign-up with $5 off a purchase of $25 or more, good within 29 days of creating the account.

New accounts only, no exceptions.

You could have shopped at the same Vons for a decade and still never seen this discount.

This discount only unlocks once you create a forU account under a phone number Vons hasn’t already logged.

Loyalty works backward here: The newest customer gets the biggest instant break.

3. Text-Message Sign-Up Bonus

Vons won’t trigger this bonus just because you created a forU account.

Opting into Vons’ text messages does.

That text costs nothing.

Vons pays new text-message subscribers 500 points within seven days of opting in, worth 50 cents off a gallon of gas the first time those points reach a pump.

The offer is capped at one per household, and it only counts if that phone number has never subscribed to Vons texts before.

Sign up for the account, then text to opt in.

Do both on the same visit, and the welcome discount plus this bonus can add up to more than $5.50 before your first grocery trip is even rung up.

4. Monthly Free Item

Vons doesn’t hand your first free item over just because you signed up.

You have to find it.

Vons drops one free item, worth up to $10, into every forU account each month, sitting in the app or website among that week’s other deals.

Adding it to the account is what makes it ring up free at checkout.

Leave it untouched, and the register charges full price for that same item.

Many forU accounts sit untouched all month.

The free item attached to each one just expires unused.

5. Birthday Treat

Vons doesn’t unlock the birthday treat just because you signed up for a forU account.

Adding your birthday to the profile does.

No birthday, no treat.

You could have signed up years ago at the register, punching in only a phone number, and Vons may still have no idea when your birthday falls.

Finishing the profile online is the only way the birthday treat, worth up to $10, ever shows up in the account.

Vons adds one more condition on top of that: The account also needs a purchase from the past year before Vons puts the treat in it.

6. Double Points on Gift Cards

Vons pays every forU member double points on gift cards, 2 points for every dollar instead of the usual 1.

Twice the rate.

Buying a stack of gift cards for the holidays under your registered phone number earns the higher rate automatically.

Skip the phone number at checkout, and that same purchase earns nothing.

7. Pharmacy Purchase Points

Vons extends forU points to the pharmacy counter, 1 point for every dollar you pay out of pocket there.

Same account, same phone number.

Fill a prescription and grab groceries in the same trip, and both halves of your receipt earn points under one account.

That only happens when you give the pharmacy counter the same forU number you use up front.

Give the pharmacy your insurance card but no phone number, and that half of the trip earns nothing.

8. Fuel Rewards at the Pump

Vons limits the forU fuel discount to 25 gallons in a single fill-up.

One tank, one shot.

A routine $150 grocery run puts about 150 points on the account, worth roughly 15 cents off a gallon.

Fill up at a Vons-owned station.

The discount can run as high as $1 a gallon there.

Pull into a partner station instead, like a Chevron off the 5, and the discount tops out closer to 20 cents a gallon.

It adds up fast.

None of that loads at the pump automatically.

You still have to enter the phone number tied to your forU account before the discount attaches to that tank.

There’s a deadline on those points, too.

Unused points expire within about two months of being earned, unless you’re a FreshPass subscriber, whose points never expire at all.

Skip the app for too long, and a tank’s worth of savings can disappear before you ever spend it.

What Doesn’t Earn Points

Vons leaves a few categories out of the forU points program.

Alcohol, tobacco, fuel, and fluid dairy items don’t earn a single point, whether the cashier rings them up first or last.

The milk doesn’t count.

Stack your cart with wine, cigarettes, gas, and a jug of milk, and every other item in the cart still pads your point total.