8 Things Virginians Get Wrong at Harris Teeter

Think you’ve got your Harris Teeter run down to a science?

Maybe not.

The VIC card, the app, and the pump all hide savings that regular shoppers walk past.

These are the ways Virginians miss out at Harris Teeter.

Shopping Without a VIC Card

At Harris Teeter, the number on the shelf tag isn’t the number you pay unless you scan a VIC card.

Nearly every advertised sale in the weekly ad rings up only when the cashier scans your Very Important Customer (VIC) card first.

No card, no deal.

So, a Virginia shopper who forgets that little keychain tag pays the full sticker price on items marked down for everyone else.

Getting one costs nothing.

You sign up at the customer service desk in a Fairfax or Virginia Beach store, or online in a couple of minutes.

Scan it on every trip, even the quick runs for milk and a rotisserie chicken.

Ignoring e-VIC Coupons

The VIC card gets you the sale price, but the e-VIC side of Harris Teeter unlocks a second layer of savings.

Add an email address to your VIC account, and you turn on e-VIC digital coupons plus personalized weekly deals.

Clip, then shop.

You tap the coupons in the Harris Teeter app before you check out, and they come off automatically at the register.

Miss that step, and you never get the discount.

Fresh e-VIC-only offers tend to show up midweek, so a shopper who checks the app on a Wednesday catches deals the Saturday crowd never sees.

One caveat: Digital coupons don’t double, so don’t plan on stretching them that way.

Missing Club 60 Thursdays

Harris Teeter runs a senior discount that many Virginia shoppers over 60 never think to ask about.

Through the Club 60 program, shoppers age 60 and up take an extra 5% off their eligible groceries every Thursday.

Only on Thursdays.

You still need a VIC card for it, and the store checks your age once at the service desk.

The 5% comes off after your VIC prices and coupons, so it stacks on top of the deals you already grabbed.

Fuel, pharmacy, gift cards, and tickets don’t count toward it.

A retiree in Williamsburg who shifts the big weekly trip to Thursday trims 5% off the whole cart for doing nothing extra.

Fuel Points Left Behind

You also rack up Fuel Points with every VIC scan at Harris Teeter, and many Virginia shoppers let them expire unused.

Each dollar you spend on groceries earns a point.

Gift cards earn double.

Stack 100 points, and you knock 10 cents off a gallon, while 1,000 points cut a full dollar a gallon on up to 35 gallons.

You redeem them at Harris Teeter fuel centers and at participating BP and Amoco stations around Virginia.

Here’s the part that trips people up: Points expire at the end of the month after you earn them.

Use them or lose them.

So, a shopper filling up off I-95 near Fredericksburg should spend the points before the calendar flips, and a grandparent buying a birthday gift card grabs double points on the way.

How Doubling Works Now

Paper coupons behave differently at Harris Teeter than at a lot of Virginia grocery stores, and the rules confuse people.

The published coupon policy doubles manufacturer coupons worth up to 99 cents, up to 20 of them a day with a VIC card.

Read the limits.

That means a 75-cent coupon can come off as $1.50, which turns a small stack into a bigger dent in the total.

Since digital coupons don't double, hang onto your paper coupons for the ones that do.

Harris Teeter has also run Super Doubles events, doubling higher-value coupons for a week at a time.

Those events come and go, so check your e-VIC email to see whether your store still runs one before you plan a trip around it.

Letting ExpressLane Shop

Harris Teeter's ExpressLane pickup and delivery service can save a Virginia shopper the whole trip, and many still circle the parking lots instead.

You build your cart in the app, pick a time, and a personal shopper gathers everything for you.

They do the walking.

Pickup runs free on orders over $100, with a small fee on smaller carts, and a monthly or yearly subscription waives it.

Your e-VIC digital coupons still apply to the online order, so you don't give up savings by skipping the aisles.

Delivery reaches many Virginia addresses too, from Arlington down to the Hampton Roads suburbs.

For a shopper who dreads a packed Saturday parking lot in Short Pump, that alone is worth setting up.

Passing Up Store Brands

Harris Teeter's own brands sit one shelf over from the name brands, and Virginia shoppers walk past them out of habit.

Kroger has owned Harris Teeter since buying the chain for $2.5 billion in 2014, and the store-brand lineup runs deep.

Deeper than you'd think.

The plain Harris Teeter label covers the basics, while H.T. Traders handles the gourmet and imported side.

Harris Teeter Rancher stocks the beef case, and the Fresh Foods Market name spans the deli and bakery.

The unit price on the tag usually settles it, since the store brand often beats the name brand per ounce.

A Charlottesville shopper weighing a can of H.T. Traders sparkling water against a name brand pockets the difference without giving up much.

Underusing the Fresh Foods Deli

The Fresh Foods Market counter at Harris Teeter does more than slice cold cuts, and Virginia shoppers under-order from it.

You can get a made-to-order sub built the way you like it, meats and cheeses sliced to order, and an eight-piece box of fried or baked chicken.

Order it ahead.

The app lets you place a sub or a chicken order before you leave home, so it's bagged and waiting when you pull up.

A rotisserie chicken and a couple of sides from the prepared case cover dinner on a weeknight after a long crawl on the Beltway.