How can I determine which stores are regarded as supermarkets for a rewards credit card?

Question

I'm considering applying for a credit card which offers additional rewards on supermarket purchases.

How do I determine which stores in my area are considered supermarkets by the card issuer?

For example, the Benefit Terms of Amex point to https://www.americanexpress.com/us/content/rewards-info/retail.html, which gives a vague definition of a US Supermaket along with a quite partial list of US supermarkets.

U.S. Supermarkets

To earn additional rewards on supermarket purchases, the supermarket must be located in the U.S.

A supermarket offers a wide variety of food and household products such as meat, fresh produce, dairy, canned and packaged goods, household cleaners, pharmacy products and pet supplies.

(Superstores, convenience stores and warehouse clubs are NOT considered supermarkets.)

Examples of merchants* that accept the Card and where you can earn additional rewards include:

• Gristedes
• Foodtown
• Pathmark
• Shoprite
• Stop and Shop
• Vons
• Whole Foods
• Winn-Dixie
• Online supermarkets such as FreshDirect

*This is not a complete list.

Examples of merchants where you will NOT earn additional rewards include:

• Specialty stores (e.g., fish markets, cheese shops, wine shops, and other specialty food stores )
• Superstores (e.g. Amazon, Target and Wal-Mart)
• Warehouse clubs (e.g. BJ's Club and Costco Wholesale)

Answer 1

Credit card companies organize types of businesses into different categories. (They charge different types of businesses different fees.) When a business first sets up their credit card processing merchant account, they need to specify the category. Here is a list of categories that Visa uses. Grocery stores and supermarkets are category number 5411. Other types of businesses, such as the examples you provided in your question, have a different category number. American Express simply looks at the merchant category code for each of your transactions and only gives you rewards for the ones in the grocery store category. It's all automated.

They likely don't have a list of every grocery store in the US, and even if they did, they would probably not provide it to the public, for proprietary reasons. If you are in doubt about whether or not a particular store is in the grocery category, you'll just have to charge it to your card and see what happens. Often, the category of transaction will be shown for each transaction on your credit card's website.

Answer 2

Each company that has an account with the credit card network has to classify themselves as a particular type of business.

The credit card company uses that classification to catagorize the transaction on your statement. If you buy a T-shirt at a grocery, amusement park, gas station, or resturant; the transaction will be labeled by the vendor type.

Look at recent credit card statements, even if they are from different cards, to see how the stores you want to know about are classified.

Answer 3

Looks like a user-contributed list is the only good solution to this question, so I'll start one by making this answer community wiki, meaning anyone can edit it. We only aim to add major chain, not every mom&pop store (which probably don't qualify).

How to contribute

1. Log into your American Express account
2. At the bottom of your activity, switch from Recent Activity to Current Statement
3. Scroll down past "Pay Bill"
4. Beneath it, you'll find a "Bonus Details" link under Reward Dollars

The rewards details page looks like this:

The lists are in alphabetical order.

U.S. Supermarkets

• Foodtown
• Fresh & Easy
• FreshDirect( Online supermarket)
• Gristedes
• H-mart
• Meijer
• Pathmark
• Safeway
• Savemart
• Shoprite
• Sprouts Farmers Market
• Star Market
• Stop and Shop
• Trader Joe's
• Vons
• Whole Foods
• Winn-Dixie

EXCLUDED major stores: * Specialty stores (e.g., fish markets, cheese shops, wine shops, and other specialty food stores ) * Superstores (e.g. Amazon, Target and Wal-Mart) * Warehouse clubs (e.g. BJ's Club) * Lotte

Select U.S. Drugstores

• CVS/Pharmacy
• Walgreens

U.S. Gas stations

• 76
• Chevron
• Exxon Mobil
• Shell
• Valero

Refer : https://www.americanexpress.com/us/content/rewards-info/retail.html

Answer 4

Contact AmEx. They are the only ones who might have a current list.