• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, June 7, 2011

Big Y Foods -- a regional supermarket known for its experimental approach to marketing -- is offering a deal through Groupon, a first for large grocery stores.

"For us, it's just a way to test another medium," Harry Kimball, director of database marketing for the Springfield, Mass.-based grocery chain, told Marketing Daily. "It's a way for us to get the message out, and tie it to our loyalty program. We want to know if our customers will respond, and we want to give them another way to buy groceries and shop in our stores."

The first test is for a newly introduced Shellfish Grill Pack, including lobster tails, mussels, and clams, which sells for $39.99 and is being offered at a 40% discount for $24. After shoppers buy the Groupon, they enter their Big Y Express Saving Club membership numbers, so the Shellfish deal is electronically loaded onto their loyalty cards. The deal is automatically credited when they check out at the supermarket.

For Groupon, it's a big deal, and a potentially huge new niche: Big Y becomes the first multi-store grocery retailer to run a Groupon deal, and the only retailer of any kind to fully integrate Groupon offers into its loyalty card system.

For Big Y, Kimball said it's simply part of an ongoing process of expanding loyalty programs. Back in March, for example, it began testing a version of a loyalty card that requires members to pay a $20 fee. "Really, this is just a new way to offer shoppers a 'Deal of the Day,' and there's a lot of buzz about Groupon right now."

And so far, Kimball said, so good. "I'm shocked at how well the Groupon offer is doing -- there are already more than 100 responses, and it went to a limited audience."

He said Big Y will continue to test other Groupon offers: "If it turns out that this is what people want, we'll do it. If not, we'll move on to the next thing."