DIXON, Calif. - Four months after a judge directed Safeway to stop offering gasoline below cost at its Dixon, Calif., gasoline station, Safeway announced it would be ending its nationwide gas discount program, the Sacramento Bee reports. However, Club Card members can still receive discounts on fuel purchases.
Dixon Gas Club sued Safeway under a California law that prohibits companies from selling gasoline below cost to eliminate competition. In May, an Alameda County judge issued a preliminary injunction against the supermarket€™s Dixon location.
Jim Dombroski, lawyer for Dixon Gas Club, said yesterday that Safeway indicated to him that it would be stopping the program across the country. He thinks the gas promotion ended because of the lawsuit. "We consider it to be a result of our case," Dombroski told the newspaper.
Club Card members could purchase gasoline at a 3-cent per gallon discount at Dixon. Located a mile away, Dixon Gas Club lost a lot of business as a result.
Safeway spokesman Keith Turner told the newspaper that the change in gas discounts is "coincidental," and added that a new promotional program would soon be in place that would give discounts of up to $1 per gallon.