Weigel’s has been part of East Tennessee for 95 years. What began as a family dairy—one that still bottles its own milk from Tennessee cows within 24 hours of leaving the farm—has grown into a 90-store convenience chain with a food-service program built on its own commissary. That vertical integration is rare for a regional operator, and it shapes how Weigel’s thinks about everything, including loyalty.
“As a regional chain, we always believe in punching a little above our weight class,” says Jessica Starnes, Director of Loyalty at Weigel’s. “Whether that’s customer service, technology, or quality.” Nowhere is that ambition clearer than in how the company has rebuilt its loyalty program into a connected experience.
From a monthly email to an ecosystem
Weigel’s wasn’t starting from zero. It had a loyalty program—but Jessica is candid that it wasn’t an ecosystem. “It was fair. It was basic,” she says. “We had the traditional email list, a communication once a month that said, here’s the promotion. But we really weren’t measuring or meeting the goals of the business—or what the community expected of us.”
The shift was less about adding features and more about connecting them. Today, loyalty, payments, offers, and customer engagement all work together on one platform, and that connection is what lets Weigel’s pursue its number one goal: to be genuinely customer-centric.
“Loyalty for us is a lot more than points and discounts. We’ve built an ecosystem to meet our customers where they are.”
What the customer feels
At the register, the experience is immediate: customers earn points on their transactions and see instant discounts—recognition and reward in the same moment. The app extends that relationship beyond the four walls of the store. There, customers redeem points earned from in-store and fuel purchases and choose their own rewards. They can also play games to earn more, join clubs, and track their progress.
“The app gives the customer the loyalty experience outside the store,” Jessica says. “Customers take Weigel’s home with them. It’s always in their pocket.”
What the business can finally see
A connected ecosystem didn’t just change the customer experience—it changed what Weigel’s can measure. With PDI Experience Designer, the team can now track offer conversions directly. “Before, we were sending communications and hoping customers read the email,” Jessica explains. “Today, we can see it—what percentage opened it, and who acted on it in the store.” That visibility turns marketing from guesswork into something the team can adjust in real time.
The proof
The clearest evidence sits in one number Weigel’s watches closely: loyalty penetration, the share of register transactions with a loyalty account attached. When Weigel’s migrated to PDI loyalty in November 2022, penetration was 12.5%. Today it’s roughly 46%—and the company reached that without relying on an everyday fuel discount, the lever many programs lean on hardest.
Advice to other operators
For operators weighing their options, Jessica’s guidance is direct: stop thinking of loyalty as a standalone program. “The real value comes from having your loyalty program integrated with the rest of your business—customer engagement, payments, age verification, tobacco scan data,” she says. “I’ve not seen another provider connecting it all like PDI.”
With loyalty tiers launching next, Weigel’s ecosystem is still evolving, which is exactly the point. The platform gives a 95-year-old brand room to keep punching above its weight.