Walla Walla — Walla Walla’s Taste and Tote air travel promotion has taken off and is expanding to other regional communities.

The program that offers savings to wine tourists flying in and out of Walla Walla is not only being extended to Yakima and the Tri-Cities, it’s also being broadened from planes to automobiles.

In a collaborative effort with Alaska Airlines, tourism and business agencies announced plans this morning for a regional expansion of the program with press conferences in Pasco and Yakima.

The program will launch in September. It allows outbound passengers on the airline to check their first case of wine free on their return flights. It also waives tasting fees at participating wineries. As part of a new addition for Walla Walla, where the program originated last November, Enterprise-Rent-A-Car will waive car drop-off fees for those who land in one community, rent one of its vehicles to drive to other wine country communities and fly home from there.

SpotOn (www.spoton.com) today announced the launch of its new digital loyalty network for local merchants and consumers. SpotOn installs tablets in places like cafes and salons so consumers can easily check-in using a smartphone or card to earn rewards and incentives. SpotOn's founders, who have deep experience building and selling services to help small businesses, have provided an initial $5 million in funding.
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Since starting its tablet-based program in April of this year, SpotOn has attracted over 1,500 merchants and is currently signing-up more than 500 new businesses a month.

Rite Aid Corp. (RAD) next month will launch a new feature to the drug-store chain's loyalty card that will allow +UP rewards to be automatically loaded to the Wellness+ card, an upgrade the retailer touted after a seven-month pilot in four cities.

Previously, if a customer bought a so-called +UP reward item that was featured in Rite Aid's circular while scanning the loyalty card, a dollar amount showing the reward would be printed at the bottom of the receipt. Customers would then need to bring the receipt back to the store to redeem the savings at a future visit.

But Rite Aid said the national rollout of the card-loading feature should increase redemptions of the discounts since customers won't be required to keep their receipt to use the rewards they earned.

“The Smart Rewards loyalty program has far exceeded our expectations in its first year. Our Market Street guests in the Metroplex have embraced this unique program and appreciate the cash discounts the program gives them just for shopping with us,” said Robin Cash, loyal marketing manager for United Supermarkets, LLC. “These new enhancements mean that our guests will earn points much faster, and they will have more choices in how they can use their points.”

“Smart Buys” are a new component to the program. Guests can purchase specially marked products throughout the store and receive bonus points ranging from 25 to 500 points per item. Points can be used toward a wider variety of reward options, including free products along with discounts on grocery and fuel purchases.

Whether you're making contact with a company today by phone, through the Internet, or in person, it's pretty much a 50/50 shot whether you're in for decent service or a lot of long waits and a run-around or two. King of Jewelry, one of the best known jewelry stores in Los Angeles, has been bucking the trend since 1990 with peerless customer service that has earned the company rave reviews on Yelp and generated untold riches in customer goodwill.

Both a brick-and-mortar retail establishment and an online marketplace for all kinds of high end jewelry, including an extremely large selection of diamond engagement rings, King of Jewelry is part of an old tradition in retail that puts the needs of the customer ahead of the convenience of the seller. While this approach might seem like nothing more than common sense, the fact of the matter is that many retailers tend to trend customers as if they are a captive audience with few choices.

Drugstore chain Walgreen Co. (WAG), one of the nation's largest retailers, is evoking a decades-old retail strategy with the September launch of the company's first ever loyalty card called Balanced Rewards.

Graham Atkinson, chief customer experience officer, said the program should improve sales and help the retailer personalize offerings to meet customer needs, especially for those most loyal to its stores.

"With 7,900 stores and almost six million people walking through our stores every day, we do expect this to be one of, if not the largest retail loyalty programs in the country, if not the world," Mr. Atkinson said.