With an Amex chat rep being wrong? Yeah, common enough occurrence.

They get slow on the credits sometimes. They owe me two of the $10 right now.

The problem is almost certainly with that specific Safeway store (or at most a group of them), not with Safeway stores in general. So unless you specify the exact Safeway store, and you find someone who used an Amex card at that specific Safeway store, no one can tell you if they have the same issue, since it's a coding issue that causes these problems, and each store can code differently. Also, a store can code differently on the Amex network than on a Visa or MC network, so even if codes correctly for Visa/MC users, that doesn't prove that it codes correctly for Amex users.

I've can tell you many people (including me) have had similar issues at other stores (and with both Amex and other cards), when those stores are co-owned with other types businesses using the same coding for all of their businesses. So, for example, business owner X first open a shoe store, then buys a grocery store, but applies the same coding to the grocery store as to the first store they had, and the grocery store codes a shoe store, because of their other property being a shoe store. Unfortunately, too many independent business owners don't seem to think that it matters how their stores are coded. But of course all of us who have category-based extra earning cards, plus those with category-based offers such as in your case, care very much how the stores are coded.

Except that most people find these problems when using cards that earn 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, whatever, in a category, rather than when trying to use a category-specific offer.

I have often seen this issue at independent businesses, perhaps due to the owners also owning a business of another type. But I can't imagine that a national chain like Safeway wouldn't code correctly (and Safeway can't possibly be anything but a "supermarket").

I think the rep was simply making an excuse. The credit will probably post, although it may take a while. If it doesn't, then I would call back.

The wiki in this thread says that Fred Meyer doesn't count (I presume because their stores are primarily supercenters). Before Kroger acquired Fred Meyer, it expanded into Utah and built a few of their supercenters. In 1997, Fred Meyer acquired the Smiths grocery chain. Following that, Fred Meyer rebranded its Fred Meyer stores as Smiths Marketplace in states where Smiths was the much larger brand. Utah was one of those states. And then Kroger acquired Fred Meyer (and thus also Smiths).

So, I am assuming that AMEX has no problem giving 6% on the Blue Cash Preferred card for the regular Smiths grocery stores. Does anyone have any experience getting (or not) the full 6% at Smiths Marketplace stores? Asking because a Smiths Marketplace store is where we do the great majority of our grocery shopping. FWIW, Smith's Marketplace is not a separate brand of Kroger, but is instead a sub-brand of Smiths.

Also, FWIW, when we use our Chase Freedom Unlimited card at Smith's Marketplace the transaction Merchant Type is "Grocery Stores and Supermarkets" (which doesn't matter for that card since it is a flat 1.5% everywhere). I don't believe that I have ever used an AMEX at Smith's Marketplace, however. I could make a small purchase there using my Delta Skymiles Gold AMEX to see how it shows up. If it shows up as a supermarket with the Delta card, is it guaranteed that it would also show up that same way with the Blue Cash Preferred card?

Yes, all AmEx cards follow same categorization. Do make a small charge if you need to test.

I do find AmEx supermarkets more restrictive than Visa/MC equivalent categories, but it is in the interest of companies to categorize as supermarkets if they qualify as aside from some govt vendors, supermarkets have the lowest negotatied discount rates.

Yes, my local Fred Meyer posts as “Grocery Store, Supermarket” on my Citi Premier and earns 3X.

Here are the results of my testing of AMEX at a Smith's Marketplace store. As I posted earlier, Smith's Marketplace is a Walmart-like sub-brand of the Smith's traditional supermarket brand of Kroger.

The results seem to be mixed. I made a grocery purchase on 3 Feb and when I go to the AMEX online statement and select the line item and then click on "Show Additional Information" here is what I am shown:
So I am assuming from that, that purchases at Smith's Marketplace generally do qualify for the full 6% rebate on the Blue Cash Preferred card. But on 6 Feb, I made a purchase at the pharmacy at Smith's Marketplace. And on that charge, when I look at the Additional Information, all I see is:
So in this case, the additional information does not specify that the purchase was at a grocery store, but on the other hand, doesn't say that it wasn't. So do y'all think my pharmacy purchase would have qualified for the 6%, or not?