TWIN FALLS - A Twin Falls company responded to the competitive threat posed by a big-box retailer with a big idea that has attracted the interest of a Fortune 100 company.

When Costco Wholesale Corp. started selling gasoline in Twin Falls in 1999, Patrick Lewis said Oasis Stop and Go executives knew they couldn't compete by selling fuel for a loss.

"That was a pivotal moment everything can be linked back to," said Lewis, now chief executive of KickBack Rewards Systems, a subsidiary of Oasis Stop and Go.

"We wanted to keep as many of our customers as possible," he said. "We had to find a way to recognize our best customers."

Oasis Stop and Go, started in 1979 by Dan Willie, has grown to include a 22,000-square-foot truck stop in Eden and 13 convenience stores in Twin Falls, Buhl, Jerome, Hagerman and Paul.

In 1999, Willie and Lewis searched for a rewards program they could use for customers who continued buying gas and other merchandise at Oasis stores. They formed KickBack after being unable to find anyone else who offered the right kind of customer-rewards program.

"We had developed it to fit a need," Lewis said. But by the time they were ready to launch KickBack in 2000, Lewis said they realized they had spent a lot of money developing a program that could be used in other businesses.

Since then, the program has grown to include more than 100 companies in 11 states and 2 million cardholders nationwide, according to Lewis.

This month, KickBack cards will debut in Canada.

"We're not the only ones that feel the pain when a big-box retailer comes to town," Lewis said in explaining the company's growth.

Of the 100,000 people who live in what the company considers its trade area for the Oasis convenience stores, Lewis said 60 percent have a KickBack card.

The cards work when customers:

• Apply for free at any participating business.

• Earn points for every purchase they make at participating businesses.

• Spend their points the same as they would spend cash. Each point is worth a penny.

And the company offers more than just one kind of card. Its other services include gift cards and proprietary credit cards that are only good at specific businesses.

Companies from across the nation have been visiting Twin Falls to learn more about what Lewis and his crew of employees have to offer from the third floor of the Project Mutual Telephone building at 308 Shoshone St. E. The company has another dozen employees who work from their homes in Tennessee and Washington.

Representatives from the Fortune 100 firm ��" a "major oil company" that Lewis would not identify ��" were in Twin Falls last month. "It looks like they're ready to join our coalition," he said.

A process for which KickBack has a patent pending is attracting most of the attention from potential new clients. The company's debit automated clearing house cards allow customers to:

• Scan their personal checks at participating businesses.

• Insert their driver's licenses and KickBack cards in an electronic device developed by the company.

The process ties everything together for customers, Lewis said, so they can use their KickBack cards and have money taken from their checking accounts.

"This is huge ... It's 100 percent automated," he said. "This is the next generation of loyalty. What if the family could have just one card?"

For more information: Who: Patrick J. Lewis What: chief executive of KickBack Rewards Systems Where: 308 Shoshone St. E. Phone: 735-2265 E-mail: patlewis@kickbackpoints.com Web site: www.kickbackpoints.com