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stella23
Advanced Member
USA
8232 Posts |
 Posted - Oct 23 2009 : 09:36:27 AM
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http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_13622616?source=rss&nclick_check=1
I'm happy about this. 3 for $5 type signs are one of my grocery store pet peeves. (Should this be in the Dead Horse forum?  ) You don't actually have to buy 3 to get that price, so why make it more complicated than it has to be? Why assign some arbitrary number like that?
Now if they could just get rid of the store coupons I'll be a happy girl. It bugs me to have to go to the front of the store, get a circular, rip out the one coupon I want and discard the rest of the circular creating useless waste just to get a price they could have just given me without all that hassle. |
www.sunnysideuplife.blogspot.com
www.thesunnyway.com |
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rose
Advanced Member
USA
1595 Posts |
Posted - Oct 23 2009 : 09:49:29 AM
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| Good to hear. Hope the practice spreads. My local grocery was covered with 3 for $5 last time I was in there.... The problem is sometimes when they have those bundled prices you do have to ball that many. Makes grocery shopping even more hassle than it should be. |
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kmec
Advanced Member
3611 Posts |
Posted - Oct 23 2009 : 09:59:27 AM
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| Stores in our area generally don't require multiple purchases in the "3 for $5" type sale, but in other places I've lived, that was not the case - so I always have some uncertainty if the individual price is not posted. While the circular coupons are inconvenient, I do prefer them to what stores in Arizona did - requiring customers to have the patron card in order to get the sale price. But straightforward pricing all around would certainly be my preference! |
http://rosemaryevergreen.blogspot.com/ |
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stella23
Advanced Member
USA
8232 Posts |
Posted - Oct 23 2009 : 2:27:44 PM
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| I prefer the circular to the customer loyalty cards too. I can't stand those. I think in this day and age a grocery store could do really well just having straightforward prices with no gimicks, card or coupons to complicate the process. Just keeping it simple would save customers time and, on the coupons, save the store the cost of printing. |
www.sunnysideuplife.blogspot.com
www.thesunnyway.com |
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rose
Advanced Member
USA
1595 Posts |
Posted - Oct 23 2009 : 2:47:04 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by stella23
I prefer the circular to the customer loyalty cards too. I can't stand those. I think in this day and age a grocery store could do really well just having straightforward prices with no gimicks, card or coupons to complicate the process. Just keeping it simple would save customers time and, on the coupons, save the store the cost of printing.
Agreed. My dream store. And where milk was the same price each week. Just keep even, fair prices instead of the loss leaders. You almost get forced into shopping more than one store. I can't stand paying double for something one week after a sale. |
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lhamo
Moderator
China
5172 Posts |
Posted - Oct 23 2009 : 6:53:41 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by stella23
I prefer the circular to the customer loyalty cards too. I can't stand those. I think in this day and age a grocery store could do really well just having straightforward prices with no gimicks, card or coupons to complicate the process. Just keeping it simple would save customers time and, on the coupons, save the store the cost of printing.
But think of all the clever marketers they would put on the dole...
Actually, isn't this kind of the Trader Joe's model?
lhamo |
"What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task. This is the price and the promise of citizenship." (Barack Obama, January 20, 2009) |
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happystuff
Advanced Member
3127 Posts |
Posted - Oct 24 2009 : 05:11:44 AM
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| My grocery store will run these type things as actual sales. Problem is, when you sit and do the math.. IT'S NOT A SALE! I can't believe people actually fall for it, but it seems some of them they do. When something has a regular price of 2/.99, why in the world would I buy it "on sale" for 3/$2? (Specific item in question was canned tomato paste) |
To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world... anonymous |
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jrb3
Moderator
USA
2118 Posts |
Posted - Oct 24 2009 : 07:38:56 AM
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The problem with "straightforward prices" is that those stores are trying to lure in the price-hunters, in hopes of getting them to spray some collateral dollars on stuff that's not on sale. If you look, you'll see that the "loss leader" items are essentially random -- except for the key criterion that none of them are staples for out-and-out survival.
Stores not on the teat of selling shelf space and chasing the price-hunters, like Trader Joe's, pick up all the clever marketers. They're the businesses which need the smart marketers to know how to connect with (and serve) their customers well, so they don't have to go chasing price-hunters and selling shelf space.
Joseph |
Joseph Beckenbach
From each *voluntarily* according to their ability, to each *unimposed-upon* according to their need.
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pibblestiltskin
Senior Member
836 Posts |
Posted - Oct 24 2009 : 08:18:03 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by rose
quote:
Originally posted by stella23
I prefer the circular to the customer loyalty cards too. I can't stand those. I think in this day and age a grocery store could do really well just having straightforward prices with no gimicks, card or coupons to complicate the process. Just keeping it simple would save customers time and, on the coupons, save the store the cost of printing.
Agreed. My dream store. And where milk was the same price each week. Just keep even, fair prices instead of the loss leaders. You almost get forced into shopping more than one store. I can't stand paying double for something one week after a sale.
I am lucky enough to shop at my dream store. It is a bit further away than the other big stores, but no cards or coupons required to get sale prices. It is also a small family run chain where I have seen the same employees for as long I have been shopping there - which makes me feel good about how they run the business. |
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Mhousework
Advanced Member
1226 Posts |
Posted - Oct 24 2009 : 08:56:30 AM
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Albertson's used to have the Buy One Get One Free scam where they doubled the price of the product, thus forcing you to buy 2x as much. For instance, a small cake was Buy One Get One Free, a great deal, right, but the cakes were priced $12. Who buys 2 cakes? Well, if you wanted that cake, you had to get 2 at $12 as one at $6 was not an option. I also noticed they doubled the price of individual cans of ground coffee for the week it was on sale as a Buy One Get One Free sale. I refuse to shop at Albertson's anymore.
Note: who buys grocery store cakes, ick! Anyway...
I hate the coupons, 50 CENTS OFF in BIG GIGANTIC PRINT while in tiny, microscopic print, "when you buy 4". Again, who buys 4 of something, especially if it's a perishable item. I just saw a coupon like this on the $3 refrigerated biscuits and the $5 refrigerated cinnamon rolls. How generous that 50 cents is.
Note: who buys those refrigerator biscuits, ick! Anyone have a recipe for homemade biscuits you can keep in the fridge until ready to bake?
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annabk
Advanced Member
3738 Posts |
Posted - Oct 24 2009 : 09:33:51 AM
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It seems to me that more and more coupons are requiring multiple purchases. Buy 3 and save 50 cents - not worth it, in my opinion. There are very rarely coupons for stuff I buy anyway, but I'm not going to buy 2 years worth of Spray and Wash to save a quarter.
My grocery store has just started a program where they keep track of what you buy and send you notices when things that you buy are on sale. I've signed up for it, but I'm unsure about how useful it will really be. |
"The truth is rarely pure and never simple." - Oscar Wilde |
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greg44
Senior Member
USA
511 Posts |
Posted - Oct 24 2009 : 10:44:16 AM
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I do a lot of the grocery shopping in our house, dw and I both think it is the job from heck. I HATE stores that advertise multiples. I just want to go grocery shopping, I don't want to have to "wonder" if a price is good or not. I don't want to have to bring a calculator and even have to do simple math in my head. Just give me the price $#&*@!
I shop a lot a WINCO - which tends to have the cheapest prices around - but they never put a "was" price next to their sale price. So is this $ 5 cents off or 50 cents off? I want to know just how much I am saving...
Albertsons is big on the 10 for 10 sales. Give me a break. I don't want to wonder if I got 9 or 11 items... Stores like this make it to hard to shop. And besides their fish market makes their whole store stink.
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Edited by - greg44 on Oct 24 2009 10:47:45 AM |
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Fluffy
Advanced Member
1728 Posts |
Posted - Oct 24 2009 : 11:02:04 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by lhamo
quote:
Originally posted by stella23
I prefer the circular to the customer loyalty cards too. I can't stand those. I think in this day and age a grocery store could do really well just having straightforward prices with no gimicks, card or coupons to complicate the process. Just keeping it simple would save customers time and, on the coupons, save the store the cost of printing.
But think of all the clever marketers they would put on the dole...
Actually, isn't this kind of the Trader Joe's model?
lhamo
Aldi's also. No gimmicks, no cards, just lovely low prices. |
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Karen in Bisbee
Moderator
USA
6695 Posts |
Posted - Oct 24 2009 : 11:51:22 AM
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As opposed to Alco: spend $100 and get 3% off your next purchase. Wow! 3 whole percents. 
Around here the standard is, if it's "4 for $5" then it's also "1 for $1.25". However, if it's a BOGO, you must take two unless you can find a sympathetic manager.
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Our capacity to do less harm is limited, but our capacity to do good is not. |
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square peg
Senior Member
529 Posts |
Posted - Oct 24 2009 : 3:54:33 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Mhousework
Note: who buys grocery store cakes, ick! Anyway...
Note: who buys those refrigerator biscuits, ick! Anyone have a recipe for homemade biscuits you can keep in the fridge until ready to bake?
Hey! 
I buy both of those things!
Not all the time, but sometimes. Not that I should have to justify, but we have 3 kids, we are both in school full time, hubby is working part time and I am in the process of applying to 8 grad schools. I hate to cook or bake anyway, so it gets pretty low on my priority list. On nights when even clearing the table to sit down to dinner is a huge deal, I thank the good Lord above for the person who invented things like refrigerated biscuit dough!
But I agree with you, I hate the coupons that gives cents off of a bulk of stuff.
We shop almost exclusively at an overrun warehouse store. No coupons, no cards, no minimum. I love it. But I have also started watching sales through flyers, because the outlet doesn't always have the best prices. |
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jp3220615
Advanced Member
1103 Posts |
Posted - Oct 25 2009 : 07:01:47 AM
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I like the regrigerator biscuits too. And the refrigerator french bread. We don't eat it that often and with it in the fridge we don't have to plan ahead.
As for the "loyalty" card, I got mine by promising to mail in the form and never did. So they're collecting a lot of info about an anonymous person.
And speaking of loyalty cards, is it safeway everywhere, or just here in CA, that only gives the full size card and not a keyring sized card? I don't like carrying a lot of cards in my wallet so half the time I never had it with me. Finally I cut out the barcode part of it, drilled a hole in it and put it on my key ring. The checkout clerks always look a bit baffled at first when I hand them my keys, but then admit that it was a great idea. |
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Grocery Store getting rid of '3 for $5' type signs
