Ordinarily, a billion-dollar merger combining two grocery companies that supply more than a thousand stores and own 17 different supermarket banners would send shivers down the spines of shoppers. Will the new owners mess with the stores? Will their products and sales be as good? Will they change the coupon policy? But there’s been little customer hand-wringing in reaction to[Read More…]
Pity poor RadioShack. The past-its-prime electronics chain has tried rebranding itself (remember when it tried to act cool and call itself “The Shack”?). It’s trying to refresh its product assortment, eliminating gadgets that might have seemed high-tech decades ago (like VHS tape rewinders – yours for just $23.99!) Now, RadioShack executives are trying to explain away another terrible quarter by[Read More…]
Do you live in a “pre-coupon tax” state, or a “post-coupon tax” state? Do you even know, and would you notice if your store charged you tax on things it shouldn’t? One Pennsylvania man knows, and he isn’t happy about what he found on his Walmart receipt. So he’s suing the multi-billion dollar company, for overcharging him by 21 cents.[Read More…]
Price matching has become all the rage recently, as retailers try to curry favor with customers and gain the upper hand over their competitors. So why is one of the country’s largest supermarket chains calling it quits on its price-match program? Safeway introduced “Deal Match” in 2011, in two markets – the Hawaiian island of Oahu, and at Safeway-owned Dominick’s[Read More…]
(UPDATE: This article is from 2013 – check out the 2015 version here!) It’s normally the time of the week when we look ahead to the coupons you can expect to receive in your Sunday newspaper inserts. Unless it’s a holiday weekend, there’s always something to look forward to. Just not this week. Give your scissors a little summer vacation,[Read More…]
There’s been some buzz about a lawsuit filed this week that some fear – or hope – might make the Kroger-Harris Teeter deal dead in the water. But fear not (or, don’t get your hopes up). The suit is likely just to line the lawyers’ pockets, and possibly force the companies to pass the costs on to customers. Nice. Attorneys[Read More…]
So far this year, at least nine grocery chains have come under new ownership. Could your store be the tenth? Kroger’s announcement last week that it’s buying Harris Teeter represents the biggest, and latest, deal in the grocery merger and acquisition game (read: “Sold! Kroger Buys Harris Teeter”). About six weeks earlier, Bi-Lo scooped up Sweetbay, Harveys and Reid’s (read:[Read More…]
In a move that’s annoying buyers, infuriating sellers, but delighting manufacturers and industry professionals, eBay is cracking down on the sale of coupons. In the first major revision of its coupon policy in several years, eBay is severely restricting the number of coupons that sellers can offer, and banning the sale of free-product (including “buy one get one free”) coupons[Read More…]
You can add another activity to the list of things you shouldn’t do in a thunderstorm. Don’t take a shower. Don’t use the phone. And now, apparently, don’t go grocery shopping. A Louisiana woman learned that the hard way yesterday, when she was struck by lightning – inside a grocery store, while checking out. Thankfully, she’s okay. “I felt, like,[Read More…]
Harris Teeter fans have had a week now to digest the news that their favorite regional grocery store will soon be swallowed up by supermarket giant Kroger (read: “Sold! Kroger Buys Harris Teeter”). The initial cries of horror have turned into quieter grumbles of discontent, but the bottom line remains that the vast majority of Harris Teeter shoppers are not[Read More…]
