If you’re one of the many whose weekly grocery ad starts on Wednesdays, today is either the day you eagerly await a new round of savings, or the day you regret having missed out on a deal that died when the old ad expired yesterday. But a lucky few get to have the best of both worlds, and shop two ads at once today. Wouldn’t that be nice if we all could?
Southern California-based Stater Bros. Markets introduced a new sales circular today – but it hasn’t gotten rid of the old one just yet. Today only, shoppers can take advantage of what Stater Bros. is calling “2 Ads 1 Day”. Beginning last week, the 167-store chain extended its weekly ads to run Wednesdays through the following Wednesdays. That means every Wednesday, BOTH ads are in effect.
Wednesday is “the best day to save,” the new ads proclaim. “Shop two weekly ads, together, on the same day!”
“Food is one of the biggest costs for a family,” Stater Bros. Chairman and CEO Jack Brown said when announcing the change last week. “Now our customers can increase their buying power on Wednesdays by purchasing last week’s sale items along with this week’s sale items.”
The double-ad promotion is unusual but not unprecedented. Phoenix-based Sprouts Farmers Market has long had what it calls “Double Ad Wednesdays”. “You can save the most in the middle of the week when the ads overlap,” the store explains. “Shop Sprouts on Wednesday for twice the savings!” And other stores, such as Shoppers Food in the Washington, DC area have done the same for a limited time, though they don’t at the moment.
So is this a trend that could someday make its way to your area?
Wednesday is typically one of the slowest grocery shopping days of the week. So supermarkets often have special one-day deals, offer senior discount days and run other Wednesday-only promotions to get people in the door. Having weekly ads overlap is another way to generate some excitement – and foot traffic.
It could also be something of a time-saver for supermarkets. As they reset their stores for the new weekly ad each week, they no longer have to do twice the work – taking down the old sale signs and displays, while simultaneously putting up the new ones. With overlapping Wednesdays, they can set up for the new sale late Tuesday, and take down the old displays at their leisure on Wednesday.
It could certainly be a time-saver for shoppers. No longer do you have to run to the store before the old sale ends, only to go back to the same store the next day to get in on all the new deals. If you plan your shopping on Wednesdays, you can get everything at once.
Of course, if you frequently shop your store on the last day of its weekly sale, you’re probably accustomed to not getting many of the deals at all. Sale items can often be out of stock by then. So “2 Ads 1 Day” may be better in theory than in practice.
Regardless, Sprouts is rapidly expanding across the country. So overlapping ads may indeed be coming to your area soon, whether or not you realize it yet. And while Sprouts is a specialty, Whole Foods-like store, Stater Bros. is a more conventional grocery chain. So its decision to adopt double-ad Wednesdays could help expand the concept from the realm of specialty stores into the mainstream.
And as more stores like Schnucks and now Kroger shift to Wednesday-starting ads lately, they’ve faced the inevitable complaints from shoppers who don’t like their routines messed with. What better way then, to convince them that Wednesday-starting ads are a good idea, than to offer two ads each Wednesday?
Just an idea. And with at least two decent-sized grocery chains now doubling up each Wednesday, it’s an idea that just might become reality someday at a store near you.
Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. Kroger, Please do this!
That would be awesome!