From now on, Easter Sunday will be on a Thursday. “Saturday Night Live” will air on Wednesdays. And weekends will change from Saturday and Sunday, to Monday and Tuesday. That would certainly mess up your routine just a little, wouldn’t it? Well apparently, so too does changing the day that your favorite grocery store’s weekly ad starts. St. Louis-based Schnucks[Read More…]
From groundhogs to Presidents, Valentines to Mardi Gras – for such a short month, February sure has its share of celebrations. But don’t let the month come to a close without marking one of its lesser-known occasions. Because February is “National Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket” month. Really. It’s not quite a holiday, created by presidential proclamation. It’s more[Read More…]
Whole Foods expects to make $13 billion this year. It’s more than a third of the way toward its goal of having 1,000 stores, it’s surged ahead on a new list of the best-performing U.S. companies, and its customers are buying more – and more expensive – stuff. And its stock tanked today. Shares of the company were down more[Read More…]
(Be sure to read this update: “Sold! Kroger Buys Harris Teeter”). The grocery business is a tough game, and Harris Teeter may be ready to call it quits. The grocery chain is reportedly considering its biggest sale ever – of Harris Teeter itself. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters both cite sources that the Charlotte, North Carolina-based grocer is “exploring[Read More…]
If you like your grocery bags packed just right, without crushed bread or cracked eggs, better do your grocery shopping at Metropolitan Market in West Seattle. Just look for the golden checkout lane – that’s where you’ll find Andrew Borracchini, the official Best Bagger Champion of 2013. Borracchini competed against 22 other grocery baggers for the coveted title in Las[Read More…]
Nearly a year into Walmart’s advertising campaign that puts its grocery competitors’ prices in the crosshairs, one grocery chain is fighting back. St. Louis-based Schnucks is demanding that Walmart “cease, desist and refrain” from what it calls “deceptive and misleading” advertising. Schnucks’ allegations, and Walmart’s responses, also pull back the curtain a bit on how Walmart’s ads are produced, and[Read More…]
Here’s an interesting sales strategy – raise your prices by a penny, and advertise it as being a good thing. That’s what a French grocery chain is trying. Would it fly here in the U.S.? Carrefour Markets has launched a new campaign called “Les Prix Ronds” (“Round Prices”). 500 grocery products will have permanently rounded-off prices. For example, the store’s[Read More…]
(Note: this article is about the 2013 contest. Read all about the 2015 contest here). Let’s get this out of the way first: you are not going to win the million-dollar top prize in Albertsons Market’s annual “Monopoly Collect and Win Game” that began this week. But you know that already (especially if you don’t even have an Albertsons nearby).[Read More…]
If the possibility of being charged credit card swipe fees isn’t enough for you to give up paying with plastic, perhaps this news will. A Phoenix-based grocery chain says it was the victim of a sophisticated cyberattack – though the real victims are the hundreds of customers, if not more, whose credit card information was stolen. Oops. The Pinal County[Read More…]
Are the drug stores taking the gloves off, in the battle for your loyalty? In announcing new enhancements to its loyalty program, CVS couldn’t resist swatting down the program offered by a rival. CVS has announced the launch of “ExtraCare Pharmacy & Health Rewards,” which offers new ways to earn discounts off future purchases. Filling ten prescriptions will get you[Read More…]
