The grocery chain that already dominates Facebook and perennially tops customer satisfaction surveys is now setting its sights on a new conquest: Publix has officially joined Twitter. It may not seem like big news for fans of other grocery chains that have been tweeting for years. But Publix has a fanatically loyal fan base, and where Publix goes, fans follow.[Read More…]
If shoppers in Western Michigan were wondering why their grocery prices have been high the past several years, now they know why. Their store’s profits were allegedly being used to fund an employee’s collection of vintage muscle cars. Christopher Pratt was charged in federal court Friday, accused of embezzling more than $6.5 million from his employer, Village Market Food Centers.[Read More…]
It’s an age-old question – which do grocery shoppers like more, sales and coupons that offer big savings off high regular prices, or just plain low prices? The country’s largest grocery chain is changing its strategy a bit, but its “new low prices” strategy is not exactly new, and its prices may not stay low. Read over this piece of[Read More…]
Hear the name “Cracker Barrel” and what do you think of? For decades, the cheese and the restaurant have peacefully co-existed, even though they’re completely separate brands that just happen to share the same name. But the peaceful coexistence has been shaken, as the restaurant’s plans to expand into your local grocery store has Kraft crying foul. Kraft, the maker[Read More…]
In her famously cheerful book “On Death and Dying,” Elisabeth Kübler-Ross identified five stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. One troubled grocery chain on the West Coast appears to be entering stage one, while another troubled grocery chain on the Gulf Coast has made it all the way to stage five. Nearly two months after its[Read More…]
Small-government advocates are in a bit of an uproar, about authorities telling us how much we should pay for milk. “Louisiana Milk Police Combat Prices That Are Too Reasonable,” headlines Libertarian magazine Reason.com. “Holy cow!” says Fox News. “Udderly ridiculous,” writes the conservative news site WND. They’re all reacting to a recent news report that’s not necessarily news to people[Read More…]
Never mind discounts and digital coupons, here’s one way your grocery store loyalty card can help you get stuff for free – just use it to break into someone’s house and steal their food. That turned out not to be such a great idea for a York, South Carolina man last week. The Herald newspaper reports that a 28-year-old homeowner[Read More…]
If you’re going shopping this weekend, and paying with a credit card – watch out. Beginning Sunday, stores can charge you extra for it. Under the terms of a settlement reached last year, stores will have the option of adding a surcharge for credit card payments – passing the cost that they already pay to the credit card companies, on[Read More…]
Remember when Webvan was going to revolutionize the supermarket industry? Ordering your groceries online and having them delivered to your doorstep was going to be the way we all shopped in the future. But Webvan went bust a dozen years ago. So is it the future yet? In an era when music stores have been supplanted by music downloads, and[Read More…]
Poor Fresh & Easy – apparently routinely and illegally overcharging its customers wasn’t even enough to keep it afloat. Now, the troubled chain will have to pay fines it can’t afford, and agree to a pricing program that may well outlive it. San Diego’s District Attorney announced today that Fresh & Easy has been ordered to pay $833,136 in penalties[Read More…]
