Have you ever wondered if anyone actually wins the grand prizes in sweepstakes like the one a Milwaukee-based grocery chain recently ran? Well, here’s your answer: No. Roundy’s Supermarkets, which operates Pick n’ Save, Copps, Rainbow Foods and other grocery chains, recently wrapped up its second annual Monopoly “Collect & Win Game”, similar to the one that McDonald’s is currently[Read More…]
It’s not Walmart. It’s not even Aldi. The new grocery low-price leader is – would you believe – Dollar General? That’s not what Walmart would have you believe. The company trumpeted its price leadership at an investors conference last week, and the Wall Street Journal today headlined a Deutsche Bank price-comparison study that crowned Walmart the cheapest option. But while[Read More…]
It is perhaps a sign of the times that grocery stores don’t need to lower prices to generate excitement – they can just promise not to raise them. Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle has become the latest grocery chain to introduce a price-freeze program. Its “Low Price Lock” will guarantee that prices will not rise on about 300 selected items through the[Read More…]
It’s hard to classify the “richest county in America” as a food desert. But grocery options in Nantucket, Massachusetts are dwindling – leaving residents with fewer choices, higher prices and louder complaints. The island, located 30 miles from Cape Cod, has just two chain grocery stores for its 10,000 or so residents. Soon it will have one. The Grand Union[Read More…]
Frenzied shoppers have been known to push, shove, shout and trample to get their hands on the hottest holiday deals on Black Friday. But would mobs of people do the same for some bottled water, discounted turkey and free shampoo? The Price Chopper grocery chain didn’t think so. They thought wrong. The Schenectady, New York-based chain had advertised a “Super[Read More…]
The results are in, and “more Americans than ever are choosing natural and/or organic foods,” says Whole Foods. Which is good, because that’s what Whole Foods sells. The grocery chain has released the results of its fifth annual “Whole Foods Market Food Shopping Trend Tracker Survey.” It found that two-thirds of respondents call themselves value seekers: “someone very aware of[Read More…]
If you’d like to score some free groceries, all you need is a gun! And you won’t even need a getaway car. That’s because Pennsylvania-based Giant Food Stores is offering free gift cards to anyone packing heat. Of course, there’s a catch. You have to give up the gun in order to get the gift card. Giant is teaming up[Read More…]
Have you ever wondered when buying grocery items by the pound, if you’re also paying for the weight of the packaging? Well, you shouldn’t be. But the city of Los Angeles says a local chain has been charging customers that way repeatedly – so maybe a million-dollar penalty will get the store’s attention. Los Angeles-based Ralphs, a subsidiary of Kroger,[Read More…]
Your grocery store isn’t the only one that knows what you’re buying when you use your store loyalty card. Turns out, Facebook does too! A report in London’s Financial Times reveals that Facebook has partnered with the data company Datalogix, to track how many consumers buy products after seeing ads on Facebook. How are they doing this exactly? By using[Read More…]
Sure, you like your local grocery store, but have you “liked” them? A roundup of the most and least popular grocery retailers on social media sites (see the full list below) can yield some interesting insights, though it also shows that “likes” aren’t necessarily everything. Florida-based Publix was recently criticized (in “Frozen & Refrigerated Buyer” magazine) for being “technology-challenged”: “Yes,[Read More…]
