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…]
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…]
