They call them “loyalty” cards, but many of us have stacks of them weighing down our wallets and keychains, from nearly every store we shop at. So does being “loyal” to all, mean we’re really loyal to none? That’s what one of the country’s largest supermarket chains is struggling to figure out. Food Lion introduced its MVP Rewards Card nearly[Read More…]
Self-checkout stations have always been polarizing. Shoppers either love them, or hate them. They’re considered either a convenience, or an excuse to offer customer “no service”. Various stores either seem to be installing them, or tearing them out. Now you can count Hy-Vee among those that are coming down on the side of doing away with them. The Iowa-based grocery[Read More…]
“There’s so much more to the new Shaw’s!” the Boston-based grocery chain’s current slogan boasts. It’s calling attention to its lower prices, cleaner stores and “card-free savings” – but presumably, it wasn’t looking to call attention to the fact that it’s apparently laid off the proofreader in charge of looking over the weekly sales circular. Shaw’s shoppers (and grocery-shopping grammarians[Read More…]
Halloween is three months from today – so what are you waiting for? Better head to your local grocery store and start stocking up on candy! “Holiday creep” has made its way into the dead of summer, as there are several reports of Halloween candy displays going up in supermarkets. Joe found some at a grocery store in Vermont. Cliff[Read More…]
Everyone loves a good popularity contest. Which is why, as you may have read this week, media outlets pounced on a survey that proclaimed Trader Joe’s the most popular grocery store in the country. Some even gleefully pointed out that Walmart was ranked as the “worst”. But the truth, as they say, is a little more complicated. The fact remains[Read More…]
The good news for southern supermarket shoppers is that Belle Foods has reversed its decision to close several stores and hold going-out-of-business sales. The bad news is, it’s instead decided to sell off all of its stores. Could it be that the owners saw dollar signs when another southern supermarket chain sold for nearly two and a half billion dollars,[Read More…]
Ordinarily, a billion-dollar merger combining two grocery companies that supply more than a thousand stores and own 17 different supermarket banners would send shivers down the spines of shoppers. Will the new owners mess with the stores? Will their products and sales be as good? Will they change the coupon policy? But there’s been little customer hand-wringing in reaction to[Read More…]
Price matching has become all the rage recently, as retailers try to curry favor with customers and gain the upper hand over their competitors. So why is one of the country’s largest supermarket chains calling it quits on its price-match program? Safeway introduced “Deal Match” in 2011, in two markets – the Hawaiian island of Oahu, and at Safeway-owned Dominick’s[Read More…]
There’s been some buzz about a lawsuit filed this week that some fear – or hope – might make the Kroger-Harris Teeter deal dead in the water. But fear not (or, don’t get your hopes up). The suit is likely just to line the lawyers’ pockets, and possibly force the companies to pass the costs on to customers. Nice. Attorneys[Read More…]
So far this year, at least nine grocery chains have come under new ownership. Could your store be the tenth? Kroger’s announcement last week that it’s buying Harris Teeter represents the biggest, and latest, deal in the grocery merger and acquisition game (read: “Sold! Kroger Buys Harris Teeter”). About six weeks earlier, Bi-Lo scooped up Sweetbay, Harveys and Reid’s (read:[Read More…]
