Why wait til Monday when you can get a Twinkie today? Despite a huge marketing push heralding July 15th as the official return of the Twinkie, some stores are jumping the gun and selling them already. Might as well put them on the shelves now, than have desperate fans trying to break down the back door to get at the[Read More…]
The other shoe has dropped, for the rest of the grocery chains recently acquired by the parent company of Albertsons. As their corporate cousins embrace “card free savings” and phase out digital coupons, Acme, Shaw’s and Star Market are following suit. Acme has ditched its SuperCard loyalty program, and Shaw’s and Star Market are expected to eliminate their Rewards Card[Read More…]
The reunited Albertsons has finally clarified some confusion and confirmed what many had suspected but hadn’t quite pinned down – the “Preferred Card” loyalty program is history. Oh, and so is the Albertsons coupon policy. More on that in a bit. But first, “our Preferred Card is no longer required at our stores to receive sales prices on items,” the[Read More…]
In a reversal of the current trend toward gathering our data, accumulating “points” and loading our coupons onto shoppers’ cards, at least two newly-acquired grocery chains are heading in the opposite direction under new ownership. Jewel-Osco will be doing away with its loyalty card before the end of the month. And the Albertsons stores that currently offer e-coupons and grocery[Read More…]
(Be sure to read this update: “Sold! What Will Become of Sweetbay, Harveys and Reid’s?”). Heads up, southeastern supermarket shoppers: the Belgian-based owners of Food Lion, Hannaford and Bottom Dollar Food are apparently looking to cut their losses with two smaller grocery chains. Delhaize has reportedly hired an investment bank to help unload the Sweetbay supermarket chain – and they’ll[Read More…]
Mention the name “Cerberus”, and some supermarket shoppers shudder. The private equity firm saddened thousands of shoppers and employees when it shut down or sold two-thirds of the roughly 600 Albertsons locations it acquired in 2006. And customers of several chains acquired by Cerberus earlier this year are wondering whether their stores will suffer the same fate. But could we[Read More…]
It’s been two weeks now since new owners took over Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, Acme, Shaw’s and Star Market. And so far, the company hasn’t made any huge changes. Instead, it’s asking customers to weigh in on possible changes – including to its coupon policy. Supervalu sold the chains to an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management last month. As first noted here[Read More…]
You may not have noticed that there were big changes overnight at the Albertsons, Acme, Jewel, Shaw’s and Star Market grocery chains. But you’ll notice the bigger changes that are still to come. Changes like new coupon policies and a potential phasing out of store loyalty programs – if your store even survives that long. New owners officially took over[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…]
