Digital coupons – the kids love ’em, we’re told. But does your great aunt Ethel? In certain marketers’ and retailers’ zeal to save the trees, retire the scissors and get us all to go digital, few seem to be considering our older friends. You know, those who think a smartphone is one that you can dial without having to call[Read More…]
If you haven’t ever ordered your groceries online, what would get you to give it a try? Free delivery? Discounts? Coupons? Or perhaps a stranger showing up on your doorstep with your stuff? A couple of big companies are working on new ways of delivering your online orders, and let’s just say one is more promising than the other. First,[Read More…]
Every time you turn around, it seems someone is predicting the end of good old-fashioned paper coupons. Most are – surprise! – digital coupon companies, many of them startups promising to revolutionize the industry. So it serves their purpose to declare the paper coupon dead and buried. And some have done just that (read: “The Death of Coupons”). But now[Read More…]
What’s not to like about low prices on the things you buy most often at the grocery store? Apparently Food Lion customers found plenty not to like. The grocery chain is ending an “everyday low pricing” test and raising prices – so it can have more sales instead. The East Coast chain, one of the largest in the country, has[Read More…]
Coupons are going digital. Prices are becoming personalized. So one-size-fits-all sale prices printed on paper could become a relic of the past. In other words – say goodbye to your weekly supermarket sales circular. At least that’s what Safeway is saying. Touting the success of its apps, digital coupons and “Just For U” loyalty program, the California-based chain says it’s[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…]
(Update: The Audubon store is set to close on May 27, 2015, officially bringing down the curtain on Genuardi’s for good.) And then there was one. By next month, the nearly century-old story of the Genuardi’s supermarket chain will end just as it began – with a single store in southeastern Pennsylvania. If you’re not familiar with the store, you[Read More…]
If you’re saving up your pennies to buy the perfect holiday gift – be careful. Your local store may not take them. Portland, Oregon-based Fred Meyer found itself in the middle of a social media firestorm over the past 24 hours, after its Facebook fans reacted angrily to the story that a suburban Seattle woman shared last night: “My daughter[Read More…]
For all the talk of big-box retailers, drug stores, specialty grocers and dollar stores gobbling up a bigger share of the grocery pie, don’t count out the nation’s largest traditional supermarket. Kroger says it’s doing just fine, thank you. Kroger today reported its latest quarterly earnings, beating analysts’ expectations. For the year, earnings are up about 3%. “Not a particularly[Read More…]
