Navigating supermarket "sales"

[DeborahB]

I find that usually you can get one for the sale price, you don't need to buy 10. I watch the register or ask the checkout person. And I carry the little stupid card for the grocery store - most of them I leave in the car, but I carry a couple that I go to a lot on my key ring.

I buy in bulk. I find it's worth it to have an extra freezer so I can stock up on stuff that's on sale. Also the Costco membership has paid for itself many times over. So - when the stuff goes on sale - I buy.

 

[cantlogin]

Is that what's known as market timing?

 

[Sue J]

I've asked about this at my store. If it's, for example, 10 for $5.00, you can buy any amount and the item is $.50 each. You don't have to buy 10.

Unless it's a meat department Buy One Get One Free sale. In that case you must buy 2 of them and the lower priced one is the free one.

One of the stores I go to sometimes has a deal or rebate on a number of a brand's items that you have to buy all at the same time, like 6 Proctor & Gamble products and get $3 rebate at the register. In that case you have to fulfill the deal requirements all in the same transaction.

 

[Tyro]

Coupons. In many stores, coupons are now printed on the backs of receipts -- some for products actually purchased, and some for products competing with those actually purchased.

You get those even without a card... in some stores here they are printed separate.... I have not looked at them in a long time...

Coupons in general, yes, but it's more effective to target shoppers based on their purchasing history & habits gleaned from card data over the long haul. We've had instances of switching brands, and subsequently getting coupons for the former brand.

Tyro

 

[audreyh1]

These cards are used to build a profile of your buying habits, which is valuable information and is sold to lots of folks. I'm not big on participating in that stuff, I'm not sure everyone in the universe needs to know what I buy at the store ("hey, that stuff is medicine!"). So, I gave a slightly misspelled name and totally fictitious phone number, address, and email address when I filled out the application. The card works just fine.

I don't think I've ever turned in the application for one of those cards, and I have plenty of them.

 

[Tyro]

I don't think I've ever turned in the application for one of those cards, and I have plenty of them.

If it weren't for the compensation (savings on grocery bill) there would be no reason to.

At least one chain I know of no longer does their own coupons (though they still honor others), the rationale being the cards are much cheaper, saving shoppers even more (though that may be partially hype, it does cost to have coupons printed, distributed, processed, etc.)

I think the membership chains (Costco, Sam's, etc.) are even worse because the card is required just to shop there, and at checkout.

Tyro

 

[scrabbler1]

Back in the 1990s, a local supermarket chain introduced its shoppers discount card (which could also be used if customers wanted to use personal checks - when it was cash or check only). For the first week, we got discounts on many popular items such as milk and soda. But soon thereafter, the discounts were only on more obscure items I never bought. I did not like the store knowing everything I bought there while receiving maybe one 50-cent discount every 6 months, so I stopped using the card. A few years later, another store opened so I began shopping there (no discount card). A few years after that, the first store went out of business and another store took its place - and they have a discount card similarly useless while they charge more than the other store I still shop at!