Man i hate them now.  Whats up with have a card to get groceries at the normal price.  if you dont have a card you have to pay convience store prices.  And for tracking your buying habits and everything they give you a groceries at the normal price.  I would like to give those morons a piece of my mind.  Anyone have the email addy to the presidents of albertsons, tom thumb and any other crack head gorcery stores?

later
lojack

ammonia,
mothballs,
kitchen matches,
lighter fluid,
charcoal.

excuse me sir,
i need to see ID before i can sell you these bomb making supplies.

I hate the cards too.  They said they wouldn't sell my info to anyone but I didn't trust em.  I filled out the app with the name Jeffery Dahmer just to make sure.  2 months later I get mail at my address for Mr. Dahmer, but I get the discounts and deals at least and none of my real info. went out.

just got of the phone with safeway.  humm believe it or not, they dont give out the email addy to the marketing department.  the girl on the phone was nice so i didnt get pissy with her.   i told her that i or anyone that i come along with will not support any store with that.  She said that they dont sell that info.  when i told her i got info in the mail with that fake name her response was "we are sending you information  from us, not the distributor"   I was like yea right.  Then who gives them to you.  "well sir I dont know the answer to that"  she askied if i wanted to give my info for them to call me back.  i was like no... i dont want to get on your telemarketing plan either.  the hint is that i dont want crap from you or any other company affliated with you.  i politely gave her any example if they would like to pay 4 bucks for gas unless they gave me all of their personal info and then i will sell it to you at a normal price.  phone was silent and then she said "your right sir, i hate carrying those stupid cards too.  I will send that info along.  I cant make any promises that it will make any changes."  I said thank you and good bye.

Yup.  Don't get me started!  It's just a way to confuse people and set up a pricing structure that is difficult to follow.  When I check out, I try to make sure I got charged the right prices, but the damn card makes it hard to do because you have to hunt around on the receipt to see if the "discount" got taken off.  It's a bitch and I fucking hate those things, but every store in my area has loyalty cards and I'll be damned if I will pay their inflated prices for the sake of not using the card.  It's an artificial way to create a "sale" price on items, thereby making them look more inviting to people.  Instead of stores competing with each other, they compete with themselves and their own customers!

The other trick my store uses is it changes the prices of things constantly--like every week.  Watch how they price pasta in different sizes, and watch soups and things.  It's designed to trip up people who always just buy the same items week to week.  Meanwhile, the price of milk, eggs and bread only goes up and there's never a sale (okay, the stale bread maybe).

One other thing I've noticed--Coke and Pepsi are never on special at the same time.  Every store I go to, it's Coke one week and then Pepsi the next.  I've noticed that it has rotated like this for at least the last five years straight.  Never fail, if Coke is $.89/2 liter one week, then Pepsi will be $.99 or $.89 (and sometimes even $.79 or $.69 if it's getting old) the next.  Bizarre!

Don't tell me there isn't price fixing going on!

 

sounds like they are doing some false advertising.  No one cares about the better business brueau.  i seriously think that this needs to go father than gripping to them.  Maybe state or fed govrmt?  there has got to be someone to talk to about this raping.  if it catches on you will need an id for everything.

I don't have those chains here- we have one dominant company. Albertsons had to close bcz they couldn't compete. The service sucks, they run out of stock of some items at2 or 3 inthe afternoon, and never restock the same day.
They will advertise say, chicken breast for 1.99 a pound and then put out 3 packages!! Right next to the 'sale' chicken is the 3 dollar a pound chicken. So when you don't see the 1.99chk, you grab the 3 dollar chk. Fuckers!!!
You want to know why the selection sucks in the stores??? Ask them about "slotting fees" the companies PAY the store for the shelf space!!!!  Grocery stores get 50% of their income from the slotting fees- fvck the consumer.

1. "We trick you into paying higher prices."
Most of us have spent enough time in supermarkets to think we know how to save a few bucks: Buy in bulk whenever possible and buy brands that are on special. Too bad the supermarket chains have quietly changed the rules.

Bulk buying, it turns out, is often more expensive, simply because in the early 1990s supermarket chains figured out that consumers lean toward it, and they've jacked up prices accordingly. "Supermarkets know that consumers believe a two-pound package is cheaper, ounce per ounce, than a one-pound package," says Arun K. Jain, a marketing professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo. "But the reality is, you're often better off buying two one-pound packages."

2. "Our 'specials' are anything but."
Do you tend to pick up a supermarket circular when you walk into your store, hoping to cash in on the weekly sales? They can be a bad deal. "Shoppers don't bother to compare the price when they have a coupon," says Jain. "So supermarkets use them to unload products that are more expensive than other brands."

Some supermarkets even raise the retail prices on items during weeks in which store coupons will be appearing in newspapers and circulars. "The regular retail prices fluctuate, making the discount seem larger for some sales," says one ad-department employee at a large supermarket chain.


3. [b]"Everybody pays a price for our 'loyalty' program."[/b]
More than 50 million Americans use supermarket loyalty cards that entitle them to special in-store discounts. Who foots the bill? Those customers who refuse to join. "The whole point is to give the best shoppers something special, and you have to pay for that out of something," says David Diamond, president of emerging business for Catalina Marketing, the St. Petersburg, Fla., company that handles many supermarket card programs. "It used to be that everybody got Rice Krispies for, say, 79 cents. Now they're available to anyone for 89 cents, but the best shoppers get them for 49 cents."

And if you do join, you'll pay in another way — with your privacy. Diamond says his company sells to manufacturers only data that don't identify individual consumers. But under special circumstances, your shopping history may be used against you.

Consider the case of Robert Rivera, a 62-year-old retired tow-truck operator in Los Angeles who in 1995 slipped on a carton of spilled yogurt in his local supermarket, shattered his kneecap and filed a lawsuit against the store (later dismissed by the judge for lack of evidence). During a discovery session, Rivera claims, a lawyer for the store threatened to air his buying habits. "He said they had information that I buy a lot of alcohol," says Rivera. "I shop at lots of different stores in the chain. There's no way they could have known that unless they used my club card information."

"They know if you drink, have hemorrhoids or practice safe sex," says Los Angeles consumer advocate Tim Duffy. "I tell people, unless you're using the card to cash checks, give them a fake name." Luckily, your supermarket will usually play along. Safeway, for example, allows members to sign up merely as "Safeway Customer."

4. "Our stores might make you sick..."
You'd be horrified to find roaches, rats or other critters in your kitchen, but those same creatures may be running amok in your grocery store. A 2000 New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets report, for example, found rodents, birds or bugs in the aisles of almost 15% of supermarkets.  


5. "...and if they don't, our employees will."
Six-legged creatures aren't the only cause of harmful bacteria at your supermarket. "Employee practices are probably the No. 1 cause of cross-contamination," says Joseph Reardon, a food compliance supervisor with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The problem, in part, is the nature of the workforce, which is typically unskilled.
6. "Federal guidelines? Who cares?"
While the FDA regularly issues a food code to suggest good safety practices, it's merely a recommendation — the federal government has no role in supermarket inspection. Not surprisingly, few of the 3,000 regional inspection authorities update their local regulations to match the current food code. The result? Utter inconsistency.

The food code, for instance, recommends that cold foods be kept at 41 degrees or lower, but most states set it at 45. The code also recommends that stores be given a maximum of 10 days to correct health violations; Vermont gives stores a month to comply.





7. "'Fresh' is a relative term."
What do some supermarkets do if the steaks don't sell fast enough and start to look a little grungy? Grind it up into hamburger meat. If the chicken is past its "sell by" date? Slap a new label on it.





8. "We like to play head games."
Shoppers who stick to a prepared shopping list are few and far between — and they're also the supermarket's worst enemy.

How do supermarkets capitalize on your tendency to stray? They play soft music in the aisles, inducing you to relax and spend, says Richard Rauch, a professor of marketing at Long Island University who consults for supermarket chains. Some stores, he adds, even use special mood-enhancing lighting that filters out higher frequencies in the visible light spectrum. It produces only relaxing colors such as blues and purples, which reduce the rate at which your eyes blink. "It slows your pace and gets your mind to slow down," says Rauch. "Using lighting to create an atmosphere is not an unusual tactic. Most of the larger, more sophisticated stores use it."

That bakery smells good, doesn't it? There's a reason those ovens are always on full blast. "Studies show the smell of baking bread drives people bonkers," says Jain. The scent drives up sales all over the store. "We haven't encountered these things," says Todd Hultquist, a spokesman for the Food Marketing Institute, a retail association. "Retailers want to offer the best value, quality and selection. That's what drives sales."

9. "Our product offerings are rigged."
So your local supermarket stopped carrying your favorite brand of potato chips? Don't assume it was discontinued. More likely, the manufacturer refused to fork over its "slotting fee" — a payment to the supermarket in return for shelf space.

Many manufacturers gladly pay such fees to score shelf space at eye level, where the products are most likely to attract attention. But other kinds of slotting fees stifle competition, hurt consumers and hold smaller manufacturers over a barrel. Among the worst: "pay to stay" fees — regular payments the manufacturer makes if it wants to sell its goods in the store. According to Rauch, supermarkets make more than half their profits on such fees. It's an issue that many small manufacturers quietly accept for fear of angering the powerful supermarket chains. At a 1999 Senate Small Business Committee hearing on the issue, some small manufacturers testified with hoods and voice scramblers to conceal their identity.



10. "Our scanners are a scam."
While supermarkets were among the first stores to adopt scanners, many stores still can't use them right. A 1998 FTC study of supermarket scanner systems found that roughly a fourth failed to earn a passing grade, and a few chains overcharged customers on more than one out of 12 items.

Gawd I love HEB!

My Wife and i have been shopping at Albertsons for the last 5 years, I refuse to shop at Safeway because of the Card...My wife is about ring my neck for the stunt I pulled last night..We did our shopping for the winter holidays and had about double what we normally buy so we had two shopping carts this time. Well we get to the register and the checker asks me if we have our card, I know that they have started to pass the cards out, but have not seen any yet, So I tell the lady that I have been getting my Groceries from for years, That I dont have my card yet, and to tell me what It does. She tells me that It will save me anywhere from 1%-35% on my total bill at the store, I ask If I give my name and address, she says yes...The store is packed, It is sunday night at about 4:30, I have been standing in line for 15 min before it is my turn, my wife and myself have unloaded a cart and a half to the belt...I told her that I dont shop at Safeway because of the card and that now I will not shop at Albertsons!, I got into a little tiff with my wife, the lady behind us starts to wine..I told my wife that we were going to Fred Meyers and we just walked out!, The lady that was moaning behind us starts in on how I dont have any money!..and was a trouble maker to the people behind her, what I did not know was that my Mom was in line a couple people behind the bitch..and My mom started bitching to!(she knew what I was doing) Now My wife is pissed, That I just left everything behind and we are now on our way out the door, let the store put all the stuff back I dont care, I stop her in the pk lot tell her that I will not have my habbits watched by anyone, and she understands, I guess  she just dont feel like shopping anymore..by then my mom is on the way out with nothing in her hands!...My mom did the same thing!...We decided to put the shopping off till tonight...F*CK YOU ALBERTSONS/SAFEWAY...Now my Prob it that Im still pissed off at Fredmeyers because When I got my monthly gun mags last month..a checker said nice and loud " O- my GAWWDD Are You the sniper?!?!"...I just said that she must be thinking of the wrong Washington area...the Guy behind me said nice and loud "Shut up Bitch!" so I just left it at that..I should have wrote a nice letter to the Head office, but I would guess that they are all membors of DU...

I don't understand all this whining. Aren't we smart enough to beat them at their own game?

What is stopping anyone from putting fake names AND addresses on the card applications??? At both the chains where I shop (and I do have their cards) the card was immediately issued when I handed in the application. I could have put M. Mouse at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, for all it mattered.

As long as were ranting about grocery stores:

There will be 24 checkout lanes, but only 1 or 2 are EVER open. I dont even know why they have that many checkout lanes if they are not going to use them.  There could be 30 people in line and they will only have one lane open.

They would rather have you wait in line, than hire enough employees to open enought lanes to check people out quickly!

[size=5]I HATE LINES![/size=5]

Oh, and no matter which line I pick, the person in fron of me always has a problem, their credit card wont work, or somthing rings up wrong and a manager has to come fix it, or they forgot somthing and have to go get it, or they are using food stamps etc!

AARRRGG!!

I always pick a line with both a cashier AND a bagger, so I can get our fast. Invariably, the bagger walks away when they start scanning MY gorceries!!!

[>(]

The lines burn me.  I hate the ones that you have to ring up your own groceries.  I told the manager one time, .... so to tell me what you are doing here is that i spend all the time to get the groceries, then ring them up and then bag them MYSELF and then on top of it, PAY THE SAME PRICE.  I told the manager that was BS and i will not support technology that puts young people out of a job and a chance to learn the value of a dollar.

Damn!!! You have cashiers AND baggers???!!!!!
At my POS HEB- the baggers do everything but bag-they return stuff to shelves,wander around aimlessly etc.- they sure as hell aren't rounding up carts in the parking lot.

They idiots workingthe registers don't understand the [b]concept[/b] of " express lane", bunch of slack jawed mouth-breathers!

well i personally work for Randalls/TomThumb which are now Safeway.  they up the prices so when you use your card, it makes it look like you save money.....but you dont.   they all suck!

If you shop at Costco or Sams Club or any other place that requires you to have a membership to shop there you are doing the same thing.
And if you pay with a credit card/debit card they can track you just as well.

My Safeway card users name is L. Zepplin.

Exactly.

Another bold move that I got recently in Toys-R-Us is them asking for my phone number (!!!). Yeah. I'm going to give you THAT info so I can be bothered endlessly about AL siding, storm windows, etc. At first I began the usual "why do you need that info for me to make a purchase". It was quickly apparent that the standard 555-1212 was the best answer. The teenage girl kind of giggled when I said that and commented on how common that number is. [:)]

well unfortuneatly most of the Winn Dixies are gone in my area of texas.  they were pretty good.  I miss them.  I have to suffer with walmart now.  but at least i can get some hoppes #9.  lol
we all have these grips and problems.  Lets find a way to put an end to the grocery rapings.  didnt a lot of department stores get in trouble for raising the prices and then puttin them on sale?  Y arent all businesses required to follow that law?  if not im gonna start a business... Rape U Make U Payfor It.  The company would do just that.  And you have to give you personal info so that i can contact you anytime in need to make some cash.  We need to stand up as a country and stop this crap.

my albertson card says my name is mr kroger with their address, and my kroger card says mr albertson, with their addy.

I hate those damn cards!!!!!!

txlewis

Get some friends together for a shopping spree and approach different lines at the same time.

When they are done checking and bagging your groceries, hold up all the lines by checking your receipt for a few minutes.
Repeat this as often as possible.

Unless Im behind you, then you'll be advised to do that somewhere else.