HI,

This evening I stopped by Jewel because a sale was expiring. The deal was three boxes of Kellogg's cereal for $5 plus a coupon for a free gallon of milk up to $3.50.

There was new packaging for Kellogg's cereal with some boxes having as little as 8 ounces and others of the same size at least 12 ounces. I read the fine print of the ad offering Kellogg's cereal from 6.7 ounces (rough recollection of the low end) up to 18 ounces (very precise recollection of the high end). No fool, I selected cereals up to the 18 ounces.

A young woman with a baby also puzzled and reread the ad. It had a too good to be true feel to it. She also questioned what I had, I showed her the fine print. I then saw a new detail: coupon at checkout for the milk.

Not wanting to propogate inaccurate information, I walked up to the front desk. The service counter was already closed. I talked to a check-out clerk who was leaving for the evening. She affirmed it was cereal up to 18 ounces. About the milk, she said they give you a coupon to obtain milk free. This can be done as a second transaction immediately after paying for the cereal.

Despite all these assurances, I still had a feeling this was not going to work as stated. After feeling skunked at Baskin Robbins earlier this evening, I was prepared to not buy this cereal if stuff went south.

At check out, I brought six boxes of cereal, two gallons of milk and two dozen eggs. I estimated total expenses of $12 plus tax. After scanning my order, the clerk announced a final cost of just under $24. I pointed out the ad specified box weight and nothing else. He asked for management.

A manager came from some far away place to explain I was wrong in my interpretation. My friend behind me had also planned to buy cereal. She learned her smaller weight boxes also didn't qualify, either.

I declared I would not buy the cereal or milk, though I would take the eggs. I thought the clerk would hit a button to cancel the sale. Nope, he went one by one to revoke each cereal box until he was down to my two cartons of eggs.

To be fair, it is possible there were better labels on the displays. It is likely they had already switched over labels to represent sales beginning tomorrow. Maybe not, though the print ad did convey weight as the standard for selection.

I did leave with eggs only.

I was tempted to post this under a certain thread related to cashing checks, because my purchase did slow up the line considerably. When I finally left, there were people waiting and likely wondering whom to blame.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:HI,

This evening I stopped by Jewel because a sale was expiring. The deal was three boxes of Kellogg's cereal for $5 plus a coupon for a free gallon of milk up to $3.50.

There was new packaging for Kellogg's cereal with some boxes having as little as 8 ounces and others of the same size at least 12 ounces. I read the fine print of the ad offering Kellogg's cereal from 6.7 ounces (rough recollection of the low end) up to 18 ounces (very precise recollection of the high end). No fool, I selected cereals up to the 18 ounces.

A young woman with a baby also puzzled and reread the ad. It had a too good to be true feel to it. She also questioned what I had, I showed her the fine print. I then saw a new detail: coupon at checkout for the milk.

Not wanting to propogate inaccurate information, I walked up to the front desk. The service counter was already closed. I talked to a check-out clerk who was leaving for the evening. She affirmed it was cereal up to 18 ounces. About the milk, she said they give you a coupon to obtain milk free. This can be done as a second transaction immediately after paying for the cereal.

Despite all these assurances, I still had a feeling this was not going to work as stated. After feeling skunked at Baskin Robbins earlier this evening, I was prepared to not buy this cereal if stuff went south.

At check out, I brought six boxes of cereal, two gallons of milk and two dozen eggs. I estimated total expenses of $12 plus tax. After scanning my order, the clerk announced a final cost of just under $24. I pointed out the ad specified box weight and nothing else. He asked for management.

A manager came from some far away place to explain I was wrong in my interpretation. My friend behind me had also planned to buy cereal. She learned her smaller weight boxes also didn't qualify, either.

I declared I would not buy the cereal or milk, though I would take the eggs. I thought the clerk would hit a button to cancel the sale. Nope, he went one by one to revoke each cereal box until he was down to my two cartons of eggs.

To be fair, it is possible there were better labels on the displays. It is likely they had already switched over labels to represent sales beginning tomorrow. Maybe not, though the print ad did convey weight as the standard for selection.

I did leave with eggs only.

I was tempted to post this under a certain thread related to cashing checks, because my purchase did slow up the line considerably. When I finally left, there were people waiting and likely wondering whom to blame.

Regards,

You do not get the milk free. If you buy the cereal, you get a coupon for a free gallon at a later purchase. That is why it was $24

HI,

The clerk said they process the cereal as one sale. Immediately after they process the millk as a separate sale. I asked in advance, I was hardly asking anything exceptional.

The advertisement was for 3 boxes Kelloggs cereal for $5, plus a gallon of milk purchased later. The six boxes of cereal (up to 18 ounces each) should have been $10. The total was for cereal and eggs only, no milk.

Regards,

Jewel parent says sale talks proceeding

The prices slashed at Jewel may be Jewel itself. In the linked article, there is a graphic of Jewel's parent company Supervalu stock prices from a high around $40 in 2008 to $2.28 recently.

Supervalu, the third-largest U.S. grocery chain, has acknowledged sale talks since the spring. The company has been closing stores and cutting jobs as it has underperformed competitors like Dominick's parent Safeway and Kroger.

If Supervalu does not sell to Cerberus, it may have to restructure on its own or sell off individual assets, which could have big tax consequences, Bloomberg said.

The full page Walmart ad in today's Sunday Trib, comparing receipts for two identical shopping lists of 32 items purchased at Walmart and Jewel, with Walmart coming in around $30 under Jewel, was pretty devastating. It was another reason to not want to be Jewel right about now.

Hi- Yes Walmart is cheaper on everyday prices, but their selection of food is much smaller than Jewel's is, and the closest Walmart to me is at least five miles away. If you live near a Walmart, you can do price matching with other stores, and save some money, but Walmart has an everyday low price philosophy, and does not technically have sales like Jewel and Dominick's do. Yesterday I have 36% on my grocery bill at Dominick's, and that was a bad day. Some weeks I save 60%-70% at Jewel and Dominick's, by hitting the sales there, and using coupons. Back in March, when they had frozen food month at Dominick's, I saved 96% on one shopping trip. That trip included a DiGiornos pizza, and a bunch of frozen healthy dinners that were on clearance, and I had coupons for, along with a few Kashi dinners that I had coupons for.

Yesterday I was in both Jewel and Dominick's, and the Dominick's on Green Bay was really busy in the middle of the afternoon. I think that Dominick's J4U program, is drawing a lot of people into the store that would not go there otherwise. I ended up not buying anything at Jewel, and I found much better deals at Dominick's. Hope this helps, Nancy

NFriday wrote:Walmart has an everyday low price philosophy, and does not technically have sales like Jewel and Dominick's do. Yesterday I [saved] 36% on my grocery bill at Dominick's, and that was a bad day. Some weeks I save 60%-70% at Jewel and Dominick's, by hitting the sales there, and using coupons. Back in March, when they had frozen food month at Dominick's, I saved 96% on one shopping trip.

It does help, Nancy. Clearly there's more to it. All I know is, I took one look at that (IMO) highly effective ad, imagined myself to be Jewel, and went, "Oh f___."

Hi- That is what Walmart is hoping most people are going to say when they see the ad. I can't see myself doing all my grocery shopping at Walmart anyway, since their selection is so small. I believe that they only have two brands of OJ at Walmart, and the Tropicana brand is usually $3.39, and Dominick's and Jewel frequently put it on sale for $3.00, and I could have gotten Florida Natural at Dominick's yesterday for $2.79. I got a carton of Dole orange juice at Dominick's last week for $1.99 after I used my $1 off coupon. Walmart does not even carry Dole juice.

riddlemay wrote:The full page Walmart ad in today's Sunday Trib, comparing receipts for two identical shopping lists of 32 items purchased at Walmart and Jewel, with Walmart coming in around $30 under Jewel, was pretty devastating. It was another reason to not want to be Jewel right about now.

I walked into Dominick's Saturday morning to get my "I have to work on Saturday" coffee and bagel. The first things that I saw were two signs - Honeycrisp apples for $1.99/ lb and Avacados for 10/ $10. On Thursday, I bought the same thing at Aldi for $1.29 and $0.59.

Safeway and SuperValu CANNOT compete on price. Their overhead - labor, utility costs, are generally higher than the low-priced competitors.

Local independents (Caputo's, Joseph's Marketplace, etc.) realize that they cannot compete on price. Nor do they feel a a need to. They know that in MANY areas, they offer a SUPERIOR product than those you find in the low-cost entrants. They do a lot better than Walmart in the deli, meat, and produce categories, which are most of the purchases that I make on a weekly basis.

Personally, I cannot find a compelling reason to enter a Jewel store as I am moving my checking account away from TCF bank. Jewel offers NOTHING that I cannot get elsewhere at a lower price. And Dominick's is little better except that they have Starbuck's and a pretty decent bakery.

(For the record, other than to purchase underwear and some of their artisan bread, I have not been to Walmart in over a year. I am just too darned lazy to walk a quarter mile to pick up a couple of grocery items. Also, they don't have self checkouts.

NFriday wrote:Hi- That is what Walmart is hoping most people are going to say when they see the ad. I can't see myself doing all my grocery shopping at Walmart anyway, since their selection is so small. I believe that they only have two brands of OJ at Walmart, and the Tropicana brand is usually $3.39, and Dominick's and Jewel frequently put it on sale for $3.00, and I could have gotten Florida Natural at Dominick's yesterday for $2.79. I got a carton of Dole orange juice at Dominick's last week for $1.99 after I used my $1 off coupon. Walmart does not even carry Dole juice.

This post just struck a chord in me. In deciding between OJ prices, I compare the "not from concentrate" to the "from concentrate." Every week there is a store in my rotation that will have Tropicana or Fla Natural for 2.50.
Dole and Minute Maid cartons are both from concentrate. At 1.99, imo, relatively speaking, Dole at 1.99 is a mild rip, in that for 51 c more, I can get a "not from concentrate" product which generally has a far superior taste. I see Dole regularly at a 2 for $3 price on sale. A dollar spread between "from" and "not from" will probably make me lean towards the from concentrate product. Minute maid "from concentrate" products will generally not dip lower than 2 for 5 for some reason - most likely advertising, and them getting over on name recognition. Their NFC products do hit the 2 for 5 as well, but FLa Natural and Trop are generally weekly locks for $2.50 somewhere.

Hi- I just had to jump in here. In Evanston we have 1 independent grocery store, which is small and is not cheap, and no produce places. All we have are Jewel, Dominick's, two Whole Foods, a Food4Less and an Aldi's which is at the very end of town. The closest Walmart to me is at least five miles away. I happen to go by WF, Dominick's and Jewel on a regular basis, and so I do not have to spend any money on gas to get there. Other than in Skokie, there is nothing in the north shore that compares to Caputos. I don't know why there are not any produce places in Evanston. They were going to open on up where Asbury Street Market used to be, and funding fell through.

I do go to Aldi's on occasion, and I was there last week because I was in the neighborhood, but I am very selective about the produce I get there. I have had some bad experiences with produce there. When the farmer's market is open, I would rather buy it there anyway. I also have a garden, and so I get a lot of veggies from that. The Aldi's in Evanston does not have cheap milk like some of the Aldi's do. For a while I could get cheaper milk at Dominick's than I could at Aldi's.

I almost never buy anything in the deli department. I don't eat a lot of meat, and the salads they have, I would rather make from scratch myself, because then I know what goes in them.

Also for the person that said that they could get Tropicana for $2.50. I can rarely get Tropicana that cheap, because like I said we only have one independent grocery store, and no way am I driving five miles just to get cheap orange juice. I can get it for $3 fairly regularly at Dominick's and Jewel, and I can get Florida Natural and Minute Maid on occasion at Dominick's for $2.50 or less. Yes, I like the not from concentrate juice better, but the other is acceptable for me if the price is a lot cheaper. Thanks, Nancy

NFriday wrote:The closest Walmart to me is at least five miles away.

One reason the Trib ad struck me as such an effectively devastating threat to Jewel is that I'm aware (on the edges of my consciousness) that Walmart is opening up smaller places in the city that are just supermarkets. There's one (I think) on Chicago and Franklin in the former Pearl art supply store, another on Broadway in the gray area between Lakeview and Uptown, and another in the West Loop. It used to be the case that there wasn't a Walmart anywhere around me, but it isn't the case anymore. And I'm sure their five-year plan is that there'll be one of these Walmart supermarkets within a half-mile of everyone, no matter where you live.

Hi- The Aldi's I went to a week ago, is right down the street from one of those Walmarts. I believe it is called Walmart Express. It was the first time I had ever seen one of those stores. I did not realize it was only going to be groceries. I can't see Aldi's hurting that much from Walmart. BTW- The Aldi's on Broadway has next to no parking. Do most of the people who visit the store walk there? It looked like the store was fairly busy, even though there was not a lot of parking.

Now I know why the Aldi's on Broadway has cheap milk, where the one in Evanston does not. It's because of Walmart. The two closest Walmarts to me are located right across the street from a Jewel, and both of the Jewel stores still seem to do tons of business, and as far as I know neither Jewel store has cheap milk. The Walmart on Touhy, is also located in the same shopping center as Fresh Farms, and Fresh Farms is not hurt at all by Walmart. As a matter of fact, that Walmart has a much smaller produce section than the other Walmart does. I've heard that Fresh Farms realizes that it can't match Walmart's prices on staples such as milk and cereal, and so it does not even try to.

They already have a Sam's Club in Evanston, and so I doubt that they would build one of those miniwalmart's. I heard that they are building a new Walmart near the Lincolnwood Town Center anyway I heard.

One thing I can't figuire out from Walmart's ad is whether they approach people as they are walking into Jewel about being in a Walmart ad. It seems like all of the Walmart Ads I see on TV, show people buying at least $100 worth of groceries, and the chances of somebody buying that many groceries at Jewel, and then finding the same identical items at Walmart are slim to none, unless the compare Walmart brand to Jewel brand. Thanks, Nancy

Here is super-coupon gal Jill Cataldo discussing her experience with the Walmart receipt comparison:

http://www.jillcataldo.com/walmart_comparison_tool_lies

Cheers, Jen

riddlemay wrote:

NFriday wrote:The closest Walmart to me is at least five miles away.

One reason the Trib ad struck me as such an effectively devastating threat to Jewel is that I'm aware (on the edges of my consciousness) that Walmart is opening up smaller places in the city that are just supermarkets. There's one (I think) on Chicago and Franklin in the former Pearl art supply store, another on Broadway in the gray area between Lakeview and Uptown, and another in the West Loop. It used to be the case that there wasn't a Walmart anywhere around me, but it isn't the case anymore. And I'm sure their five-year plan is that there'll be one of these Walmart supermarkets within a half-mile of everyone, no matter where you live.

I live near the Chicago & Franklin store & its amazingly convenient, not just for groceries, but the pharmacy & various household basics. I don't run a car & proximity is important.

They'll ship anything from walmart.com to the store for pick up for free. BTW they also have self-checkout registers.

Hi- I regularly post on Jill Cataldo's site. I always check her deals of the week, which she usually posts on Sunday, in which she lists the best deals of the week for Dominick's, Jewel, CVS, Walgreen, Meijer's, Target, Walmart and a few chains out near Rockford. It is interesting that when she lists the deals for Jewel, Dominick's, CVS, Meijer's and Walgreens, she has tons of deals, but when she lists the deals for Walmart, she never lists more than a few. She also tells you what coupons are out there to match with the sales.

I love her site, but a lot of the food items that people who visit buy are processed food, because that is what the great majority of the sales and coupons are for. Like right now there is a big sale on Hershey's kisses, and a lot of people there are stocking up. If you look at her receipt, you notice that she bought a ton of frozen apple juice at Meijer's, because it was on sale for a dollar a can, and I am sure she had coupons for them.

I should give Jill credit though. She is the one who alerted the media a few years ago about all the expired food at all the Dominick's stores, and forced them to go through all their store shelfs, looking for expired product. As a matter of fact, somebody that posts over there gave a link to this site, and displayed the picture that Kenny Z posted showing mold present on the bakery item he spotted in a Dominick's store.

Jill has also posted a lot about ethics in couponing, and is very much against the Extreme Couponing show on TLC, because it has been discovered that some of the contestants on the show have used counterfeit coupons, which they have purchase off ebay.

Hope this helps, Nancy
Hope this helps, Nancy

NFriday wrote:I should give Jill credit though. She is the one who alerted the media a few years ago about all the expired food at all the Dominick's stores, and forced them to go through all their store shelfs, looking for expired product. As a matter of fact, somebody that posts over there gave a link to this site, and displayed the picture that Kenny Z posted showing mold present on the bakery item he spotted in a Dominick's store.

I like the website but honestly, other than displaying the meat deals, it seems like most of the food is processed.

As for Dominick's, it was pretty obvious 3-4 years ago. I would walk into any of four Dominick's stores and see rows and rows of food with teh pink discount stickers. I have to confess that it was a great opportunity - butter for 0.99/lb, half & half for 0.50/qt. etc. They seem to have corrected the issues recently.

By the way, all of the Hilander Stores (formerly Kroger's) have been converted to Logli Stores (Schnuck's).

Hi- Yes people get a lot more excited on Jill's site about Hershey's Kisses than they do about fresj veggies. In a few weeks there should be $10 coupons in the Chicago Trib. for Fannie Mae. People went crazy on Jill's site last year, because there was just a minimum $10 purchase, and so it meant lots of free candy. BTW- Jill lives out in Huntley, and that is probably why she posts Kroger and the other stores out that way. I don't know if there is an Aldi's out her way, and plus she does not include them in her deals every week, because they have every day low pricing. She did mention Aldi's oriduce sales this week, and said that you could price match them at Walmart, and use the coupon for the Cuties that was in Sunday's paper.

I agree-- the coupon inserts in the paper have become nearly useless to me, except around "baking" holidays like Thanksgiving, when I might be able to get discounts on flour and sugar. Otherwise, just loads of processed crap.

Still interesting to know about the Fannie Mae coupon-- bet they raise the minimum this year!

Cheers, Jen

Hi- I load a lot of coupons to my Dominick's and Jewel card, through J4U, Saving Star and Jewel's website. I also use a lot of checkout coupons that I get at Dominick's and Jewel. I usually use the self checkout, and often other customers in the self checkout line, leave their checkout coupons there, and I have gotten coupons for $5 off your next shopping order that people have left there. Jewel has been printing a lot of store checkout coupons for stuff such as dishwashing detergent, soap, kleenex, toilet paper and other paper products, and you can stack them with manufacturer's coupons. I also on occasion print coupons off coupons.com or another coupon site. I just printed coupons for minute maid pure squeezed orange juice, and Kellogg's raisin bran. The majority of the coupons I clip out of the Sunday paper are for nonfood stuff, although I do cut out a lot of coupons for cereal and chicken sausage and juice when I can find it. I rarely spend over $1.50 on a box of cereal.

Pie-love wrote:Still interesting to know about the Fannie Mae coupon-- bet they raise the minimum this year!

Cheers, Jen

They just had a coupon that was good on 11/30 & 12/1 only. 1 lb boxes of Pixies,Colonials,or Mint Meltaways for 9.99

Hi- Fannie May just had a $10 off $20 in the Chicago Trib. too.

NFriday wrote:I should give Jill credit though. She is the one who alerted the media a few years ago about all the expired food at all the Dominick's stores, and forced them to go through all their store shelfs, looking for expired product. As a matter of fact, somebody that posts over there gave a link to this site, and displayed the picture that Kenny Z posted showing mold present on the bakery item he spotted in a Dominick's store.

This problem has not gone away.... I rarely shop at Dominick's, but I stopped by the one on Green Bay Road in Evanston a few weeks ago and noticed that many of the items in the "Signature Cafe" display were past their expiration dates. When I slid back the cardboard sleeve on a couple of the packages, mold was clearly evident. One of the store managers happened to be walking by, and I (quietly and discreetly) pointed out the problem to him. He walked away without saying a word to me, so I watched to see what happened. He eventually came back with a deli employee and ordered him to clear out the case. If I'm at Dominick's again, I certainly wouldn't buy anything without looking carefully at the expiration date.

Hi- I almost always look at the date when I am at Dominick's. I usually shop at the Green Bay store, or the one on Dempster and Dodge. One of the persons that posts regularly on Jill's site, recently went in Dominick's to buy some butter. They had challenge butter on sale, and she had some dollar coupons for it. The shelf was full, but all of the butter had expired in April of 2012. She informed a store employee of it, and waited for another shipment to come in a few days later.

I've noticed that Dominick's has much more stuff marked down, that is soon to expire than Jewel does. I always check the store for meet deals. Sometimes they have chicken sausage 50% off, and I can frequently find coupons for it. There is something about how it takes forever for the food to leave the warehouse, and so sometimes by the time it ends up in the store, there is only a few more days to go before it is set to expire. Also since safeway took over Dominick's, they had cut staff, and so the people that stock the shelves, do not usually have time to bring the old stuff to the front of the shelf. Jill goes into all this on her site. Apparently most stores only have something like three employees on the night crew to stock the shelves. From what I have heard most of the Dominick's employees hate working for Safeway, and wish that another chain would take over Dominick's.

Pie-love wrote:Still interesting to know about the Fannie Mae coupon-- bet they raise the minimum this year!

Cheers, Jen

In tomorrow's Tribune. One page Insert
$10.00 off an In Store Purchase. No minimum Purchase required. Valid through 12/15/2012

I am with Nancy on this whole debate of Jewel vs Walmart prices. Those ads annoy me because how can Walmart possibly compare when their grocery selection isn't that huge? It's all marginal items and a low selection of goods. In other words, they aren't a full line grocery store so I find those ads somewhat misleading in a way because Jewel is. Most of the "groceries" Walmart has is not stuff I want and I can get at the same price at either Aldi or a grocery store more convenient to me.

I am no fan of Jewel either, but their new slashed prices are ok. I live much closer to a Jewel than a Walmart but I don't do full groceries at Jewel, I leave that for the independents so both of them can take that HA! I mostly just pick up booze and snacks there so I guess they're good for something. Cleaned up on some wine on clearance.

Hi- The $10 off Fannie May coupons are only in some of today's Sunday trib. The coupon is on a separate page, and the page is red. There appears to be no rhyme or reason as to how the coupon is distributed. Supposedly there is a one time use coupon that you can use online. I heard about this on mashupmom. Thanks, Nancy

Hi- Sometimes Jewel has realy good clearance prices on things they are discontinuing and on holiday stuff. About a month ago, I got four cans of red salmon, that were originally priced at $4 a can, and were reduced to $1. I also got a 33 oz. bag of eight o clock whole bean half caff coffee that they were discontinuing for $3. You can use coupons on the clearance stuff. Sometimes they have some really good deals on clearance stuff, and sometimes they don't. It depends on who is doing the pricing, and make sure you go to the price scanner, to make sure that the clearance item is actually scanning correctly. I have often found that some of the supposed clearance stuff scans at the regular price, and really has not been marked down.

Dominick's on the other hand, marks almost all of their clearence stuff at 50% off, in which most cases us not that good of a deal, unless I also have a coupon. Hope this helps, Nancy

Single jalapeño at Jewel. $0.99
Single jalapeño at Caputo's $0.09


Boy do I hate Jewel for this kind of pricing.....

Jewel's produce prices are crazy. Unless I just need one onion or one lime or something and don't feel like making that extra stop at Cermak Grocery or Pete's Market or whatever, I nevereverever buy produce at Jewel. The prices are invariably insane.