Ralphs Discontinuing Traditional Printed Ads

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CalItalian
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Ralphs Discontinuing Traditional Printed Ads

Post by CalItalian »

Got 2-page color glossy insert in the snail mail that says "Your Ralphs is Going Green!"
No more ads to be delivered in the snail mail or available in store. Only online or app.
My closest Ralphs is Ralphs Fresh Fare in Westwood Village. Ralphs largest and #1 volume store.

I have seen a lot of people picking up ads at this Ralphs which serves both the UCLA community and the surrounding pretty affluent neighborhoods - which includes a lot of older people. I don't know if this is wise yet.
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Re: Ralphs Discontinuing Traditional Printed Ads

Post by storewanderer »

Kroger is making one stupid move after another this year. I almost am feeling as if the company is trying to have lousy numbers this year and then will try to make things look good again next year due to having lousy numbers this year.

The ad is used by people for shopping, planning meals, etc. The ad is also used by store employees to assist with ordering and other tasks.

Is this all Ralphs or only some district centered around that store? I do not see this working out too well in places like Palm Springs, Orange County, or San Diego where there is a lot of competition...
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Re: Ralphs Discontinuing Traditional Printed Ads

Post by klkla »

Interesting move. In the past these ads have been pretty much paid for by vendor promotional allowances.

The problem in my neighborhood is that too many ads are delivered on the same day combined with fast food flyers and other clutter. It's annoying. I know all my junk mail goes straight to the garbage and I never look at any of the ads.
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Re: Ralphs Discontinuing Traditional Printed Ads

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:Kroger is making one stupid move after another this year. I almost am feeling as if the company is trying to have lousy numbers this year and then will try to make things look good again next year due to having lousy numbers this year.

The ad is used by people for shopping, planning meals, etc. The ad is also used by store employees to assist with ordering and other tasks.

Is this all Ralphs or only some district centered around that store? I do not see this working out too well in places like Palm Springs, Orange County, or San Diego where there is a lot of competition...
Yeah, I can see one but not both. The ad is used to direct to what to look for and maybe see something on the way, and at the very least, it's advertising. It's especially probably not the best time when Pavilions is improving with glossy ads and attractive stores.
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Re: Ralphs Discontinuing Traditional Printed Ads

Post by arizonaguy »

Safeway had planned on eliminating traditional printed ads prior to the Albertsons merger.

It was part of their "going green" initiative which also advocated the phase out of free plastic bags.

I can't see how this would work if Kroger tried to do it in Arizona. Every major grocer in Arizona has some sort of printed ad (except for Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Winco). Even Smart and Final has traditional printed ads that get mailed out. With the massive retiree population here, they'd bleed business to the other grocers.
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Re: Ralphs Discontinuing Traditional Printed Ads

Post by klkla »

arizonaguy wrote: Every major grocer in Arizona has some sort of printed ad (except for Trader Joe's.
Do the Arizona stores do the monthly Fearless Flyer mailing? That has been Trader Joe's version of a print ad for years.
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Re: Ralphs Discontinuing Traditional Printed Ads

Post by rwsandiego »

klkla wrote:
arizonaguy wrote: Every major grocer in Arizona has some sort of printed ad (except for Trader Joe's.
Do the Arizona stores do the monthly Fearless Flyer mailing? That has been Trader Joe's version of a print ad for years.
Yes, I have received one since moving to Phoenix.

The interesting thing about Ralphs is up until ~2011/2012 I would receive their ad every week. This was great because the closest Ralphs stores were Hillcrest and Mission Valley and both required "destination" shopping trips, unlike the VONS three blocks away that I passed when I went everywhere - including to Ralphs. I could monitor sales at VONS by popping into the store, but couldn't do that at Ralphs unless I wanted to drive over there every day. In 2011/2012 I stopped receiving them. When I inquired at the store they told me I was too far away from the stores to receive them.

Guess where I stopped shopping on a regular basis?

**EDIT** I stopped shopping there because it was a pain to figure out their sales, not because I felt slighted by the decision to not send me ads.
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Re: Ralphs Discontinuing Traditional Printed Ads

Post by CalItalian »

The West Los Angeles district stores are the first to "go green". I was in a number of Ralphs today. Everything from Hawthorne (just south of LAX) northward in West Los Angeles are now green. Both regular and Fresh Fare stores. I really think it is unwise in Hawthorne since this location appeals to both Black and Hispanic residents, the vast majority in that community, and the ad is slightly tailored to the neighborhood (and a few other similar Ralphs). Nobody shopping in this location is going to check a Ralphs app for the ad.

At least, I wish they plastered the ad up on the door entrances or similar as they do at times for a sporadic Sunday ad or a weekend ad. The ad is nowhere to be found in any of these locations in West L.A..

Redondo Beach and Torrance, which I was also in today, still have ads.
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Re: Ralphs Discontinuing Traditional Printed Ads

Post by storewanderer »

Kroger has really lost it. The prior decade, Kroger seemed to be in a mindset where, with almost everything they did, it was all about trying to grow sales and grow volume.

Now it seems to have shifted to a "how can we cut costs" mindset. So now we get stupid ideas. Cutting of merchandise mix and adding of a loyalty card in some Spokane Fred Meyer test market, cutting of print ads in some Ralphs district, who knows what other "ideas" along these same lines they are trying in other places.

I also notice virtually no ideas imported into the rest of Kroger from Mariano's or Harris Teeter which are full of great ideas, particularly on fresh foods, and are ideas that would likely cost money and cost some shrink but help grow sales.

That glossy Pavilions ad looks the same as the print ads Marianos has been running for the past 3-4 years. I am not sure fancying up print ads is the answer but it is definitely a better answer than flat out eliminating the print ads. Safeway's print ads are far too many pages, the papers fall out or fall off as you open them, and the print in the ads is very small. The majority of the items in the ad have higher ad prices than Wal Mart's regular prices and too many difficult "terms" to get the promotional prices like must have coupon, must buy 2 limit 2, etc.

One time in the mid 1990's in my market in Reno, Albertsons eliminated its weekly ad circular and shifted to a 1-2 full page ad in the newspaper A section. That ad would have about 8 very very hot special prices to drive traffic, all with quantity limits, and most selling at losses. There was no printed circular. That "test" lasted for a year or so and it cost them a lot of full cart shops to Safeway at the time as the two were competing directly in a lot of locations and Safeway at that time was heavy on print ads, coupon books, etc. Perhaps that idea was simply ahead of its time because I really think today people do not want to deal with coupon books, big books, cutting out coupons, etc. Maybe a few hot deals is the answer at this time, so you can do a simple one page hot price ad, and hope you capture Customer A with the 1.99 12pack of Soda, capture customer B with some 4.28/lb NY Steaks, and capture Customer C with some .34/lb bananas.
Last edited by storewanderer on March 26th, 2017, 10:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Ralphs Discontinuing Traditional Printed Ads

Post by babs »

The era of the weekly printed ad may be ending quicker than you think. It's a huge expense for a retailer. Back in the 90s, I worked for a chain in the west where I directly worked on the ad. It cost us $1 million a week to produce, print and insert the circulars. Obviously it's only gone up from there. Today, the circulation of newspapers is about half of what it was 10 years ago. You are simply hitting a lot fewer people. Most younger people don't get the newspaper, so the ads are only reaching an older demographic.

I'm with you that when I walk into a grocery store, I grab the ad to look for the bargains. But I hate to tell you the age of the weekly newspaper circular is coming to an end. Digital is going to replace it, somehow. Every single retailer is trying to figure out what to do.
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