Kroger "Flash Sales"

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storewanderer
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Kroger "Flash Sales"

Post by storewanderer »

I was in Smiths last week on Wednesday and noticed a sign posted in the main aisle that said "Flash Sale Wednesday October 19 Only 50% off all Kroger Health & Beauty Products." The graphic showed soap, some OTC item, and some bandages. So that meant all Kroger drug items. I did test it and found this deal excluded the "Comforts by Kroger" baby items.

This is interesting in the case of Smiths due to its prices to begin with. The prices are already "discount" prices typically within 10% of what Wal Mart charges on a comparable item.

For instance the small 7.5 ounce Kroger Hand Soaps are 89cents everyday so with this sale they were 45 cents. The 12 ounce Kroger Hand Sanitizers are 1.99 everyday then were on sale 1.50 so this sale made those 75cents.

What I am wondering is what is the point of doing an unadvertised sale like this for one day in the store? Just get some extra sales from customers who are already in the store? I suspect they are losing money on some of these items at 50% off since their prices on the category are already very low (probably still making profit on the OTC items since the mark up on those is unreal).
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Re: Kroger "Flash Sales"

Post by klkla »

storewanderer wrote:What I am wondering is what is the point of doing an unadvertised sale like this for one day in the store? Just get some extra sales from customers who are already in the store? I suspect they are losing money on some of these items at 50% off since their prices on the category are already very low (probably still making profit on the OTC items since the mark up on those is unreal).
Did they advertise this outside of the store at all? It seems strange to give away margins to people that have already made the decision to shop in the store.
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Re: Kroger "Flash Sales"

Post by architect »

storewanderer wrote:I was in Smiths last week on Wednesday and noticed a sign posted in the main aisle that said "Flash Sale Wednesday October 19 Only 50% off all Kroger Health & Beauty Products." The graphic showed soap, some OTC item, and some bandages. So that meant all Kroger drug items. I did test it and found this deal excluded the "Comforts by Kroger" baby items.

This is interesting in the case of Smiths due to its prices to begin with. The prices are already "discount" prices typically within 10% of what Wal Mart charges on a comparable item.

For instance the small 7.5 ounce Kroger Hand Soaps are 89cents everyday so with this sale they were 45 cents. The 12 ounce Kroger Hand Sanitizers are 1.99 everyday then were on sale 1.50 so this sale made those 75cents.

What I am wondering is what is the point of doing an unadvertised sale like this for one day in the store? Just get some extra sales from customers who are already in the store? I suspect they are losing money on some of these items at 50% off since their prices on the category are already very low (probably still making profit on the OTC items since the mark up on those is unreal).
Occasionally, sales such as these are used to drive sales in individual departments which may be lagging, while purposely not drawing in outside customers who are just looking for a one time deal, and who would likely not be drawn to the store otherwise. In this particular case, this store may be strong as a whole, but may be lagging on their health and beauty sales and wants to encourage customers to try these items by offering a steep discount. Kroger-owned stores also often use a similar marketing strategy tied to the loyalty cards, in which they will send coupons for a particular Kroger-branded item for free (to get you to try the item) in their packages of "valued customer" coupons. Over the past several months, I have received several such coupons for Simple Truth pasta, a Kroger granola cereal, and multiple health/beauty items, none of which I had never purchased before.
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Re: Kroger "Flash Sales"

Post by Brian Lutz »

Does anyone outside of Fred Meyer and QFC do the "Free Friday" promotions? If you are signed up on the appropriate website, every Friday you get an e-mail offering a free item that you can put on your shoppper's card through the online coupons they offer.
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