Safeway/Albertsons Phone App

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storewanderer
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Re: Safeway/Albertsons Phone App

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: October 17th, 2020, 7:23 am I agree!

I feel it takes more time scrolling through crap to find whatever.

I do not want to hold my phone in a store and do whatnot.

And then have to remember for something else at the check stand to scan something with my phone again? Like my Rewards?

Then check my receipt to see if all the crap worked?

Not a fan of this at all.
Safeway is the absolute worst for this too when multiple promotions are involved with the same item. Their discount lines for Just for You offers do not always have a description of the discount, instead they have some weird series of numbers so unless you scan your card/enter phone number first, then watch as you scan each item (and in some cases you have to press finish/pay to get the discounts to all fall off) you do not know if items come off right until after you pay and if there is an error is is very confusing and unclear to the cashier to attempt to resolve it. I've given up on this process and I just scan everything, pay for it, then check the receipt and go back for a refund if something is wrong. I will say I have not been back for a refund in a while (the last time was back before we had to wear masks so it has been a while) so the discounts do seem to be working pretty well and as I'd expect them to work. But the issue with Safeway is there are too many discounts on the same item. Too many hoops:

For instance a few weeks ago you had this circus:
Magnum Ice Cream 14 oz 6.29
Sale with card 3.00
Digital offer: buy 2 pay 2.50 each per weekly ad (so this was a store coupon offer)
Digital Manufacturer Coupon 1.25 off 1 or 2.50 off 2

So you scan two cups of ice cream and you have 5 discount line items show up under the prices on the screen (3.29, 3.29, .50, .50, and the 2.50).

Also I have noticed weighted Just for You discounts (produce by pound or meat by pound) show up as a single line item without the 1.00 lb @ .25/lb- display on the screen so it is unclear what exactly is being deducted, and these also show up with the weird J4U 416846516151651 description on the screen so you don't even know what item they are for until the receipt prints.

Overall this is a terribly complicated web they have going with this system. I really hoped Albertsons would get rid of this program. Instead they have kept it going and expanded it. I think the reason they keep this program going is in an effort to get customers to use their website and potentially do online grocery orders or something because otherwise the average customer would never connect to the grocer online. Also another news flash the customer who is hunting for coupons and deals is unlikely to do an online ordering where there is a service fee and a disclaimer that online prices may be higher than in-store prices (which are already outrageous). When was the last time any of us went to the WinCo website- it has been months for me, last time I looked was to check their hours at some point during the COVID short hours period.

Kroger's system is a lot more clear what discounts you are getting while you are paying, but you have to press total to get any of their digital offers to show up on the screen unlike Safeway where the offers show up with no rhyme or reason. The digital coupons show on the self checkout as "eCpn Ice Cream" or some description like that and usually all appear together on the screen.
storewanderer
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Re: Safeway/Albertsons Phone App

Post by storewanderer »

My next complaint about Safeway's Coupon App Update: previously you could sort the items you had offers for (the 300+ offers) into categories (for instance: frozen food, dairy food, paper and cleaning, liquor, pet, etc.). This was good for me as I walked through the store in a given department I could quickly go into that department category on the app and see the available offers.

Well, it appears this functionality is gone and now it is split into two categories "items you buy" and "items you may like."

Of course, since I don't buy much there, 90%+ of my offers were in the "items you may like" section.

I guess I should just be happy I got the app back?
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Re: Safeway/Albertsons Phone App

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: October 17th, 2020, 1:10 am

These apps with "store promotions" really need to go away. What is happening is if you do not use these store apps at the stores that offer them, you really pay more. These apps are no longer a bonus savings, they are necessary just to get what used to be the savings everyone got.

When these apps started they were truly "extra savings" above what the normal everyday customer already would get.

I do not see many other customers messing with their phone while shopping and engaged with these savings apps. I think the appeal is limited.
I cringe every time I see a Fred Meyer ad since they started requiring the card for everything, showing their cartoon "people" dancing around in the store saving money while holding their cell phones, driving home the point that you have to play games to save money there now.
pseudo3d wrote: October 16th, 2020, 10:48 pm Sometime earlier this year H-E-B made a big deal about their yellow coupons...tear-off coupons located through the store to get a few dollars off on certain items, were now on the app, using a complicated "scan the coupon and show the phone to the cashier" system.

The paper coupons returned within a month.
Fred Meyer used to do this, mostly on the GM side of the store. A friend of mine told me they have now incorporated this into the card.


I shop where I can consistently find fair prices without playing games. Fred Meyer used to fit in to this category. I have pretty much stopped shopping at Fred Meyer (with the exception of an occasional gallon of milk) and do not shop at Safeway for the same reasons. WinCo now gets most of my grocery business.
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Re: Safeway/Albertsons Phone App

Post by veteran+ »

storewanderer wrote: October 17th, 2020, 9:52 pm My next complaint about Safeway's Coupon App Update: previously you could sort the items you had offers for (the 300+ offers) into categories (for instance: frozen food, dairy food, paper and cleaning, liquor, pet, etc.). This was good for me as I walked through the store in a given department I could quickly go into that department category on the app and see the available offers.

Well, it appears this functionality is gone and now it is split into two categories "items you buy" and "items you may like."

Of course, since I don't buy much there, 90%+ of my offers were in the "items you may like" section.

I guess I should just be happy I got the app back?
Exactly!!

Even the scrolling through categories is a pain. I will often find food items in HBA or Liquor.

So annoying!!!
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Re: Safeway/Albertsons Phone App

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: October 18th, 2020, 7:32 am
Exactly!!

Even the scrolling through categories is a pain. I will often find food items in HBA or Liquor.

So annoying!!!
Sometimes the categories were interesting. Fried chicken offer under "meat" instead of "deli." Well, yes, it is meat. But it is found in the deli.
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Re: Safeway/Albertsons Phone App

Post by Bagels »

The app's presentation is localized; there's no changes to it here in SoCal.

I really enjoy the J4U program. The downside is that it's poorly executed -- we have one account that we use regularly, and another that's used infrequently. That account gets much better offers -- $10 off $10, tons of free stuff, etc. all the time. Our primary account gets nothing. It wasn't always this way -- prior to COVID, we'd get great personalized deals on items we bought all the time; e.g. 29c for a lb. of bananas, 99c for apples, $1.67 for mushrooms, $1.99 for a store cut fruit cup, etc. You could stack these with weekly $2/3/4/5 off coupons (off 20,30,40 or 50) and walk out with a great deal. Not so much since COVID.

The downside to the app is its programming -- coupons often don't get deducted, and sometimes they do get deducted when they shouldn't be deducted. Plenty of people have taken advantage of this to get some incredible finds :).
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Re: Safeway/Albertsons Phone App

Post by storewanderer »

I noticed when I shopped Safeway this weekend the app category view is back and I can search it by item again. At this point the app is back to its previous functionality as far as I used it historically goes anyway.

Some of the Safeway divisions are more generous than others with the app offers, I've learned when traveling. The NorCal Division has been very stingy for years now, they throw a few good personalized prices out there that are usually pennies off the sale prices they have and they are usually on items I have purchased in the past. Other offers are terrible, often times higher than the price is in the local store. Personalized offers for 8.49/lb deli chicken strips (local store is 7.99/lb), bananas at 0.67/lb (local store is 0.55/lb), gallons of milk at 2.99 (local store is 2.98) are 100% pointless as they yield zero discount. I cannot figure out why they do this- as you say, poor execution seems to be the reason.

Vons seemed to be more generous historically, but last time I was at Vons was this past summer so something must have changed. Oregon and Intermountain continue to have good app offers at least as recently as a couple months ago, lots of $1 off any bakery, any produce, any yogurt, etc. type offers at those divisions but I got few offers there on actual items.

Long ago NorCal Safeway extended the $5 Friday to all week with the app. That was a good offer.
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