Retail Watchers

Bagels wrote: ↑March 26th, 2023, 11:46 pm

I wonder who the heck is paying these prices, and when the bubble will burst. For $8 (shelf price) Albertsons sells lasagna trays from Rana. The portion is larger and quality better than the $12 Signature Select. And for $4, you can a frozen Shepard’s Lie entree at Trader Joe’s that’s similar to its $12 SS counterpart. Not to mention, most everybody lives near a pizza / Italian food joint that will sell you takeaway meal for less (or slightly more but include soup, salad, etc). No need to bake for 60 minutes…

When I was in Ralphs shortly before closing a few weeks ago, there were at least a dozen carts filled with deli and bakery items that were headed into the trash. My local Ralphs use to deeply discount deli and baked goods but awhile I noticed a giant sign in the employee area that said “it’s long been Kroger’s policy that the maximum mark down cannot exceed 50% of the item’s shelf price.” Of course, this meant that virtually everything being marked down was only a few coins less than something fresh, given that most everything is on sale at any given time. Now I notice that only a few loafs of bread are marked down daily. They still deeply discount other merchandise - I scored a few 4pack Fusion5 cartridges for $1.99 last week.

Trader Joe's has some of the best values around and has increased its prices by far the least of any other store.

A dozen carts of bakery/deli outdates? So much for "zero hunger zero waste." I wonder if some of the bakery was going to the freezer to be given to a food bank, as that is what multiple chains around Reno do.

That is completely not true that Kroger has a policy that markdown cannot exceed 50%. Kroger has lately been changing how it prices markdowns. I am not sure what they are doing. The system is automatically coming up with odd prices that seem to usually be between about 40%-60% off. I think the system may be marking things down to cost. I have seen the same markdown on the same salad mix at 2 different stores on the same day, then a couple weeks later the same 2 stores and the same salad mix marked down again and the price is equal at the two stores but not the same price as 2 weeks ago.

What I have heard lately at Smiths is that the stores are supposed to follow whatever the system says for the markdown. They aren't supposed to manually change the markdown amounts anymore (but they still can, and still sometimes do). I am noticing what has happened on center store items is they do not sell at Kroger's "system markdown" amount and then the store goes along and does a second markdown to an appropriate price to blow the stuff out. This seems to be a waste of time and defeats the purpose of the markdown program to get rid of stuff quickly and efficiently.

This isn't like Wal Mart's system that seems to account for the quantity of a specific item being marked down on a given day and then adjusting the markdown price for the moment (literally) based on that.

What is funny is a few months ago Kroger was routinely marking bakery items 75% off in my area which was odd as in the past they had always gone 50% off. Then they switched to this weird program that has these weird/random markdown prices.

That maximum markdown must be realtively new for Ralphs because we used to markdown severely when appropriate and as a shopper I still see massive markdowns.

veteran+ wrote: ↑March 27th, 2023, 8:49 am That maximum markdown must be realtively new for Ralphs because we used to markdown severely when appropriate and as a shopper I still see massive markdowns.

TBH, I have no idea. Some Ralphs discount much deeper than others. And some don’t discount deli and bakery products but instead just toss them.

The Woodbury (Irvine) Ralph’s has long been stingy with its markdowns. They had several shopping carts filled with Holiday staples - Campbell’s Mushroom Soup, canned yams, canned cranberries, canned gravy, stuffing, etc. “marked down” to a price higher than the Holiday sales prices. Unsurprisingly, they’ve sat there for three months. Then last weekend, they decided to practically give the stuff away (10c for Stovetop Stuffing, 25c for most canned goods). Gotta wonder why just didn’t donate it.

Bagels wrote: ↑March 27th, 2023, 11:25 pm

veteran+ wrote: ↑March 27th, 2023, 8:49 am That maximum markdown must be realtively new for Ralphs because we used to markdown severely when appropriate and as a shopper I still see massive markdowns.

TBH, I have no idea. Some Ralphs discount much deeper than others. And some don’t discount deli and bakery products but instead just toss them.

The Woodbury (Irvine) Ralph’s has long been stingy with its markdowns. They had several shopping carts filled with Holiday staples - Campbell’s Mushroom Soup, canned yams, canned cranberries, canned gravy, stuffing, etc. “marked down” to a price higher than the Holiday sales prices. Unsurprisingly, they’ve sat there for three months. Then last weekend, they decided to practically give the stuff away (10c for Stovetop Stuffing, 25c for most canned goods). Gotta wonder why just didn’t donate it.

This is odd because Kroger actively encourages the stores to mark items down to blow them out. Kroger does not like to have waste/items thrown away. I can't want to see how Safeway handles the Kroger markdown policy (Safeway throws so much away- hardly donates anything). They do allow some items to be donated, but there are a lot of variables there. I talked to some people at Smiths today and they do not have a maximum markdown but repeated like I said before that they are being encouraged to use whatever the suggested markdown price is. However if they have a large quantity of something or it is a seasonal item or discontinued item then they are still able to mark items down to whatever they want to mark them down to. The department managers are aware of their department profitability and that deep markdowns cut into it, but it is a culture thing in Kroger that is widely understood at this point that marking it down and getting $1 for it is better than throwing it away and getting $0 for it.

I have found great markdowns when visiting many Ralphs Stores, even very small stores. What I don't like about Ralphs markdowns is they are usually in an area by the bathrooms, not a great location, but it is what it is.

The Kroger Division I find to be most stingy with markdowns: Fred Meyer. Few markdowns to begin with (since they are so busy), and I never find any deep markdown discounts there and they may well adhere to some kind of 50% maximum markdown rule (often their markdowns aren't even 50% off).

Ralphs also had a program back in the early aughts that returned certain products back to the warehouse (RTW?).

Supposedly because the warehouse would centrally donate for a bigger tax break?

veteran+ wrote: ↑March 28th, 2023, 10:28 am Ralphs also had a program back in the early aughts that returned certain products back to the warehouse (RTW?).

Supposedly because the warehouse would centrally donate for a bigger tax break?

I hate that kind of program. Many chains still do that sort of thing for major resets then sell the pulled goods off to salvage operators by the pound. Wal Mart and Target supposedly "donate" everything.

Safeway absolutely still does that on resets and Fred Meyer does too (lots of stuff from both at the salvage grocer in Portland area). The drug store chains also all send stuff back the warehouses.

Smiths out here in Reno gets most deliveries from third party truck drivers so they can't send anything back to the warehouse since that truck is moving on to some other stop that has nothing to do with Smiths once it leaves. So they clearance literally everything.

storewanderer wrote: ↑March 29th, 2023, 12:51 am

veteran+ wrote: ↑March 28th, 2023, 10:28 am Ralphs also had a program back in the early aughts that returned certain products back to the warehouse (RTW?).

Supposedly because the warehouse would centrally donate for a bigger tax break?

I hate that kind of program. Many chains still do that sort of thing for major resets then sell the pulled goods off to salvage operators by the pound. Wal Mart and Target supposedly "donate" everything.

Safeway absolutely still does that on resets and Fred Meyer does too (lots of stuff from both at the salvage grocer in Portland area). The drug store chains also all send stuff back the warehouses.

Smiths out here in Reno gets most deliveries from third party truck drivers so they can't send anything back to the warehouse since that truck is moving on to some other stop that has nothing to do with Smiths once it leaves. So they clearance literally everything.

Target has a salvage program. Some salvage items may wind up donated later, but they go to salvage first (at least in SoCal).

ClownLoach wrote: ↑March 29th, 2023, 1:57 pm

Target has a salvage program. Some salvage items may wind up donated later, but they go to salvage first (at least in SoCal).

There are a few low-key liquidation stores in my area (one has multiple locations) that sell 'salvaged' goods, and the vast majority of the merchandise seems to come from Target across all product categories...it's amazing how much merchandise Target has out there that is either unsalable due to damage/close to expiration/etc. or stuff that simply never sells in the stores. The local Habitat For Humanity store also seems to get a lot of overstock from Target, and that stuff doesn't seem to really move there either (mainly fake plastic plants and other decorative junk).

mbz321 wrote: ↑March 29th, 2023, 6:12 pm

ClownLoach wrote: ↑March 29th, 2023, 1:57 pm

Target has a salvage program. Some salvage items may wind up donated later, but they go to salvage first (at least in SoCal).

There are a few low-key liquidation stores in my area (one has multiple locations) that sell 'salvaged' goods, and the vast majority of the merchandise seems to come from Target across all product categories...it's amazing how much merchandise Target has out there that is either unsalable due to damage/close to expiration/etc. or stuff that simply never sells in the stores. The local Habitat For Humanity store also seems to get a lot of overstock from Target, and that stuff doesn't seem to really move there either (mainly fake plastic plants and other decorative junk).

Over the years Target seems to be a lot more aggressive with getting stuff off the floor during resets, season changes, etc. They will clearance seasonal items at end of season for a few days at 90% off then it is ordered remove from floor and the stuff scans price required if it scans at all which signals it is not supposed to be on the floor anymore.

The stores basically throw it into big pallet dump bins (like a watermelon pallet or pumpkin pallet) and it goes to the warehouse for further action. Goodwill used to get a ton of their stuff in NorCal. Not sure anymore.