Safeway Northern California Ad Has The Vons Logo Now

[Alpha8472]

The local San Francisco Bay Area Safeway Ad has added the Vons logo right next to the Pak N Save logo which is next to the Date Range of the Ad.

I have not noticed it before until now. Is this new? Vons is virtually unknown in Northern California.

[storewanderer]

The local San Francisco Bay Area Safeway Ad has added the Vons logo right next to the Pak N Save logo which is next to the Date Range of the Ad.

I have not noticed it before until now. Is this new? Vons is virtually unknown in Northern California.

This is for the Fresno and Oakhurst Vons.

They have done a lot of circulation cuts on the print ads so they are printing fewer versions now.

I'm surprised they bother with the Pak N Save logo since it only has 2 stores left.

Interesting they don't throw the Andronico's logo in.

[HCal]

On a related subject, I mentioned in another thread that the Albertsons logo had disappeared from the Bakersfield ad.

It is now back.

I think this stuff is just administrative error. I wouldn't read too much into it. Anyone know if Fresno gets or used to get Norcal ads?

[storewanderer]

On a related subject, I mentioned in another thread that the Albertsons logo had disappeared from the Bakersfield ad.

It is now back.

I think this stuff is just administrative error. I wouldn't read too much into it. Anyone know if Fresno gets or used to get Norcal ads?

Fresno has been in NorCal since fairly soon after the Safeway/Albertsons merger when they did divisional realignments (same time they shifted Las Vegas to Southwest division for instance).

Ever since that time Fresno has gotten NorCal Safeway ads. Just that it had a Vons logo instead of a Safeway logo.
Similar to how in areas with a Pak N Save they'd run an ad that had both the Safeway and Pak N Save logos, but in places with no Pak N Save around they would run a version with just the Safeway logo.

NorCal is trying to deemphasize print ads, and deemphasize specials/promotions in general. They have way fewer specials than ever before. They also have many weeks just been running a single page (front and back) ad and much of the ad is "valid 2 weeks." I shop at Safeway significantly less the past few months due to their having fewer specials, everyday pricing can't stop increasing, and poor quality meat and produce. I wasn't impressed with what I saw of them in Phoenix and Las Vegas this fall either- some definite changes down there on quality/price too and not for the better.

[HCal]

That's sad to hear. I'd say Vons is still doing quite well in Socal. Full 4 page ads, good specials ($2.97/gal milk quite regularly), 10 for $10 deals, but produce quality varies based on location. My store also usually has a ton of things with 50% off stickers that I like to sift through. Perhaps NorCal figures that with Save Mart and Raley's struggling, they don't need to be as aggressive with specials.

[storewanderer]

That's sad to hear. I'd say Vons is still doing quite well in Socal. Full 4 page ads, good specials ($2.97/gal milk quite regularly), 10 for $10 deals, but produce quality varies based on location. My store also usually has a ton of things with 50% off stickers that I like to sift through. Perhaps NorCal figures that with Save Mart and Raley's struggling, they don't need to be as aggressive with specials.

What is ironic is Save Mart and Raleys have gotten pretty aggressive with specials in recent months (especially Raleys).

Very few 50% off stickers in NorCal on perishables (a ton on dry grocery and drug/HBA- so overpriced it sits forever). They don't like those stickers and stores get in trouble for using "too many." They'd rather just throw stuff away. I often find they don't bother to put 50% off stickers on bakery/dairy in NorCal until after the stuff is expired (supposedly they sticker it ON the sell by date then forget to go clear it away). I've also noticed lately on the dry grocery markdowns, in the past if an item had an ad coupon/J4U personalized deal and a 50% off sticker you'd get 50% off the coupon/J4U price but they did something to their system where it is now reverting to full price (or the card sale price- not a coupon price) then 50% off taking the as the store coupon. If on a whim the J4U offer is greater than 50% off the regular price then it will revert to the J4U offer.

Albertsons was supposed to be developing a markdown machine like Kroger and Wal Mart and WinCo and Meijer and numerous other stores use, like 5 years ago, but I am not sure what happened with it as it never rolled out. Those 50% off stickers are a disaster for scanning and I have been overcharged so many times.

Smiths is by far a much better place to shop for markdowns. The Kroger markdown machine is extremely generous. They mark a LOT of stuff down and go through things like milk 10 days before expiration and mark it down, bagged salad 5 days before expiration and mark it down, bakery 2 days before sell by and mark it down, etc. Raleys and Save Mart don't mark much of anything down (Save Mart has some markdown on meat and deli but I'd never buy markdown stuff at Save Mart as their stuff already doesn't seem fresh even at full price; Raleys has limited markdowns on meat which can be good, and nothing else).

[reymann]

with direct mailers possibly reducing the frequency to every 2 weeks in 2024. safeway making store ads for 2 weeks instead of one is a great idea. i think we will see more stores resort to digital ads in the near future with the continued reduction of print across america.

[BillyGr]

with direct mailers possibly reducing the frequency to every 2 weeks in 2024. safeway making store ads for 2 weeks instead of one is a great idea. i think we will see more stores resort to digital ads in the near future with the continued reduction of print across america.

Note also that it sounds like CVS will be switching to every other week ads in 2024, from things that have been posted. Some places had already done that, but this looks to be a nationwide changeover.

[buckguy]

I wonder how many people read them anymore. The Washington Post sends an aggregation of them to households who aren't print subscribers of the Post. They mostly windup in the recycling bin right away. I use the websites to see who has what on sale and to browse the ads.

Chains like Giant have had access to "next week's ad" for several years online--a switch to two tweek ads doesn't seem like much of a stretch and, increasingly, they seem to have some items on sale for an entire month

[storewanderer]

I wonder how many people read them anymore. The Washington Post sends an aggregation of them to households who aren't print subscribers of the Post. They mostly windup in the recycling bin right away. I use the websites to see who has what on sale and to browse the ads.

Chains like Giant have had access to "next week's ad" for several years online--a switch to two tweek ads doesn't seem like much of a stretch and, increasingly, they seem to have some items on sale for an entire month

The switch to two week ads is very bad news for ad shoppers as this gives us fewer ads to look at and fewer promotions.

Also in the case of the grocery business I think it will lead to higher pricing. It isn't unusual for these stores to do these 3 day sales, 1 day sales, whatever, where they get a large buy of some item but it is a limited quantity buy that they do a short term promotion like that on. They can keep running those kind of sales so let's see what happens.

The other issue I see is with meat and produce specials. Having the ad change every week helps rotate through product (sale prices sell more product than regular prices).

For stores with high low pricing I think going to an every two week ad is not going to end well. For grocers with loyalty cards and high low pricing this is a very bad idea.

For a drugstore like CVS, Walgreens or Rite Aid this is a great idea as they are already pretty low volume operations and more convenience focused, but I'd also potentially propose just going to a smaller weekly ad with better promotions. These stores spend 15-20 hours of manpower every Sunday to hang ad tags, this is just too long.