Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale prices

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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:
I don't know anyone who thinks the cards save them money anymore. People are tired of cards. Requiring a card to get sale pricing is something that needs to go away at the present time when physical stores need to make things as easy for the customer as possible, not something to implement at the present time and play off as some sort of innovation. Some people enjoy the gas rewards though I suppose. Kroger obviously wants the shopper data and knows the only way they can get a majority of customers to use the card is to force them to in order to give them sale pricing.
When Kroger (et. al.) started using cards, it was to get shopper data, which was needed as a lot of people were still paying with cash or check at the grocery store. With credit cards you don't need an additional card.

The fact that Albertsons is keeping the card at the Safeway stores confuses and infuriates me (and it is different than J4U), as getting rid of the card was one of the best LLC-era moves.
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by Super S »

pseudo3d wrote:
storewanderer wrote:
I don't know anyone who thinks the cards save them money anymore. People are tired of cards. Requiring a card to get sale pricing is something that needs to go away at the present time when physical stores need to make things as easy for the customer as possible, not something to implement at the present time and play off as some sort of innovation. Some people enjoy the gas rewards though I suppose. Kroger obviously wants the shopper data and knows the only way they can get a majority of customers to use the card is to force them to in order to give them sale pricing.
When Kroger (et. al.) started using cards, it was to get shopper data, which was needed as a lot of people were still paying with cash or check at the grocery store. With credit cards you don't need an additional card.

The fact that Albertsons is keeping the card at the Safeway stores confuses and infuriates me (and it is different than J4U), as getting rid of the card was one of the best LLC-era moves.
What also infuriates me is that Safeway sometimes requires the card, the app, AND a coupon for sale prices on certain items. All of these gimmicks are opening the door wide to Amazon and others such as Walmart and WinCo.

I tend to not shop at stores requiring cards (unless I need something quickly), and do not participate in card programs when they are optional. I won't even give a zip code when asked. And I flat out refused to give a name when Radio Shack asked for it over the years.

There are those people, however, that think that their can of Green Giant vegetables sold in Safeway is somehow higher quality than that same can sold at WinCo...these are the people who like the cards....
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by bm11k »

I just recieved an email from Fred Meyer that beginning in August that they're replacing the quarterly rebate with instant savings. they are finally pushing the card chainwide
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by storewanderer »

Smiths got rid of the quarterly rebate years ago. For a while Smiths had it where you could redeem for fuel discounts OR get a quarterly rebate coupon. Then eventually they did away with the rebate coupons entirely. Incidentally Kroger is doing a test somewhere in the South where you can redeem your rewards for fuel discounts or grocery discounts. I never looked into the conversion but suspect it is similar to Albertsons/Safeway Grocery Rewards which is generally $1 store discount for 100 points (some offers you can do better like $2 off bakery with 100 points or 2 free greek yogurt with 100 points).

The issue at Fred Meyer is they had both the quarterly rewards and the fuel discount. So it has been kind of like they have "double" rewards. Maybe this will help them make some price cuts because the pricing at Fred Meyer sure doesn't have the spread from Albertsons/Safeway that it used to have. Not sure who has gone up and who has gone down but the spread is the spread.

Smiths also has started a cash back program in its app. It is in addition to digital coupons. You buy certain items and you get "cash back" - basically it works like a digital coupon but it is not an immediate discount on today's transaction. A lot of these offers seem like they would have previously been digital coupons. This is bad because as it was Smiths has been playing a lot of games with pricing where the previous "sale" prices were requiring digital coupons or buy 4/5/6 save 4/5/3 offers to get down to what was previously their typical sale price. Now add this on top. This is starting to seem worse than 00's Safeway in terms of complexity to get deals. All they need to do now is start issuing paper coupons that require card and coupon, only good certain days of the ad period, have minimum purchase of 3 items, and limit 3 items. So, I have not yet had any of these "cash back" items in my purchases, primarily since I shop so little at Smiths now.

Given Coronavirus considerations, these "loyalty" programs need to be re-thought. Having to input phone numbers is a major point of contact for those pinpads or an additional interaction between cashier and customer. Using a plastic card, handling loyalty card applications, etc. are all additional points of contact. These steps all add time to the transaction as well. And given the rapid changes in the market at this point I am not sure how good the "historical" purchase data of individual households even is. I am not sure how useful this loyalty card data is. I stop doing most shopping at Smiths and they send out some $10 off $50 retention coupons to me. There is a reason I stopped doing much shopping there and the coupon isn't going to bring me back. Better quality of product and a cleaner store will bring me back.
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by Super S »

bm11k wrote: July 6th, 2020, 10:09 pm I just recieved an email from Fred Meyer that beginning in August that they're replacing the quarterly rebate with instant savings. they are finally pushing the card chainwide
If this is true, I will be shifting a big chunk of my shopping to WinCo or Walmart. The card requirement is what drove me away from Safeway.
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by SamSpade »

The Smith's program (at least with the "World Mastercard") isn't nearly as generous.
Filling in the same data in their own calculator, I would receive $30 under the current Fred Meyer structure plus fuel rewards and only $15 under Smith's.

Hmm.

Well, if they start requiring a card, I feel like it will turn off a segment of customers. Then again, their other divisions have for years and most of the competition do (except WinCo and Walmart).

The current 'optional' rewards program was created in 2004, with some minor changes over the years.
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by storewanderer »

I think requiring a card will turn off a small number of customers. At this point so many stores have these loyalty cards (many of which are seemingly useless- maybe get you 1% back or something) that it isn't even about smart loyalty programs anymore it is simply about "me too" loyalty programs.

In the case of Fred Meyer they must not be getting the usage they want from the current program so by forcing people to use a card for sale prices expect to get loyalty usage up closer to other divisions.

For instance in NorCal Raleys and Save Mart both have points based loyalty. Raleys program gives 1% back rewards voucher and is a Dunhumby program and mails out coupons and does digital coupons and really functions very similar to the Kroger Rewards program (the coupon mailers look the same even) or going way back the old late 90's ASC Lucky Rewards Program. I have little clue what Save Mart's program does since I didn't enroll in it since I shop there so little. Neither store requires the loyalty card for sale prices and Raleys card was out for years before I finally signed up for it (I actually signed up to see how it worked since I saw some Kroger-looking loyalty mailer coupons on the floor one night, but with Raleys logo on them). Save Mart does sometimes run in-ad coupons that you could either take from the ad or clip to your rewards account I guess and may do some kind of points based thing too.

I do appreciate going to stores where there is no loyalty card. It speeds up the checkout process.
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: July 7th, 2020, 10:57 pm I think requiring a card will turn off a small number of customers. At this point so many stores have these loyalty cards (many of which are seemingly useless- maybe get you 1% back or something) that it isn't even about smart loyalty programs anymore it is simply about "me too" loyalty programs.

In the case of Fred Meyer they must not be getting the usage they want from the current program so by forcing people to use a card for sale prices expect to get loyalty usage up closer to other divisions.

For instance in NorCal Raleys and Save Mart both have points based loyalty. Raleys program gives 1% back rewards voucher and is a Dunhumby program and mails out coupons and does digital coupons and really functions very similar to the Kroger Rewards program (the coupon mailers look the same even) or going way back the old late 90's ASC Lucky Rewards Program. I have little clue what Save Mart's program does since I didn't enroll in it since I shop there so little. Neither store requires the loyalty card for sale prices and Raleys card was out for years before I finally signed up for it (I actually signed up to see how it worked since I saw some Kroger-looking loyalty mailer coupons on the floor one night, but with Raleys logo on them). Save Mart does sometimes run in-ad coupons that you could either take from the ad or clip to your rewards account I guess and may do some kind of points based thing too.

I do appreciate going to stores where there is no loyalty card. It speeds up the checkout process.
What needs to be taken into consideration though is the fact that stores with a similar merchandise offering such as Walmart and Target do not require a card for sale prices. Kmart really started pushing Shop Your Way in their stores....look at where they are now.

I will readily admit that there are certain aspects of WinCo that I do not like, but at the same time, the concept of low prices without having to resort to cards, apps, coupons, and other gimmicks has resonated with people. Fred Meyer currently is competitive with WinCo in some areas, and a big part of why they are constantly busy has to do with not requiring the card. And most of those sales are on the grocery end as they continue to screw up the offerings on the GM side.

As stores resort to adding self-checkout and eliminating cashiers, I really don't want to stand in a long self-checkout line when people forget their cards and have to screw around with their cell phone to find their phone number to punch in due to the fact that many people these days readily admit that they do not even know their own phone number.

We'll see what happens with this...I will voice my opinion to Fred Meyer if the card requirement becomes reality. While I think Kroger does for the most part operate the food side of Fred Meyer well, they do not have a grasp of the one stop shopping concept Fred Meyer is known for.
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by Super S »

I was in my local Fred Meyer a couple days ago. While they aren't advertising or requiring a card yet, there are a lot of new shelf tags that say "with card" mixed in. These items, for now anyway, are ringing up at that price without a card. The current rewards card, which is optional, does not require the use of the card for sale prices and there are going to be a number of customers that do not participate in the program that are going to be in for a surprise, especially if they jack up their shelf and non-card prices to Safeway levels.

Kroger really needs to stop with the changes to the Fred Meyer format.
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Re: Fred Meyer "Spokane Test" - eliminate dedicated electronics, reduce GM, expand liquor/food, require card for sale pr

Post by babs »

Super S wrote: July 30th, 2020, 7:58 am I was in my local Fred Meyer a couple days ago. While they aren't advertising or requiring a card yet, there are a lot of new shelf tags that say "with card" mixed in. These items, for now anyway, are ringing up at that price without a card. The current rewards card, which is optional, does not require the use of the card for sale prices and there are going to be a number of customers that do not participate in the program that are going to be in for a surprise, especially if they jack up their shelf and non-card prices to Safeway levels.

Kroger really needs to stop with the changes to the Fred Meyer format.
Well the reality at Fred Meyer is that many of the sale items require you to add the digital coupon to your account to get the sale price. So in essence, they have been requiring a card/phone app for some time to get many of the sale prices.
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