Kroger "Boost Member Price"

[storewanderer]

New thing going on at Kroger. Various items have a sale tag that says 10% off Boost Members only. That is their paid membership program.

One item with this had some kind of weekly digital deal also. I wonder if Boost members automatically get the weekly digital deals or they have to screw around with the app to get those too.

I think Kroger has officially made it more complicated to get deals than Safeway in that 2006-2014 era. Great work.

And this type of "pay to get sale prices" model they are using with Boost obviously would be all that much easier for them to force upon customers if the merger was to go through and there was less competition.

[ClownLoach]

What a surprise. They keep believing that Amazon and their paid Prime membership is going to put them out of business (with inaccurate comparisons based on total revenue despite the fact that Amazon's food revenue is probably only 5% or less). They see Costco and Sam's taking a larger and larger share of the market even with a membership.

So they mistakenly believe that they are somehow winning because of the paid membership and now want to basically make their stores have a paid membership program too. The failure point is that they don't recognize that Costco, Sam's, and Amazon have paid memberships but then remove all the other hoops to jump through. You don't need to scan tiny barcodes on the price tags at Costco to get the sale price, it's automatic. Sam's does have scan and go savings on a few items but the benefit of using the app to pay and bypass checkout is already great without extra savings, a few extra sales are icing on the cake. Prime isn't needed to get sale prices at WFM but just gives a flat extra discount percentage on sales which is nice.

I highly doubt that Kroger will make things that easy because they want you to use their app and scan shelf labels as it links to the tracking systems and connects to Bluetooth beacons needed for their in store media program they're working on, another dubious waste of money that Wall Street somehow believes is going to be a money generator for grocery store chains. These programs are already rolling out at Walgreens in the form of their idiotic freezer door screens. By the way these entail adding customized screens all over the store that use AI algorithms and customer tracking to change the ads they're playing based on what customers are currently in the store. When Kroger claims they're going to spend money "improving the Albertsons customer experience" that does not mean remodeling the stores which likely won't happen for many years, it means adding these upcoming dumb screens to all the aisles everywhere to play ads. Just think about how great this experience could be... A person suffering from constipation does a search on their phone for relief and now when they visit their local Kroger the screens keep turning into laxative ads every time they walk down an aisle with a mysterious message like "And today only save $2 on laxatives with the discount that's been downloaded to your Kroger app." Then your phone gets a notification from the hidden Bluetooth beacon in the aisle to save on laxatives today at Kroger. Doesn't that make the shopping experience better? I don't think so...

Meanwhile Costco, Sam's and Amazon couldn't care less about these upcoming media programs because they're too busy taking market share by better serving their customers.

I am surprised they're trying to push out a paid savings model at this current stage of the merger though. I do not see this going very well in the upcoming hearings and trials. I think this is a further sign that upper management is so distracted with the merger that things are happening in the organization that are not beneficial to their image or their ability to complete the merger. The AGs are going to have a blast interrogating the executives and asking how much a customer should expect to pay to get the sale price in the merged entity... They should pull the plug on this program immediately.

Lots of bad business today, Kroger wanting to charge to "Save" and now I saw AT&T who has fallen to last place in wireless now wants you to pay an upcharge for better reception and data speeds... They must hire the same brilliant consultants and pay them millions of dollars to come up with this crap.

[storewanderer]

Meanwhile Costco, Sam's and Amazon couldn't care less about these upcoming media programs because they're too busy taking market share by better serving their customers.

I am surprised they're trying to push out a paid savings model at this current stage of the merger though. I do not see this going very well in the upcoming hearings and trials. I think this is a further sign that upper management is so distracted with the merger that things are happening in the organization that are not beneficial to their image or their ability to complete the merger. The AGs are going to have a blast interrogating the executives and asking how much a customer should expect to pay to get the sale price in the merged entity... They should pull the plug on this program immediately.

Lots of bad business today, Kroger wanting to charge to "Save" and now I saw AT&T who has fallen to last place in wireless now wants you to pay an upcharge for better reception and data speeds... They must hire the same brilliant consultants and pay them millions of dollars to come up with this crap.

I hope someone is close enough to the stores to even bring this up in the ongoing merger back and forth that is occurring.

I wonder how many people even have a Boost membership that they are actually paying for. These shelf tags for the 10% off random items like paper towels or detergent have a QR code to scan and says free 30 day trial.

AT&T has been playing games for years on pay for better reception and data speeds. In my area, their "prepaid" service stops working out in Fernley, won't work in Fallon/Lovelock/Winnemucca, then magically starts working again when you get to Battle Mountain. But if you have post-paid it will sort of kind of work in all of those places. AT&T field level employees in Winnemucca are actually told to get their cell phones from Verizon.

[Romr123]

Re: AT&T--very common to have the proprietary pre-pay service of any of the carriers only work on their network...post-pay is allowed all feasible carriers. The days for mandated coverage ended in 2008 with the analog sunset.

Re Kroger---this would be a terrible move optics-wise; and you're right....there are organizations making decisions which are bad overall for the merger.

[veteran+]

I recently read an indepth article about the ubiquitous "pooring" of America via fees of all types and colors (memberships for discounts, tiers for added something, etc., etc.).

It's quite amazing and I suspect that most folks would be alarmed if they honestly tallied up all those numbers.

[SoCalShopper1023]

Meanwhile Costco, Sam's and Amazon couldn't care less about these upcoming media programs because they're too busy taking market share by better serving their customers.

I am surprised they're trying to push out a paid savings model at this current stage of the merger though. I do not see this going very well in the upcoming hearings and trials. I think this is a further sign that upper management is so distracted with the merger that things are happening in the organization that are not beneficial to their image or their ability to complete the merger. The AGs are going to have a blast interrogating the executives and asking how much a customer should expect to pay to get the sale price in the merged entity... They should pull the plug on this program immediately.

Lots of bad business today, Kroger wanting to charge to "Save" and now I saw AT&T who has fallen to last place in wireless now wants you to pay an upcharge for better reception and data speeds... They must hire the same brilliant consultants and pay them millions of dollars to come up with this crap.

I hope someone is close enough to the stores to even bring this up in the ongoing merger back and forth that is occurring.

I wonder how many people even have a Boost membership that they are actually paying for. These shelf tags for the 10% off random items like paper towels or detergent have a QR code to scan and says free 30 day trial.

AT&T has been playing games for years on pay for better reception and data speeds. In my area, their "prepaid" service stops working out in Fernley, won't work in Fallon/Lovelock/Winnemucca, then magically starts working again when you get to Battle Mountain. But if you have post-paid it will sort of kind of work in all of those places. AT&T field level employees in Winnemucca are actually told to get their cell phones from Verizon.

You are absolutely right about AT&T. They recently launched a "service" called AT&T Turbo, which is a $7 monthly add-on that gives you "priority access" to their network. I am surprised that people haven't been up in arms about this. The average AT&T plan is already $75-$80 a month, this is a total rip off. I'm afraid that the other 2 carriers will eventually follow suit, and try to implement a similar thing. But since Sprint is no longer a competitor, the "big 3" carriers have no incentive to stay competitive on pricing anymore.

This is what I'm afraid will happen in the grocery/food industry if the Kroger/Albertsons merger is approved.

[rwsandiego]

What a surprise. They keep believing that Amazon and their paid Prime membership is going to put them out of business (with inaccurate comparisons based on total revenue despite the fact that Amazon's food revenue is probably only 5% or less). They see Costco and Sam's taking a larger and larger share of the market even with a membership...

One of my many reasons for not shopping at Fry's is how cumbersome it is to get a digital deal. The app is wonky and rarely works in the store. And that was before this ridiculous membership.

..Prime isn't needed to get sale prices at WFM but just gives a flat extra discount percentage on sales which is nice...

Spot on! To me, the extra 10% off sale prices at WFM is a perk of being a Prime member, which I would buy anyway.

... A person suffering from constipation does a search on their phone for relief and now when they visit their local Kroger the screens keep turning into laxative ads every time they walk down an aisle with a mysterious message like "And today only save $2 on laxatives with the discount that's been downloaded to your Kroger app." Then your phone gets a notification from the hidden Bluetooth beacon in the aisle to save on laxatives today at Kroger. Doesn't that make the shopping experience better? I don't think so...

Having a shirt I browsed for at Nordstrom following me around the Internet for weeks is creepy enough. The notion of Ex-Lax or Imodium popping up on my phone every time I walk into Fry's is pretty frightening.

If the merger goes through and Kroger keeps my local Safeway, I might start shopping at Bashas'.

...I saw AT&T who has fallen to last place in wireless now wants you to pay an upcharge for better reception and data speeds...

Well, this is one way to fund upgrades to AT&T's horrible network.

... They must hire the same brilliant consultants and pay them millions of dollars to come up with this crap.

I just started working for a small consulting firm who is hired to deal with the crap other consulting firms convince businesses to do. It's sad to see how much money companies pay for very bad ideas.

[storewanderer]

I recently read an indepth article about the ubiquitous "pooring" of America via fees of all types and colors (memberships for discounts, tiers for added something, etc., etc.).

It's quite amazing and I suspect that most folks would be alarmed if they honestly tallied up all those numbers.

I'm going to start a new thread on this topic in light of recent CA law passed CA Senate Bill 478.

[storewanderer]

What a surprise. They keep believing that Amazon and their paid Prime membership is going to put them out of business (with inaccurate comparisons based on total revenue despite the fact that Amazon's food revenue is probably only 5% or less). They see Costco and Sam's taking a larger and larger share of the market even with a membership...

One of my many reasons for not shopping at Fry's is how cumbersome it is to get a digital deal. The app is wonky and rarely works in the store. And that was before this ridiculous membership.

..Prime isn't needed to get sale prices at WFM but just gives a flat extra discount percentage on sales which is nice...

Spot on! To me, the extra 10% off sale prices at WFM is a perk of being a Prime member, which I would buy anyway.

... A person suffering from constipation does a search on their phone for relief and now when they visit their local Kroger the screens keep turning into laxative ads every time they walk down an aisle with a mysterious message like "And today only save $2 on laxatives with the discount that's been downloaded to your Kroger app." Then your phone gets a notification from the hidden Bluetooth beacon in the aisle to save on laxatives today at Kroger. Doesn't that make the shopping experience better? I don't think so...

Having a shirt I browsed for at Nordstrom following me around the Internet for weeks is creepy enough. The notion of Ex-Lax or Imodium popping up on my phone every time I walk into Fry's is pretty frightening.

If the merger goes through and Kroger keeps my local Safeway, I might start shopping at Bashas'.

...I saw AT&T who has fallen to last place in wireless now wants you to pay an upcharge for better reception and data speeds...

Well, this is one way to fund upgrades to AT&T's horrible network.

... They must hire the same brilliant consultants and pay them millions of dollars to come up with this crap.

I just started working for a small consulting firm who is hired to deal with the crap other consulting firms convince businesses to do. It's sad to see how much money companies pay for very bad ideas.

I disagree that Prime is "extra 10% off" at Whole Foods "on top of the sale prices." Now, in order to get what used to be the automatic sale price, you have to use Prime. Otherwise you pay weird sale prices. Items that used to be on sale for $1 out the door are now $1.11 then $1 with prime. Items that used to be 25% off out the door are now some weird teen percent off then the 25% off is only with Prime.

Getting digital deals at Kroger is no more or less cumbersome than getting digital deals at Safeway, Raleys, Walgreens, Target, or any other store that runs these types of promotions who I have actually downloaded the app for... maybe there are some chains I haven't bothered with that magically do this better but every single program is cumbersome, difficult to find offers, difficult to load offers, frequently requires you to connect to wi-fi while in store... (the newest Safeway in Reno literally has no phone reception in half of the store- you MUST connect to wi-fi there if you want to do digital deals; the nearby Smiths has great reception and no wi-fi is needed; over in Sparks it is the opposite with the older Smiths built like a fort and you must use wi-fi there but the nearby Safeway signal is fine inside the store so no wi-fi needed).

Albertsons/Safeway recently made it much more difficult because now you need a separate app for each brand to get the digital deals. So if I am in SoCal and cross between Albertsons and Vons, I need two separate apps to get these deals. Plus the Safeway app for back home. This is how Kroger has been for some time but up until a couple years ago you could change store location on any Albertsons/Safeway app to whatever store you were at (banner didn't matter) and operate/add deals from a single app. They have made it much harder at Albertsons/Safeway to get digital deals than ever before. On par with Kroger on that. Also they have that United-TX and Lucky-UT which have separate app/deal programs entirely and do not integrate with the main Albertsons digital deals in any way, need separate logins and everything.

The problem with the consulting is the people doing the consulting don't understand the nuts and bolts of the businesses, the management who hires the consultants likely don't fully understand the nuts and bolts of the businesses either, so the ideas of course may sound great to people who have never worked "in the field" before or even taken the time to talk candidly to the employees who do work in the field...

I wonder how much money is being wasted on these things I am complaining about here- loyalty programs, digital deals, multiple apps, consultants to make ideas then more consultants to come in and "fix" what the first ones did.. lot of costs to wring out of a lot of places...