Retail Watchers

Bagels wrote: ↑October 24th, 2022, 8:46 pm

Kroger did the case sale with Ralphs in the 2000s, but IIRC, you had the buy the case to get the savings. For canned veggies, it was limited to corn, peas and green beans. The sale was enormously popularly, and they brought in Kroger branded products to satisfy demand, in an era when it was otherwise absent from Ralphs. The price was super cheap - like a dime a can or something like that. I’m surprised there was a run at 59c - roughly the same price as Walmart everyday. Albertsons sold them for 25c each during the spring, and there wasn’t much interest. We canned regularly but I guess everyone else has moved on to frozen.

Ralphs also use to regularly run a beef roast deal, where if you bought the roast you’d get a two liter soda (Pepsi or private label brand, depending on the era), bagged salad, small Ralphs salad dressing, bag of potatoes, carrots, and probably some other stuff I’m forgetting. Those days are gone…

Smiths has been doing the case lot sales since Smiths was an independent chain and they've never stopped. It has come and gone from other Kroger divisions too. At Smiths at one point they didn't run one for about 9 months and people started asking when there was going to be another one. So Smiths still gets to do its case sales.

Sometime in the past 5 years they changed the rule that required a full case sale to get the case prices. It was something to do with Kroger's ordering system. Previously during the case sale Smiths would have a list of "CASE PLUs" to use so if someone showed up with a case, they entered the PLU for whatever case was, nothing was scanned. Somehow the cases sold were reconciled to the shipping records on the back end but it seems they decided it wasn't worth it anymore and to just scan every unit being sold and make the case price the same as the single unit price times units in case.

At the Associated Utah Independents who also do case sales (most do) a couple times a year typically March and September, it is done a bit differently. They still have a case price, then typically the single unit price is ~.10 per unit above whatever the case price is. Their point of sale system does quantity based pricing so if they have the 24 count case at $6 or .59 each, after they input a 24 quantity, the price changes. The smaller Associated Independents will not do a formal case sale per se with items on the sales floor (we are taking 10k square foot stores), but will advertise a "case sale" allowing customers to order goods by the full case from a list of the items under the promotion then advise the customers to come pick the items up whenever they arrive.

Bagels wrote: ↑October 23rd, 2022, 11:50 am Kroger has introduced Smart Way, which will join its Target brother Smartly in the value priced generic business. So, goodbye Mountain Dairy, psst…. Check this out

I always liked Psst... though I think it's largely absent from Fred Meyer now. :ugeek:

storewanderer wrote: ↑October 23rd, 2022, 8:33 pm With shelf placement like that, not many people will be buying these items...

This is where Kroger seems to be screwed up. They are creating too many SKUs for commodity products. They should just sell the single cans of Kroger vegetables and be done. No Smart Way, No 4 packs, none of this. Those 4 packs wrapped in plastic wrapper which come to the store in cases that look just like the 24 count can case wrapped in more plastic, are a joke. . . If they want to do a 4 pack, they should just do a "buy 4 pay xx each" type of discount on the single cans.

Also, it seems to be against the desire of many shoppers. Trader Joe's has actively been working to reduce plastics after push back from their customers and I hate every time I have to throw away that thick plastic wrap from my partner's 35 can Coca-Cola multipack from Costco! I would rather have the boxes of the Pepsi bottler, though they are trickier to open/disassemble.

SamSpade wrote: ↑October 25th, 2022, 6:04 pm

storewanderer wrote: ↑October 23rd, 2022, 8:33 pm With shelf placement like that, not many people will be buying these items...

This is where Kroger seems to be screwed up. They are creating too many SKUs for commodity products. They should just sell the single cans of Kroger vegetables and be done. No Smart Way, No 4 packs, none of this. Those 4 packs wrapped in plastic wrapper which come to the store in cases that look just like the 24 count can case wrapped in more plastic, are a joke. . . If they want to do a 4 pack, they should just do a "buy 4 pay xx each" type of discount on the single cans.

Also, it seems to be against the desire of many shoppers. Trader Joe's has actively been working to reduce plastics after push back from their customers and I hate every time I have to throw away that thick plastic wrap from my partner's 35 can Coca-Cola multipack from Costco! I would rather have the boxes of the Pepsi bottler, though they are trickier to open/disassemble.

Trader Joe's uses a lot of plastic in produce especially apples/citrus that other stores sell loose (and that produce comes to other stores in boxes and paper trays who sell it loose). I find I get more plastic shopping at Trader Joe's than just about any other store if I buy produce.

The thick plastic wrap from the coke case or these can bundles is effectively useless. One thing though, if you put your trash into the grocery store received paper bags, you could use the thick plastic wrap to wrap up stuff like coffee grounds/tea bags/raw meat waste/vegetable waste so it did not potentially saturate/break the paper trash bag.

SamSpade wrote: ↑October 25th, 2022, 6:04 pm Also, it seems to be against the desire of many shoppers. Trader Joe's has actively been working to reduce plastics after push back from their customers and I hate every time I have to throw away that thick plastic wrap from my partner's 35 can Coca-Cola multipack from Costco! I would rather have the boxes of the Pepsi bottler, though they are trickier to open/disassemble.

Don't throw it away, put it in the bins in stores that collect plastic bags. Even where those are no longer used (or used much), the bins are still there for recycling any plastic film type stuff (which includes the wrappers from things like you mention, packages of paper goods and similar).

Do the bags or plastic waste actually get recycled? There are companies that get paid to haul away plastic bag bins for recycling. Do we know if they actually recycle the plastic? Or do they secretly ship it to landfills to get rid of it. Or do they just hold it in a warehouse because it isn't economical to break down old plastic into something else?

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑October 27th, 2022, 4:39 pm Do the bags or plastic waste actually get recycled? There are companies that get paid to haul away plastic bag bins for recycling. Do we know if they actually recycle the plastic? Or do they secretly ship it to landfills to get rid of it. Or do they just hold it in a warehouse because it isn't economical to break down old plastic into something else?

The plastic bag companies receive the plastic collected from those in-store recycle bins and recycle it. The stores are to pack it up and ship it back to the plastic bag companies. The plastic bag companies pay the store to ship it back to them.

I posted a video previously from one of the plastic bag companies that showed their whole process.

In CA there is a requirement the super thick plastic bags are made with a minimum of 40% recycled content. This is part of why the bag collection program is important as without it they would not have the recycled content to use.

There may be some lazy stores who rather than go to the trouble of clearing the recycle bin out and putting a label on it to ship back to the bag manufacturer, just throw them away. This would not surprise me. Just like there used to be lazy stores who don't respond to a credit card chargeback back in the old swipe days and lose the chargeback since they were too lazy to produce a signature slip.

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑October 27th, 2022, 4:39 pm Do the bags or plastic waste actually get recycled? There are companies that get paid to haul away plastic bag bins for recycling. Do we know if they actually recycle the plastic? Or do they secretly ship it to landfills to get rid of it. Or do they just hold it in a warehouse because it isn't economical to break down old plastic into something else?

We have discussed this before at length.

It has been exposed and reported on that most plastic does not get recycled for a plethora of reasons and excuses.

veteran+ wrote: ↑October 28th, 2022, 7:15 am

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑October 27th, 2022, 4:39 pm Do the bags or plastic waste actually get recycled? There are companies that get paid to haul away plastic bag bins for recycling. Do we know if they actually recycle the plastic? Or do they secretly ship it to landfills to get rid of it. Or do they just hold it in a warehouse because it isn't economical to break down old plastic into something else?

We have discussed this before at length.

It has been exposed and reported on that most plastic does not get recycled for a plethora of reasons and excuses.

These are bins SPECIFICALLY FOR RECYCLING OF PLASTIC BAGS, not generic "recycling" that is put out with your trash (or wherever you take that).

The stores would have NO incentive to have a bin to collect the bags if they were simply going to pay to send them with trash!

BillyGr wrote: ↑October 28th, 2022, 8:41 am

veteran+ wrote: ↑October 28th, 2022, 7:15 am

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑October 27th, 2022, 4:39 pm Do the bags or plastic waste actually get recycled? There are companies that get paid to haul away plastic bag bins for recycling. Do we know if they actually recycle the plastic? Or do they secretly ship it to landfills to get rid of it. Or do they just hold it in a warehouse because it isn't economical to break down old plastic into something else?

We have discussed this before at length.

It has been exposed and reported on that most plastic does not get recycled for a plethora of reasons and excuses.

These are bins SPECIFICALLY FOR RECYCLING OF PLASTIC BAGS, not generic "recycling" that is put out with your trash (or wherever you take that).

The stores would have NO incentive to have a bin to collect the bags if they were simply going to pay to send them with trash!

Google is your friend.

This has nothing to do with the store's intent. It has to do with the recycling industry.