Albertson/Vons/Pavilions Pricing

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Re: Albertson/Vons/Pavilions Pricing

Post by Bagels »

storewanderer wrote: January 9th, 2023, 11:46 pm
Bagels wrote: January 9th, 2023, 2:59 pm Albertsons has been running a lot less promotions (circular + J4U) in recent months and seems to be trying to keep its every day pricing down. Bananas are now 69c/lb, 8 oz. slicing mushrooms $2.69 and 3 ct/18 oz. romaine hearts $4.49 at my local Ralphs. They're 69c./lb, $2.49 and $3.99 at Albertsons, respectively. While most are thinking "big whoop," in 2018, Ralphs was 49c/lb for bananas, $1.49 for the mushrooms and $2.69 for romaine hearts... while Albertsons was .69/lb, $2.49 and $3.49 respectively. You could buy bananas for 39c and mushrooms and romaine hearts for $1 at 99 Cent Only. The 99 is 55c/lb for bananas, 1.29 for 4 oz sliced mushrooms ($2.58 for 8 oz) and $2.99 for romaine hearts.... I'm stunned.
I am shopping more and more at WinCo and even picking a few more items up at Wal Mart lately all of these items are things I used to buy at Smiths but have had to give up on Smiths due to consistently being out of stock and/or too high of prices. I buy next to nothing at Smiths lately. Safeway is pretty much only ad items, some weeks that is quite a few items and other weeks that may be zero items. I've also basically stopped shopping Raleys entirely due to their arrogant ONE format and pricing combined with lackluster execution at other non-ONE locations I've been going into, and Save Mart gets a few purchases out of me most weeks moreso due to location than anything else.

Safeway pricing is a total and complete joke. Safeway in Reno now wants 9.99 for 12pk Pepsi (there is some sale 6.99 if you buy 3 or something). I have never seen 12pk soda cost this much. Who would pay this? In CA with the CRV and tax you'd be looking at almost $12 for a 12pk of soda and in Oakland/San Francisco with the sugar beverage tax I don't even know what the total would be. Glad I don't drink this stuff, it is a huge waste of money at these prices. Safeway did have some great deals this week- Yoplait was .29 (limit 10 digital coupon) and then they had Lays Chips/other varieties .99 if you buy 4 (limit 4 must buy 4 digital coupon) as they had overlapping offers first 1.99 must buy 4 ad price then a 4.00 off 4 digital coupon. Also we still have $5 Friday so that had some okay deals last week but laughable regular prices.

99 Only in Reno currently wants 9.99 for 18ct Eggs. Highest price I've EVER seen. I am not sure what 99 Only is trying to become. I still pick up a few items there every now and then; they had the .99 blackberries a few days ago; quality was fine. Also have some .99 boxed pasta in assorted brands 16oz (Ronzoni, Meijer, some others) which is a solid deal now.
In fairness, soda is the largest loss leader at most grocery stores. Coke and Pepsi continue to hike their prices - Walmart is now over $7 for a 12 pack; the price has almost doubled since the start of the pandemic. $9.99 as an everyday price at Safeway in NorCal seems to be within the expected range.

Ralphs had 12-packs for $4.50 (4+) over Christmas/New Year’s. Obviously Kroger receives a volume discount but they’re probably losing around $1 for every carton that’s sold. Albertsons had the best price on soda nearly every week from at least 2016/17 until last year, but they haven’t even been competitive sans a few weeks (and not the best price -just competitive). Soda is tricky - 20 years ago A&P decided that it would end losses on soda/ expect them to break even, and it lead to immediate shopper flight (noteably at Farmer Jack).

Ironically, Walmart rarely takes a loss on soda but it does so on select beers unless prohibited by law.
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Re: Albertson/Vons/Pavilions Pricing

Post by storewanderer »

Bagels wrote: January 10th, 2023, 2:02 pm

In fairness, soda is the largest loss leader at most grocery stores. Coke and Pepsi continue to hike their prices - Walmart is now over $7 for a 12 pack; the price has almost doubled since the start of the pandemic. $9.99 as an everyday price at Safeway in NorCal seems to be within the expected range.

Ralphs had 12-packs for $4.50 (4+) over Christmas/New Year’s. Obviously Kroger receives a volume discount but they’re probably losing around $1 for every carton that’s sold. Albertsons had the best price on soda nearly every week from at least 2016/17 until last year, but they haven’t even been competitive sans a few weeks (and not the best price -just competitive). Soda is tricky - 20 years ago A&P decided that it would end losses on soda/ expect them to break even, and it lead to immediate shopper flight (noteably at Farmer Jack).

Ironically, Walmart rarely takes a loss on soda but it does so on select beers unless prohibited by law.
Most stores are at 7.99 for a 12pk. Strangely Raleys has held its 6.98 "everyday low price" on 12pk soda unless something changed this week.

I am guessing Safeway went up to 9.99 to fund an upcoming sale. Perhaps buy 2 get 3 free. Buy 2 get 4 free. We will see. Dumb pricing games. Reminds me what Albersons used to do in the 90s with soda- they'd post absurd regular prices that it never actually sold for like 8.99 for a 12pk then always have it on sale for 3.99 or something which at the time was competitive with other store regular prices (less of a price if it was in the actual ad, back then under $2 was not uncommon)- I think it was basically a scheme to show "savings" for the bonus buy program.
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Re: Albertson/Vons/Pavilions Pricing

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

storewanderer wrote: January 9th, 2023, 11:46 pm I am shopping more and more at WinCo and even picking a few more items up at Wal Mart lately all of these items are things I used to buy at Smiths but have had to give up on Smiths due to consistently being out of stock and/or too high of prices. I buy next to nothing at Smiths lately. Safeway is pretty much only ad items, some weeks that is quite a few items and other weeks that may be zero items. I've also basically stopped shopping Raleys entirely due to their arrogant ONE format and pricing combined with lackluster execution at other non-ONE locations I've been going into, and Save Mart gets a few purchases out of me most weeks moreso due to location than anything else.
Bare shelves at Albertsons might end up driving me to Stater Bros. I've been doing much more of my weekly shopping there anyway from time to time as their prices are better than Albertsons. I do maybe a tenth of my grocery shopping at Target, mostly paper products. I go to our local farmers' market, Frazier Farms, for produce. Very rarely will I step foot into a Walmart. I will definitely be a frequent Stater Bros. shopper assuming the Kroger/Albertsons merger goes through.

If you come to the far north San Diego suburbs, check out Frazier Farms. High quality perimeters, but interior that makes a 2004 Albertsons look modern.
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Re: Albertson/Vons/Pavilions Pricing

Post by storewanderer »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: January 14th, 2023, 1:28 pm
Bare shelves at Albertsons might end up driving me to Stater Bros. I've been doing much more of my weekly shopping there anyway from time to time as their prices are better than Albertsons. I do maybe a tenth of my grocery shopping at Target, mostly paper products. I go to our local farmers' market, Frazier Farms, for produce. Very rarely will I step foot into a Walmart. I will definitely be a frequent Stater Bros. shopper assuming the Kroger/Albertsons merger goes through.

If you come to the far north San Diego suburbs, check out Frazier Farms. High quality perimeters, but interior that makes a 2004 Albertsons look modern.
I am looking at 1820 Oceanside Blvd. and I have been in that store but I don't think it was running under the name Frazier Farms when I went to it but was some similar format. That was probably 10+ years ago now.

San Diego has some decent options spread around other than the usual ones; Baron's, Jimbos, etc.
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Re: Albertson/Vons/Pavilions Pricing

Post by Bagels »

And just like that, Albertsons rings in the New Year with some huge price increases.

4ct Signature Select breakfast sandwiches went from $4.49 to $8.49. From the value leader to the most overpriced overnight… incredible.

100ct Value Corner paper plates are now $5.99. These were $1.99 a year ago. This is one of the items Albertsons has long underpriced Walmart on to get people into its stores. Not sure why the price of uncoated paper plates has swelled - Ralphs is at $3.79 (was $1.99 a year ago as well) and Walmart is $5.18. Several retailers - including Target and Meijer - no longer sell uncoated paper plates. Dollar Tree has a 40ct, but they’re rarely in stock. The 99 has 50ct for $1.49, but again, they’re difficult to find in stock. Shocking that coated paper plates are now cheaper per plate when buying a 400ct from Walmart or Ralphs.

500ct napkins went from $3.99 to $4.99. The price increase is actually more than $1, considering they were perpetually on sale for $1.99 - $2.50 for the last several years. They haven’t been on sale in awhile, which is especially unusual given they are generally at their lowest price during the Holdiays. Ralphs is at $6.49, but probably because they’re pushing their new value brand (same product, different packaging).
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Re: Albertson/Vons/Pavilions Pricing

Post by pseudo3d »

Bagels wrote: January 22nd, 2023, 1:22 am And just like that, Albertsons rings in the New Year with some huge price increases.

4ct Signature Select breakfast sandwiches went from $4.49 to $8.49. From the value leader to the most overpriced overnight… incredible.

100ct Value Corner paper plates are now $5.99. These were $1.99 a year ago. This is one of the items Albertsons has long underpriced Walmart on to get people into its stores. Not sure why the price of uncoated paper plates has swelled - Ralphs is at $3.79 (was $1.99 a year ago as well) and Walmart is $5.18. Several retailers - including Target and Meijer - no longer sell uncoated paper plates. Dollar Tree has a 40ct, but they’re rarely in stock. The 99 has 50ct for $1.49, but again, they’re difficult to find in stock. Shocking that coated paper plates are now cheaper per plate when buying a 400ct from Walmart or Ralphs.

500ct napkins went from $3.99 to $4.99. The price increase is actually more than $1, considering they were perpetually on sale for $1.99 - $2.50 for the last several years. They haven’t been on sale in awhile, which is especially unusual given they are generally at their lowest price during the Holdiays. Ralphs is at $6.49, but probably because they’re pushing their new value brand (same product, different packaging).
Gotta pay for that dividend somehow.... :roll:
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Re: Albertson/Vons/Pavilions Pricing

Post by storewanderer »

Bagels wrote: January 22nd, 2023, 1:22 am And just like that, Albertsons rings in the New Year with some huge price increases.

4ct Signature Select breakfast sandwiches went from $4.49 to $8.49. From the value leader to the most overpriced overnight… incredible.

100ct Value Corner paper plates are now $5.99. These were $1.99 a year ago. This is one of the items Albertsons has long underpriced Walmart on to get people into its stores. Not sure why the price of uncoated paper plates has swelled - Ralphs is at $3.79 (was $1.99 a year ago as well) and Walmart is $5.18. Several retailers - including Target and Meijer - no longer sell uncoated paper plates. Dollar Tree has a 40ct, but they’re rarely in stock. The 99 has 50ct for $1.49, but again, they’re difficult to find in stock. Shocking that coated paper plates are now cheaper per plate when buying a 400ct from Walmart or Ralphs.

500ct napkins went from $3.99 to $4.99. The price increase is actually more than $1, considering they were perpetually on sale for $1.99 - $2.50 for the last several years. They haven’t been on sale in awhile, which is especially unusual given they are generally at their lowest price during the Holdiays. Ralphs is at $6.49, but probably because they’re pushing their new value brand (same product, different packaging).
I haven't noticed things much worse in NorCal the past few weeks. Pricing is already so bad, hard for it to get much worse. I have noticed some weird things with their "everyday low prices" on produce in Reno, like one week the honeycrisp went down to a 2.19/lb everyday low price but were also on sale that week 1.88/lb; when the sale ended they went back to the old 3.29/lb or something like that regular price. Then the next week the large fuji apples went to everyday low price 1.19/lb but were on sale for .99/lb then after the sale ended shot back up to 2.19/lb. Not sure what the point of what they are doing showing an artificially low regular price during the sale just to shoot it back up after the sale ends. Meanwhile the Reno Safeway price cut program prices bananas at .75/lb while Smiths prices bananas .55/lb or just .19 each at Trader Joes.

I expect once Kroger takes over a lot of these pricing games will end at Safeway, quickly, I hope. They should burn the entire pricing system of Safeway/Albertsons because it has been a big problem for decades.

Walgreens used to run a lot of deals on the basic paper plates but I haven't seen those in a long time.
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Re: Albertson/Vons/Pavilions Pricing

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: January 14th, 2023, 10:45 pm
retailfanmitchell019 wrote: January 14th, 2023, 1:28 pm
Bare shelves at Albertsons might end up driving me to Stater Bros. I've been doing much more of my weekly shopping there anyway from time to time as their prices are better than Albertsons. I do maybe a tenth of my grocery shopping at Target, mostly paper products. I go to our local farmers' market, Frazier Farms, for produce. Very rarely will I step foot into a Walmart. I will definitely be a frequent Stater Bros. shopper assuming the Kroger/Albertsons merger goes through.

If you come to the far north San Diego suburbs, check out Frazier Farms. High quality perimeters, but interior that makes a 2004 Albertsons look modern.
I am looking at 1820 Oceanside Blvd. and I have been in that store but I don't think it was running under the name Frazier Farms when I went to it but was some similar format. That was probably 10+ years ago now.

San Diego has some decent options spread around other than the usual ones; Baron's, Jimbos, etc.
Frazier is related to Boney's and Henry's somehow. I believe the Oceanside Blvd. site was a Boney's before.
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Re: Albertson/Vons/Pavilions Pricing

Post by storewanderer »

ClownLoach wrote: January 23rd, 2023, 6:30 pm
Frazier is related to Boney's and Henry's somehow. I believe the Oceanside Blvd. site was a Boney's before.
That sounds right. Boney ran the NorCal Wild Oats Stores for a brief period some years ago. I'm not sure why Wild Oats exited NorCal (they kept Reno). They ran them under the name Picadilly Circus then I think may have rebranded them to Boney's very briefly, they struggled, it was pretty bad. Seemed like they did not have a good supply chain.
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Re: Albertson/Vons/Pavilions Pricing

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

ClownLoach wrote: January 23rd, 2023, 6:30 pm Frazier is related to Boney's and Henry's somehow. I believe the Oceanside Blvd. site was a Boney's before.
Off Topic
Yeah, I grew up shopping at that Boney's with my parents.
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