99 Cents Only

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Re: 99 Cents Only

Post by storewanderer »

Reno Store has been stocking produce again the past few weeks. It looks full, somewhat fresh, quite like it looked up until about 3 years ago when it went way downhill. Someone is even putting 50% off stickers on stuff that looks overly ripe. Someone from 99 Cents Only must be watching this thread. Or not. Whatever the case may be, glad to see improvements. Their pricing seems to change every week and it isn't nearly the bargain it once was, also it doesn't seem to do anything close to the sales volume it once did, but still worth a stop again if driving by. Frozen is still in real trouble, they sent a large shipment of Tina's Burritos but not much else there.
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Re: 99 Cents Only

Post by Bagels »

The 99 continues to raise its prices — candy was 99.9 cents but now 1.29 - but I think I saw the biggest bargain of all-time: sweet organic Japanese watermelons for $8.99. These are sold for $150 at speciality Asian grocers.
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Re: 99 Cents Only

Post by storewanderer »

Bagels wrote: August 7th, 2022, 10:18 pm The 99 continues to raise its prices — candy was 99.9 cents but now 1.29 - but I think I saw the biggest bargain of all-time: sweet organic Japanese watermelons for $8.99. These are sold for $150 at speciality Asian grocers.
Did you try any candy at the checkout to see what it would come up? One of the stores in my area had a sign up that said all candy 1.29 unless otherwise marked. The other two stores had a sign up that said it was all .99 unless otherwise marked. That store with the 1.29 sign since updated its sign and now has the .99 sign up.

I notice the produce pricing keeps changing from week to week. I understand they are buying in a manner that may not necessarily guarantee they can profitably have strawberries to sell for .99 every week (even though somehow they did sell them every week at .99 for many past decades up until recently..), but I am not sure what has changed lately that somehow broke whatever they were doing for the past many decades.

One of the worst marked prices I saw was a small cylinder of Pounce Cat Treats- had been .99 forever, then out of stock. Now back in stock and with a 2.99 sticker in front of it. Easily found at Dollar General for $1 or Dollar Tree for $1.25. I have to assume the 2.99 is an error but did not ask.

I'm wondering if 99 Cents Only's real estate would be of use to Dollar General to do a Dollar General Market/Popshelf combo store format.
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Re: 99 Cents Only

Post by Bagels »

storewanderer wrote: August 7th, 2022, 11:09 pm
Bagels wrote: August 7th, 2022, 10:18 pm The 99 continues to raise its prices — candy was 99.9 cents but now 1.29 - but I think I saw the biggest bargain of all-time: sweet organic Japanese watermelons for $8.99. These are sold for $150 at speciality Asian grocers.
Did you try any candy at the checkout to see what it would come up? One of the stores in my area had a sign up that said all candy 1.29 unless otherwise marked. The other two stores had a sign up that said it was all .99 unless otherwise marked. That store with the 1.29 sign since updated its sign and now has the .99 sign up.

I notice the produce pricing keeps changing from week to week. I understand they are buying in a manner that may not necessarily guarantee they can profitably have strawberries to sell for .99 every week (even though somehow they did sell them every week at .99 for many past decades up until recently..), but I am not sure what has changed lately that somehow broke whatever they were doing for the past many decades.

One of the worst marked prices I saw was a small cylinder of Pounce Cat Treats- had been .99 forever, then out of stock. Now back in stock and with a 2.99 sticker in front of it. Easily found at Dollar General for $1 or Dollar Tree for $1.25. I have to assume the 2.99 is an error but did not ask.

I'm wondering if 99 Cents Only's real estate would be of use to Dollar General to do a Dollar General Market/Popshelf combo store format.
The 99 app now has a price scanner, so you can check pricing before you buy. It’s astonishing how much merchandise is not properly marked.

They have some great pricing on produce at the moment. We spent $20 (after $3 off coupon on the app) last week for a haul that would’ve cost nearly $100 at Ralphs or Albertsons. Some of the quality is suspect - the sweet potatoes and tomatoes rotted after a few days, even when prepared for storage.

Lots of Amazon-branded refrigerated products at the moment. Interestingly, the milk - usually Producer’s - is Great Value branded.
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Re: 99 Cents Only

Post by storewanderer »

Bagels wrote: September 17th, 2022, 11:15 pm
The 99 app now has a price scanner, so you can check pricing before you buy. It’s astonishing how much merchandise is not properly marked.

They have some great pricing on produce at the moment. We spent $20 (after $3 off coupon on the app) last week for a haul that would’ve cost nearly $100 at Ralphs or Albertsons. Some of the quality is suspect - the sweet potatoes and tomatoes rotted after a few days, even when prepared for storage.

Lots of Amazon-branded refrigerated products at the moment. Interestingly, the milk - usually Producer’s - is Great Value branded.
Needing to use a price scanner to shop at 99 Cents Only demonstrates a big problem in my opinion. The whole point of single price point stores is they are supposed to be easy to shop. Why should the customer need a price scanner? That sort of defeats the purpose of the place... but they keep changing their prices so often I can see why this is needed.

I had some issues with mismarked prices at one of their stores down in Roseville and the employee was extremely rude about fixing it. Rather than fix prices, she first argued, then just voided a couple items off the transaction entirely and threw them into the bag. I estimated I came out somewhere under a dollar ahead as a result of that but there was some tax I was overcharged as voided items were non-taxable but overcharge involved 2 taxable items.

I think they are in a serious fight with Grocery Outlet to get inventory.

I have had a couple instances where unmarked items scan 1.29. My understanding is their policy is the price is .99 unless otherwise marked. I just let it go those two times as it was one item and I just didn't want to stay in there any longer and did want the items.

These chains that cannot keep price accuracy straight are set to face massive fines in CA. I wonder how much of the profit from their price increase will be eaten up by fines and a mandatory scan guarantee policy if the state decides to go after them. It feels like the state only likes to go after grocery chains, and Rite Aid. Given they went after Wal Mart, CVS, and Walgreens and those chains got fines then only a "temporary scan guarantee" that is now no longer offered. Yet the grocers and Rite Aid have to offer a scan guarantee basically forever. I also think the scanning laws that provide the consumer with a scan guarantee policy should apply to all retailers in the state, not just specific chains.
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Re: 99 Cents Only

Post by HCal »

Bagels wrote: September 17th, 2022, 11:15 pm
The 99 app now has a price scanner, so you can check pricing before you buy. It’s astonishing how much merchandise is not properly marked.

They have some great pricing on produce at the moment. We spent $20 (after $3 off coupon on the app) last week for a haul that would’ve cost nearly $100 at Ralphs or Albertsons. Some of the quality is suspect - the sweet potatoes and tomatoes rotted after a few days, even when prepared for storage.

Lots of Amazon-branded refrigerated products at the moment. Interestingly, the milk - usually Producer’s - is Great Value branded.
Milk is one thing that 99 is currently not competitive on. I remember back when they used to sell Jerseymaid milk from the Safeway plant, at an excellent price. Now they sell Producers gallons for something like $4.69.

I randomly saw one "America's Choice" box of envelopes at the 99 Cent store a couple weeks ago, "distributed by the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company". I wonder if it somehow got lost and was sitting in a warehouse for a few years.
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Re: 99 Cents Only

Post by BillyGr »

HCal wrote: September 20th, 2022, 1:53 am I randomly saw one "America's Choice" box of envelopes at the 99 Cent store a couple weeks ago, "distributed by the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company". I wonder if it somehow got lost and was sitting in a warehouse for a few years.
Could very well be that, or even somehow got lost in the back of the store itself - not sure if that chain had stuff like that in 2016 after A&P went bankrupt (like the Ollie's and Ocean State chains did here in NY)?

If that happened, at least it was lucky that it was one of the few items that could still be useful after a 6 year hide out!
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Re: 99 Cents Only

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99 in Reno is selling Producer's Milk at 3.99. This is no bargain but not too far out of line. They were most competitive on milk/bread back when they got the items from Certified Grocers/Unified (Golden Cream) but after those plants were sold and 99 stopped using them it seems like their milk program has been not competitive on price and the bread program from Safeway is okay.

They did just price increase the candy to 1.29 and it is scanning at that price today. I don't like to exaggerate but it feels like almost nothing is 99 cents in there at this point. I forgot to check if the party supplies are still at 99 cents as that is another item I've seen go back and forth. I think keeping large "categories" like candy and party supplies at 99 cents would be a wise strategic move for them, given their NAME is 99 Cents only, at least if they can have basically two entire aisles of products that are all 99 Cents, it would really help with their image.

They even have a sale sign on some Campbell's Soup that says "inflation buster was 1.29 now 1.09" - really guys - come on - just go down to the 99 cents on it.

The only refrigerated Amazon product I saw was can biscuits.
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Re: 99 Cents Only

Post by Bagels »

storewanderer wrote: September 20th, 2022, 9:51 pm 99 in Reno is selling Producer's Milk at 3.99. This is no bargain but not too far out of line. They were most competitive on milk/bread back when they got the items from Certified Grocers/Unified (Golden Cream) but after those plants were sold and 99 stopped using them it seems like their milk program has been not competitive on price and the bread program from Safeway is okay.

They did just price increase the candy to 1.29 and it is scanning at that price today. I don't like to exaggerate but it feels like almost nothing is 99 cents in there at this point. I forgot to check if the party supplies are still at 99 cents as that is another item I've seen go back and forth. I think keeping large "categories" like candy and party supplies at 99 cents would be a wise strategic move for them, given their NAME is 99 Cents only, at least if they can have basically two entire aisles of products that are all 99 Cents, it would really help with their image.

They even have a sale sign on some Campbell's Soup that says "inflation buster was 1.29 now 1.09" - really guys - come on - just go down to the 99 cents on it.

The only refrigerated Amazon product I saw was can biscuits.
Most of their produce was down to .999, as well as frozen/refrigerated Kraft close outs. They also have a random selection of products at .999, but most of these can be purchased at Walmart for less (that said, there is the occasional bargain).

They are gradually rebranding themselves to “The 99 Store.” They’re gradually renovating stores but the renovation is limited to painting the store in bright colors and changing the signs. An article mentions that they’re holding a grand reopening of “The 99 Store” in Las Vegas, so presumably all locations have been renovated there. Most of there struck have removed “99 Cents Only,” although they haven’t updated the branding - instead leaving empty space - so it’s kinda weird.

After Dollar Tree increased its pricing, most of the candy and snacks remained at $1 (although many stores improperly put up signage indicating the $1.25 price) but that recently ended and it’s all at $1.25 now, so 99 is probably following suit.
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Re: 99 Cents Only

Post by Alpha8472 »

Have there been any improvements in product selection at the 99 Stores? Are there higher quality products at a higher price point? Does every item cost $1.99, $2.99, etc? What is the reason why customers should shop at these rebranded stores? It really does not sound very appealing.

Has Dollar Tree improved their selection of products after the price hikes? Is anything a good value anymore?

What is a better value? Walmart, Dollar Tree, or The 99 Store?
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