Raley’s pushing Something Extra deals

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lake52
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Raley’s pushing Something Extra deals

Post by lake52 »

I walked into a Raley’s recently and saw a giant sign talking about how Something Extra members get the best price. At first I thought they had implemented a club card similar to Safeway.

However, upon further examination they are pushing “Something Extra Exclusive Deals” via the app, similar to Safeway Just-For-U. For example (don’t recall exact prices), the signage stated that an avocado “sale” price was $2.29, but the app had a coupon for $0.90/per. There were maybe a half dozen instances of this tactic around the store. The deals they had were pretty competitive.

It is going to be interesting if they roll this out weekly or if this was a Labor Day weekend thing. It would certainly drive people to utilize Something Extra more which is a pretty underutilized platform.
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Re: Raley’s pushing Something Extra deals

Post by storewanderer »

They've been doing this for 2 to 3 weeks. There is a paper coupon on the front page of the ad they mail out also. Not sure if they are providing ads in store with the coupons (Save Mart does not, they print a separate ad without coupons for the store pile). There are 3 promotions each week the past 2 or 3 weeks.

Also if I log in to Something Extra it has a few other digital offers, which has not happened since before COVID. I think their use of the program at the present is largely useless from a merchandising and marketing perspective after what I have observed and continue to observe with the Raleys ONE fiasco in Reno. There was a time when they were using the data and coming up with well merchandise stores from it but their ego seems to have gotten in the way with this Raleys ONE in Reno.

Also this week they have boxes of their $5 weekend specials piled up around the front ends and have a plain piece of copy paper showing the price no item description etc. which looks straight out of a garage sale.

Raleys appears to be struggling. The inflation situation and their reputation for high prices seems to be causing them to lose customers. Perception is their prices are higher than Safeway, which I think is false, but nobody else seems to agree with me.

The beef I saw at Raleys this weekend was some of the worst looking beef I've seen since Albertsons NorCal in about 2001. Beef that was more fat that beef and not very well cut. I am not sure what is going on but I was shocked.
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Re: Raley’s pushing Something Extra deals

Post by HCal »

Smart and Final has also been pushing their Just4U clone for a while now. In the beginning they were offering 15% off your entire order. Now they have some pretty good deals on individual items.

I suppose Raley's is taking the same approach. Sad to hear they are struggling, along with Save Mart. I think the reality is that inflationary times hit smaller chains the hardest. The large chains can absorb the increased costs better, and the independents have customers that are not as price-sensitive. The conventional supermarkets are caught in the middle. Hopefully they make it through without being forced to sell out to one of the big two.
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Re: Raley’s pushing Something Extra deals

Post by storewanderer »

HCal wrote: September 6th, 2022, 11:24 pm Smart and Final has also been pushing their Just4U clone for a while now. In the beginning they were offering 15% off your entire order. Now they have some pretty good deals on individual items.

I suppose Raley's is taking the same approach. Sad to hear they are struggling, along with Save Mart. I think the reality is that inflationary times hit smaller chains the hardest. The large chains can absorb the increased costs better, and the independents have customers that are not as price-sensitive. The conventional supermarkets are caught in the middle. Hopefully they make it through without being forced to sell out to one of the big two.
This inflation seems to be a nightmare for the small chains. Even if they price increase, as you point out, customers are not happy about it, these chains already seem to have a perception for high prices, less than sophisticated promotional programs compared to larger chains, and it seems customers are not as loyal to these smaller regional chains as they once were. But, Safeway doesn't absorb any increased costs, they pass them on to the consumer immediately, or perhaps in advance of the actual increase taking place. Their ability to increase prices is second to none. Kroger, yes, they are a little slow at passing on price increases, but they eventually get there.

It is even more troublesome for independents with just a few stores.

I didn't even know Smart & Final has a J4U Clone. How is it? Does it work? Save Mart has some kind of program too. I never signed up for Save Mart's program.
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Re: Raley’s pushing Something Extra deals

Post by HCal »

storewanderer wrote: September 6th, 2022, 11:52 pm
This inflation seems to be a nightmare for the small chains. Even if they price increase, as you point out, customers are not happy about it, these chains already seem to have a perception for high prices, less than sophisticated promotional programs compared to larger chains, and it seems customers are not as loyal to these smaller regional chains as they once were. But, Safeway doesn't absorb any increased costs, they pass them on to the consumer immediately, or perhaps in advance of the actual increase taking place. Their ability to increase prices is second to none. Kroger, yes, they are a little slow at passing on price increases, but they eventually get there.

It is even more troublesome for independents with just a few stores.

I didn't even know Smart & Final has a J4U Clone. How is it? Does it work? Save Mart has some kind of program too. I never signed up for Save Mart's program.
Yes, they have a digital coupons app, it's okay but nothing to write home about. It seems to be more heavy on manufacturer's coupons than personalized deals. Maybe it will improve over time.
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