Heads up! If you shop sales, and there's multiple Albertsons/Vons near you, check their circulars before doing your shopping! There's four stores that we frequent (all bannered Albertsons), all nearby, and I've noticed lately that it seems as if pricing -- including sales -- varied between stores. Well, now here's proof! I didn't compare the entire circular, but on the bottom half of the front page you'll notice two differences: in one version, soda is B2G3 free whereas in the other it's B2G2 free. Ice cream is also 80 cents less at the store with the extra case of free soda.
In comparing various Albertsons/Vons online, there is no geographic boundary for the two ads. My best guess is that higher volume stores get the inferior of the two. So, to that person who told me I'm wrong and that pricing is universal across Albertsons in LA/OC... I'm not crazy after all .
Safeway has done this with their ads for years. To preface the below none of it has anything to do with remodels. Remodels obviously always get a special grand-reopening ad highlighting a specific store.
Where this thing you are seeing in SoCal is sloppy is that the ad does not explicitly state what locations have what prices. The front page says ad valid in SoCal Stores. With that language I'd push to demand the lower priced paper ad I was mailed be honored at whatever SoCal Store I happen to show up at.
One of your ads is V1 and one ad is V3 (bottom corner of page has this). So there are other versions floating too.
So this thing you are seeing in SoCal:
From time to time a single store or group of stores will get a special ad for some random reason. In the case of SoCal, there must be some kind of a trend to what stores are getting this special ad. Do they have Aldi nearby? Stater? Wal Mart? Do the stores appear to be underperforming?
Safeway also does this where rural stores get a different (higher priced) ad than stores in more competitive areas sometimes.
Ralphs also used to (maybe not anymore) run different ads for stores that were geographically a few miles apart. The difference with Ralphs was they'd actually run entirely different front page specials (store A may have NY Steak on the front page while store B had Pork Shoulder) on these ads and also different pricing on some same items within the ad. With Ralphs it was pretty obvious the lower income stores, most/all of which are gone now, got lower quality meat/produce/liquor leads on their front pages.
Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties stores are on the higher priced ad version. It appears Ventura and Los Angeles counties are on the lower based on a limited look. I first noticed the different pricing on meat/produce and ice cream features for the first time on the Memorial Day ad. I assumed the higher pricing was due to the limited competition in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, i.e., Ralphs has a total of two stores in each county and the relative high proportion of divestitures to Haggen as a result of the SWY/ABS merger (6 stores each in Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo county)
The 7/5/23 ad in Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo counties has Ready Pac salad blends at 2/$5 (2/$4 elsewhere) and Tillamook Ice Cream at $3.77 ($2.97 elsewhere).
Imagine what will happen if the KR merger goes thru!
Lake Forest had the weaker ad whereas Irvine-Quail Hill had the stronger ad. The latter is pretty isolated... there's a Ralphs nearby, but that's about it. Lake Forest is literally within a mile of Smart & Final's largest store, one of the last new build Ralph's and a Stater Bros; Aldi and a Walmart Supercenter are within 5-10 minutes (depending on traffic and the lights). So, I'm pretty convinced the weaker ad is going to the higher volume stores whereas the stronger ad is going to the weaker performing.
I've also noticed that select items are priced differently. A three-pack romaine hearts is priced at $3.49 at one store nearby, $3.99 at two others and $4.49 at the busiest. Red delicious apples are priced (per pound) at $1.79 at two stores, $1.99 at a third and $2.19 at the busiest. Bananas at 69c (per pound) at three stores and 79c at a fourth. Prices look to be universal on the app, however.
I also remember when Ralph's use to issue multiple ad copies and have different pricing throughout their stores -- this assertion once became a heated argument between me and a formerly frequent participant who insisted he never saw that. Many Ralphs stores were merchandised very differently in the 2000s. I imagine some of that was because of their heritage (multiple chains smooshed together in the decade prior) and some of that was at a corporate level. In the late 2000s, Kroger decided to standardized the bulk of their product assortment chainwide.
surfingdude wrote: ↑July 5th, 2023, 2:05 pm
Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties stores are on the higher priced ad version. It appears Ventura and Los Angeles counties are on the lower based on a limited look. I first noticed the different pricing on meat/produce and ice cream features for the first time on the Memorial Day ad. I assumed the higher pricing was due to the limited competition in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, i.e., Ralphs has a total of two stores in each county and the relative high proportion of divestitures to Haggen as a result of the SWY/ABS merger (6 stores each in Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo county)
The 7/5/23 ad in Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo counties has Ready Pac salad blends at 2/$5 (2/$4 elsewhere) and Tillamook Ice Cream at $3.77 ($2.97 elsewhere).
Imagine what will happen if the KR merger goes thru!
I look at the circulars via Flipp. Sometime in April, I saw 80/20 ground beef for 97c per pound, and when I went into the Albertsons across from UCI, it was $2.98. I shrugged it off as a probable mistake on Flipp. Not long before, two liters of Coke products were 77 cents each on Flipp but 3 for $4 in store -- with coupon. I clipped the coupon on the app and peaked at the circular, which indicated the same sales price. I asked the cashier about it and she said she thinks the 77 cent price was just for Friday or something like that and at the time I said that made sense. But now I know better .
Albertsons ads have been phenomenal for the past several months. I will be disappointed if the merger is approved or select assets are sold, as it'll be the end of hot deals like $1 for Planters Peanuts or Busch's Baked Beans, etc.
Also at Vons, Catalina, Bishop, and Mammoth Lakes have been on special funny ads for years. Under Safeway they didn't get an ad but a black and white print out on copy paper showing some random specials, basically part of the front page the rest of SoCal got and that was it.
Albertsons has expanded the ad size of those stores a little.
This keeps changing but last I checked, Mammoth (competes with a Grocery Outlet) and Catalina were still on the same ad. That ad has no Friday frenzy. Bishop has a slightly larger ad and has Friday Frenzy (that does compete with a small Smart & Final, a small but packed independent called Manor Market, and a Grocery Outlet).
I took a look at NorCal and aside from grand reopenings they have the same ad running throughout NorCal right now.
Surprisingly, Catalina offers many of the same promotions as the mainland Vons/Albertsons. We were on a cruise last summer that stopped at Catalina Island and hoards of passengers were bringing back 24-packs of Signature Select water that was on sale for 97c.
I don't quite understand their strategy with these mailed ads. Here in Washington, I sometimes get 2 or 3 in a week, all on random days, all of which are co-branded Safeway-Albertsons ads. I glance at them but the prices aren't really all that great.
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