I started ranting about recent changes in coupon policies earlier this week and thought it would be timely to set out my thoughts on the problems many of you have encountered at Albertsons over the past month. The intent of this post is to help get you in the right mindset as you prepare for your doubles trips this weekend.
Limited Stock
I’ve been couponing for over three years, which isn’t really that long compared to some of you, and I have encountered cleared shelves the entire time. My husband and I were recounting the other night just how many deals have failed because our store, and many others, were out of a promotional item. I realize that the problem has been magnified in the past 3-4 months with the influx of new couponers to the game, but it’s certainly not a new phenomena.
I suggest you plan your transactions with the strong possibility of one of your items being out of stock. And don’t make a special trip just for one item unless you live nearby or have some time to kill.
Heather from Queen Bee Coupons has a great post on the Empty Shelf Epidemic. It’s worth a read.
One side note on this issue. Some readers witness people in the act of shelf clearing at the store and come to set them straight by commenting on a deal post or on Facebook. From my experience, it is by and large not blog readers who intentionally clear shelves. There are other people who coupon who don’t read deal blogs (in fact, they really dislike us) and did not start couponing because of a cable television show. They will not change their shopping strategies because of a comment. Just take my word on this one.
Limited Double Coupons
Right off the bat, do not be surprised if your store limits the number of TTV sheets they hand out at the customer service desk OR if they run out before Tuesday evening. Each store receives a limited amount of sheets and it is only fair that they control the distribution of them.
Inconsistent Policy Enforcement
I realize that it’s super frustrating to encounter an employee enforcing a rule that is different than what is in Albertsons’ corporate policy. In the end, each store manager gets to set his/her own policy. And I guarantee that if they limit your TTV transactions, it’s because someone took advantage of it earlier.
The bottom line is that these three issues — limited stock, limited double coupons, inconsistent policy enforcement — cannot be solved by commenting on this, or any other blog. Stating your problem to someone who cannot solve it is just complaining and whining, which while it feels really good to vent, it’s not really productive. And none of us allow our kids to do it, so we shouldn’t either.
The people who can solve these problems are your local store manager and Albertsons corporate.
If your store is always running out of sale items, ask your manager what you can do to help. He or she just may have a solution. If they are interested in upcoming deals, let me know and we can start emailing them a list of what they should order.
If your store always runs out of double coupon sheets, email and Facebook Albertsons requesting that they implement a paperless Twice The Value system.
If you encounter inconsistent TTV policies, ask your manager for clarification. Politely inform corporate about your customer service experience.
If you are consistently running into problems at your local store, go to another one. Gas prices may make this solution unworkable for some of you, but many in metro areas have options. If a cashier rolls her eyes at you or grumbles when you pull out your coupons, go to another store. And let the first store manager know (sweetly!) why you are taking your business elsewhere.
For those veteran couponers, I know this is a frustrating time. We’ve grown accustomed to being one of the only players at our store and now we have to figure out how to play with others. If it’s getting too much, just take a break — shop WinCo and live off your stockpile for a few months.
For those newbies, understand that many problems you are encountering are just part of couponing and not necessarily because of the increased media exposure. Consider the frustration your initiation into the club. It will get easier (I promise!), but mostly, you will figure out how to adjust your expectations.
I know that part of you wishes people would just stop learning how to coupon. It does feel like the shear volume of new couponers is changing the game. But I honestly think we are just in a transition time and stores will respond to the increased number of deal seekers. They will eventually start ordering more sale items. This is a time of growing pains that won’t last forever.
And just remember, we didn’t close admittance to the coupon club the day before you joined. Aren’t you glad that we welcomed you to the club?
{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent post!!!
Wonderful post! Thank you so very much for this information.
Well put! Personally, I think that couponing for many right now will be a fad, not a lifestyle. It isn’t for everybody. I think a lot of people will try it for a few months, get tired of it (because, as we all know, time and energy MUST be applied), and quit.
you need a LIKE / LOVE button so I can just LOVE this comment. it is time consuming and hope fully the fad will pass. (Like scrapbooking has for many)
Kari
Great post! I am learning to go to any store with several deal scenarios written down and coupons prepared, so that no matter what, I can find a few scores. I also have decided never to go to a store simply for the free items, as they are typically the ones out of stock first. I plan my trips so that I am getting extremely LOW cost items, and if I luck out with a freebie, I consider it a bonus. That really helps to keep my blood from boiling, as I never have to leave a store empty handed or without some sense of accomplishment. I’d much rather pay $.40 for ketchup and feel like a winner than show up ready for free ketchup and leave empty handed feeling like a sore loser!
Amen. If I am going with doublers, I do take some coupons for the free items, but I would much rather end up with stuff that our family uses all the time. I only get two papers and never end up asking CS for too many additional sets (if they even have any), so I have to make sure what I am using my double coupons for is worthwhile. I’m all about getting free stuff, but if it’s a choice between salad dressing for 50 cents and soy sauce for free (which we never use), I’ll take the salad dressing everyday of the week.
I know that people get a thrill out of how much stuff they can get for free, but most of the “free” items won’t necessarily feed your family a balanced diet. I get a thrill out of finding great produce prices or finding the vitamins we use for significantly less than full price.
I don’t even get that excited about double coupons anymore. I told my husband today how much I love Fred Meyer b/c they 99% of the time have what I want in stock, their produce prices are great and I can pick up some shoes for my boys all at the same place!
I have just had to readjust my couponing expectations and priorities. I do think some of the craziness is a fad, but shopping smart and knowing stock-up prices on items our family uses on a daily basis is not.
Amen to Melody AND Kari. I’ve been couponing for over 2 years now and feel the same as ya’ll. I very rarely get free items anymore cause the shelves are bare. In fact, two weeks ago I COULD NOT use my TTV coupons – there just wasn’t any good math-ups with my coupons…I was so frustrated!
Anyhow, I too go to Fred Meyer, a lot. I fell quite good when I walk out of the store spending around $50, with an overflowing basket.
Thank you so much for your comments! I appreciate your attitude and especially the last part in italics. Well said!
Very good post! I have been couponing off and on for over 20 years. (I even lived in So. Ca in ‘the day’ – unlimited double coupons at a couple stores and even TRIPLE coupons as a special promotion)
I agree with an above poster, it is fad, the sheer numbers will diminish with time. There are many that too easily get their knickers in a twist and will just give up. It comes, it goes, the game changes, but always worth the effort if you can make the time.
and before drooling too much over the idea of unlimited doubles, do keep in mind most coupons were for 10 or 25 cents at that point!
This is a great post, puts it into perspective for sure! Growing pains is an excellent way of putting it, thank you for the “reality check”
Because I live so far from the store(40 minute drive) I make a big list and never for 1 item. I also order my items in advance if I can…..
I never leave empty handed either…..rainchecks are almost as good as having the item in stock, sometimes even better because you have 30 days to get more coupons :0).
I also make sure I get a list for multiple stores (riteaid, walgreens, fred meyer) while I made the trip out that way anyway…..
I agree, this is a great post! Thanks!
preach much?
Well said!
Great post! The times are changing and many of us need the coupons to get buy and feed our families like me. Thank you for helping it is appreciated.
In 14 years of living here, I’ve never had a problem in Seattle with stores being sold out of the promotional items (even late in the week, well after the promotional launch).
During that time, I think I’ve requested and received (at most) a half dozen rain checks.
That being said, we are entering a new age of weirdness in shopping.
I blame this directly on television, and the Extreme Couponing show.
I encountered my first ever shelf sweeper/multi-shopping cart maniac yesterday at the Ballard/Fremont Fred Meyer.
It was truely an amazing/breath-taking experience.
She had three carts and two assistant cart driver jockeys.
This lady and her minions actually created crowds of people following her around as she moved from isle to isle…
…and the crowd wasn’t friendly.
As she swept clean a number of items on various isles, there were a variety of people who were simultaneously rude and yet quite humerous at the same time.
All I can say is that it appeared that nearly 100% of the people I observed who encountered this whirling tornado of buying did not find that encounter with her to be a good thing for shopping at the Ballard/Fremont Fred Meyer.
Regardless of whether she later donated everything to a Food Bank, and not even if she made it through checkout intact…this sort of (in my opinion) television fueled mania for extreme shopping needs to die out quickly…or there will be some serious problems in our local supermarkets that go well beyond upset people just making rude remarks.
I’d add to my previous report that she did make it successfully out of the checkout area (I asked a cashier today on my visit to Freddy’s who was also there yesterday, and she confirmed that the lady and minions took over a checkout stand for quite a while, but did exit the store intact).
As an addendum, she wasn’t using lists or 3×5 cards to do her shopping…
…as this is techno-geek central Seattle.
While she did have the file folder expando-thing seen on Extreme Couponing for the actual coupons themselves…
…She had an I-Pad for the shopping list, along with what the checkout person described as something like “coupons on a phone” thing on the I-Pad that were directly scanable on the Fred Meyer system with their little hand scanners that they use for normal coupons.
Judging by the less-than-positive response of others around me on-site at the time, this new uber-over action of both sweeping the universe of product in our previously sancrosanct store, and then flaunting the process through use of new technology probably needs further investigation. I see a CNBC Weekend Investigation on the horizon (grin).
What the heck wash she buying! LOL
I was a t fred meyer yesterday…..the only thing I could think of to buy was sunblock and some produce…..
After posting, I got a lot of local Fremont feedback about the initial post, then the second…let’s just say that I now am up to date in understanding beta-testing.
Umm, I’ll try and phrase this appropriately, in line with disclosure constraints.
The thing I experienced yesterday was basically a flash test of new technology.
The product used was not an I-Pad…it was some sort of really similar Android hand-held device that I don’t immediately understand or care about (frankly).
While there were not apparent cameras there, there were apparently in-crowd observers making notes.
Gee, kind of creepy in a thousand different ways, when you think about how you (and I) just want shop for the family in the general store, and generally don’t feel like there are people following/watching you.
I understand marketing sources using what I buy as a mechanism to send me coupons or offers that reflect my interest in signing up for sites (including frugallivingnw.com), and carefully evaluate their sign on “read this and click here” process.
That said, I’m distressed by what seems to be happening effectively behind the curtain up here in Seattle as us shoppers just do what we do each day.
I cannot possibly think of what they would fill 3 carts with — FM never has enough sweet deals to warrant a trip like that. I bet that shopper would have paid less buying the generic version of those products at WinCo.
I’ve only been couponing since September when the school district where I teach had to cut 15 days. It has truly been a life saver. I have noticed that the advertised specials at out local Albertson’s and Safeway have been running out more quickly lately – not so much at the Fred Meyer.
One thing that has definitely changed in the last couple of months is the constant comments that I now get asking if I’m an “extreme couponer”. It’s odd because I never even have a full cart, let alone four or five. I’m just hoping the buzz goes away soon as people get tired of what seems to be the same episode showing over an over again with only a change in people.
Always with my binder, I stopped in for 2 Dial hand soaps last week at Rite Aid. Another customer in line behind me said “so you are one of those extreme couponers!” Not nice but not mean. I replied, not nice but not mean… “Nope. A strategic shopper. I have no idea what could be extreme about two hand soaps (pointing in my cart), do you? But I am getting them or $0.25 each and that just sounds like a smart buy in my opinion.”
They shut up and went to the other check out line. Bye bye and good ridance. Hopefully they will not ‘discriminate’ next time they see a binder.
Great advice. My wife and I have been couponing since last fall, and recently have stepped up our game as our rent has increased. I’ve found empty shelves many times and always go ask for a rain check. With 30-60 days to redeem, I can nearly always get the same great deal.
I disagree, I see two options:
1. Most of the new couponers will burn out and it will basically go back to how it was before the shows (In which case you’re basically correct) – this is unlikely
2. Much more likely is that the enough of the new couponers will stick long enough to change the economic situation for the major food companies (Con Agra, Unilever, …) and stores. Coupons are basically marketing, as are store specials. The companies know that a small group of people will play both sides of the equation and get very low prices (mix a coupon with a store special to get free/cheap). Because of the small percentage of folks who do this compared to those who simply buy something they wouldn’t have (which is the purpose of the marketing on both sides), the companies have a significant positive profit margin due to these efforts. On top of that the grocery stores are on razor thin margins, and like the major producers, they can not afford a larger number of people using double coupons (exact same logic).
If the number of people doing this continues to grow or even stay where it currently is, all of these companies will make changes (we have seen the beginning of this with much stricter usage requirements for TVQs at Albertsons).
So whether you think it is 1 or 2, I think changes are coming to reduce the benefit of couponing, and given this, it probably changes the equation for me personally to where the benefit does not outweigh the costs (time, gas, …).
Yeah I can see that happening either way. I do think people will get burnt out for sure. Changes will happen like rite aid did a few minor changes.
And I’m totally happy Rite-Aid did a quantity limit. Now, a lot more will be able to get in on the deal, instead of a minority few.
Good luck with that! Unless they start getting larger shipments, cleared shelves will still be a problem. I usually always bought 4 or less anyway before the policy.
Yesterday they finally restocked the bengay. I bought 4……….there was 4 left (enough for 1 more person)……
I had a raincheck on the ritzbitz…..for 4…..and I *cleared* the shelf….wasn’t that hard when there’s only 4 in stock….
Yeah, I’m putting my money on number two. So far you’re the only one who seems to understand what is really going on.
Having worked for General Mills, coupon redemption, marketing promos and product pushes…I can say, they will never quit having a product push, store sales, print ad coupons occuring at the same time. They will find ways to complicate coupons, limit 4 like coupons per trip or even 1 per customer per transaction, changing $ value to qty, like the new B2G1 versus the old B1G1 or the other new one, B1 of this G1 of that, or Buy This and save $ on that. They may also go to rebates to limit it to one per address and receipts show coupons used that they will exclude the value of.
Don’t think that food companies and grocers have such a small ‘razor thin’ profit margin. The inflation on food is almost double that of all other markets of the economy. They are attributing it to distribution costs (fuel), but I also know the distibution network of GenMills and it has been constructed in advance knowing it would happen and get worse.
The profit margins are constantly being evaluated because the performance to stockholders and growth rate is their only concern, truth be told. They WILL adapt to changing elements, but guess what, we will too.
I discriminate amongst food companies by what is on sale. I discriminate amonst stores by who has rewards (gas, future savings on CATs, discounts and +UPs/RR). I will still only buy the products with great savings. If you quit giving me a reason to buy ‘your’ product, I will quit buying it.
Those of us skilled enough, smart enough and tenacious enough will still win and continue to save. Those looking for easy freebies will give up if it is not so ‘easy’ any longer. I for one am not too concerned about the changes that WILL come in the next quarter or two. I will adapt no matter what.
I’m a new coupon user, started three weeks ago, but Iv never seen the TLC show. I had a few friends on Facebook mention how much they were saving and recommended that I follow a few blogs when I asked about it. I appreciate the help you provide and the positive attitude.
I have never bought more than 4 of the same item, and keep my transactions small to help me keep from getting confused or missing a coupon etc but I still hear people making nasty comments about me in the grocery store and the checkout line. I’m trying to ignore it, but it does make me nervous about bringing my binder into the store and using multiple coupons at checkout. Today I got referred to as “one of those couponers” in a nasty way by a total stranger! Iv also had a few cashiers be less than pleasant.
So as a newbie I am begging all you to be nice to us! We need your guidance and support to save some money and have a little fun shopping. In exchange I promise to play by the rules, and if I ever need more than 4 of something I will pre-order with the store manager =)
ME TOO! Amen.
I hate when people act like I am a weird greedy hoarder because I have a full cart and a fist full of coupons. My house and family consists of 6 kids, 1 grandchild, 1 disabled senior, and my husband and I so we go through a decent amount of food and couponing has saved us during the economic downturn. When strangers make rude comments or a cashier rolls her eyes at me, I double down on the sweetness and treat them as I wish they had treated me. So keep your head up and remember in the end you coupon for you and your family and people who feel it is ok to make rude commentary should be pitied for their lack of tact and understanding. Keep your head high!
“For those veteran couponers, I know this is a frustrating time. We’ve grown accustomed to being one of the only players at our store and now we have to figure out how to play with others. If it’s getting too much, just take a break — shop WinCo and live off your stockpile for a few months.”
This is exactly what I’ve been doing! LOL!! But, I’m out of toothpaste. Darn – how did that happen??
Good job Angela!
{And just remember, we didn’t close admittance to the coupon club the day before you joined. Aren’t you glad that we welcomed you to the club?}- on top of that- don’t we hope that other families can share in wise/frugal shopping and stretch their own hard-earned money farther??? Take care of their families to the best of their “couponing” ability?
It IS disheartening to KNOW someone is blatantly abusing the “system” tho. I was at Albertsons last Tuesday night to get a rain check. A lady came in (to happy valley from the gladstone area … so a ways) to get doublers for the upcoming weekend TOMORROW. Among many disturbing things she told me she does was one that is still disturbing me. She teaches classes. She clears shelves and doesn’t care. She was making a trip to 3 stores the next morning hoping to get 20 boxes of the $1 brownie mix at ea. store OFF THE SHELF. Of course this was “in the name of donating to church function” so that makes it ok. right? wrong. I urged her to pre order and she said she just wanted to get 20 and if they had it she would do it that way. I said “what about other shoppers” she said “the store will restock”.
wow. truly sad that she teaches others to do this. She said she had a bunch of peelies that she takes as many as she wants whenever she sees them. .50 for brownies is awesome (my personal price point for almost anything is .50 : ) ) but the way she did it was disturbing.
Thankful for coupons and those who taught me how to use them with integrity.
Kari
I firmly believe there are A LOT of ‘ethical’ couponers out there – more than those who ‘clear the shelves’ people. BUT it is those few minority that make it really, really difficult for all the rest of us.
Why couldn’t she come to my Albertsons! LOL
I went there Tuesday night hoping to get a raincheck since I didn’t have my coupons yet………they had a pallet……huge pallet of duncan hines that no one was buying!!…….ugh….no raincheck for me
Finally someone who puts the issue of empty shelves in perspective! Everyone seems to want to blame all the couponers & act as if it is a crime to take the last of something off the shelves. The real issue is, just as you said, low stock. Thank you for this post & for putting it all out there for us! If we are not satisfied with how things are going, we are the only ones that can really do anything to change it….because complaining, venting, etc will not do anything to solve the problem! Thanks for saying what needed to be said:) Happy couponing everyone!!
i hope that many of the new couponers will, in fact, stick it out. I think there are other options for how this influx will change the “couponing game” we’re currently playing….and i think some of those options are good. I love the idea that a larger percentage of the public would begin to take a stand about being better stewards of their money and providing for their families on a tighter budget. I think it will be good for a larger group of us to make it clear to companies that we won’t just lay down and pay whatever they charge.
couponing has absolutely changed our lives, and i’m passionate about LOTS of new families learning how to do this. because, at the end of the day, it’s not a game…it’s the difference between financial life and death for lots of us. I want more families to find this freedom, this source of hope! Ultimately companies will do what customers demand….i think we’ll get a say in any changes, because we speak with our money.
I have a followup to my earlier-this-week encounter with “shelf-sweepers” at the Ballard/Fremont Fred Meyer that seemed interesting, yet odd in terms of the processes these people were using.
There have now been return events by this crew of (~)three, and it really wasn’t what was first inially thought to be in my earlier reply.
I wasn’t quite clear about the 3 person crew in my first email.
The shopping crew was composed of a lead person early 30′s lady, followed by 2 late 20′s persons I described as “shopping cart pushing minions” trailing her.
They attracted quite a bit of clutter, bad remarks about their activities, and general nonsense revolving around what they were doing with their three shopping carts, and the way they were moving throughout the store.
They actually created the equivalent of alt-star traffic jams,l and complete isle blockage during most of their sweepage adventure.
Well…I have a technology blog here in Seattle, and got quite a bit of feedback after posting about these seeming shopping maniacs on the blog referencing their use of what seemed to be I-Pad technology, along with the other odd things surrounding their movements through the store.
In Fremont (a neighborhood of Seattle just northwest of Lake Union)…
…there is an enclave of local offices of several major technology providers.
One of them is a company that specializes in searches on the web, whose name starts with G.
This company is working on several projects that are consumer based, but also encourages individual employees to take individual initiative to band together to work on cool stuff outside of the official “G World”.
The one seen at the Ballard/Fremont Fred Meyer over the last week and a half is a project called (during it’s testing phase) “The Ultimate Grocery Shopping Ap”.
It’s actually pretty cool in several things that are meaningful for us regular shoppers who own smart phones or tablets that work off the Android software universe.
The Fred Meyer store (and management) itself isn’t actually involved in this project, and they don’t have a clue about what’s going on in their store each noon-time. While a couple of cashiers are tuned into what’s going on (in a kind of obvious way, since they were the recipients of the massive mega-checkouts in the last few days), the bigger portion of the reason why the Ballard/Fremont Fred Meyer was selected as the place to do this was because it was conveniently located within walking distance from G’s offices in Fremont, was a large format/wide displacement store, and oddly enough, had a two-story Tully’s Coffee located within store (which second floor level helped facilitate the technology setup for certain aspects of making the GPS mapping of the store work efficiently).
The project combines several previous things that you might have seen on the various cable channels involving new shopping technology.
Those things include the following (note I’m working off a no-disclosure thing here, and have to be semi-vague)…
-The technology in smart phones and tablets allows all sorts of dynamic interaction in the real world. Why not allow these devices to interact with your shopping environment, and make it much more fluid and easy to get into and out of the store in an effective way without going through stupid things to get basic shopping done.
-The current project is working on the following assumptions:
1) shoppers who would want to download and use this ap for their smart phone or tablet have at least a minimal knowledge about how to use applications. Additionally, they are incentivized to look for ways to use manufacturer discounts via coupons and rebates via their devices in a more effective way than current physical paper and mailback mechanisms.
2) technology based shoppers with smart phones or tablets desire a streamlined in-store experience that reduces or mitigates known problems with finding products they need within the physical layout of the store itself. A major threshold of project success is to eliminate a sigificant consumer problem by blending create-at-home shopping lists with the individual floor plans of the recipient markets to allow consumers to easily access product in a “”roll-through-the-store” pattern that reduces in-store time on site.
3) consumers are increasingly involved with couponing, rebate programs, and chain-related customer reward programs. Combining these various and diverse (and often contraditory elements) into a single one-device mechanism for transaction will reduce consumer angst, and produce greater flow through result.
4) the check-out procedure for market consumers has a number of areas that can easily be combined to produce a better experience. The mechanisms of how coupons and rebates are resolved at checkout, along with the entire process of how checkout is achieved have been solved by others, but need to be combined into a universal approach that modifies the general checkout procedure in supermarkets. Using smart phones and tablets with appropriate application plug-ins, combined with known entrance-to-store WI-FI based communication to the devices, provides an entrance to exit upgrade that reduces total customer transit time by 30%, and increases customer satisfaction (in early testing results) by 25%.
—
And blah, blah, blah…I’m cutting short the cut-and-paste here to summarize a bit.
The really weird 3 person team (which is actually 6 people including the support people on site during the testing) roaming about Fred Meyer have been doing this for a particular purpose that seems good for us regular grocery shopping people (like you and me).
The interesting parts of all of this: at home you create your shopping list on your home computer for transfer to either your smart phone or tablet. Upon completion, your list gets uploaded and checked on a database that returns all the coupons, catalenas and matches back to the remote device. You identify the stores you shop at, and prices and deals connect to your shopping list. You take the device to your local store. Upon arrival, the device connects with the store as you enter. At that time, the store downloads its store layout map, and connects the shopping list to the floor layout and creates a “you are here” identifier. As a part of the project, the store is using a local GPS transmission unit identifier unit to place you within the store in relation to the products on your list. As you move through the store, each item flashes on your unit as you approach it’s place in the shopping isle. As you access each item from the shelf, you can scan it’s barcode into the smart phone or tablet device via its internal camera. A pop-up shows the product image and confirms both price and quantity you are purchasing. As each item is entered, an update is completed that shows you your total checkout end-price, after coupons, rebates, and catelenas. As you approach the checkout, two mosaics are created. The first is for all items scanned into your shopping cart. The second is for all pre-scanned discounts you’ve included (coupons, club cards, on-site blinkies, or WIFI’d in-store discounts). Given that your cart was of the this-generation carts that has a weight sensor in it, your next task is to transfer products accumulated in the store over to the check-out stand, or if self-bagging with zeroing out upon entrance to the store with your bags, tare the difference within the cart without having to re-scan the items at checkout.
All of this is probably too much information, and might really just seem stupid to post here on Frugal Living, but it also indicates that the way we do groceries now is probably going to change in radically better ways in the future.
The folks testing this stuff at the local store are, in my limited interactions with them, as pretty much as geeky as you could possibly imagine.
While I completely disagree with how they are doing this (particularly the sweeping the shelves stuff, and being so entirely DEVO about being mysterious and non-communicative in the store), the end result of all this will probably result in things that are better for us as general shopping people.
As a side note, on the trips made so far, on their application development process, all items swept off the shelves have been donated to the local food bank.
So, bottom-line: if you encounter 3 to 6 really geeky people rolling down the isles in the mid-day at the Ballard/Fremont (Seattle) Fred Meyer over the next three weeks who seem to be doing all that horridly evil Extreme Couponing activity that you, me, and virtually everyone hates…
…give em a little slack, as there’s a bit more going on here than meets the eye.
One thing that my communications through my local blog to exchange information with these guys has uncovered:
Their activities are extremely pre-planned and known ahead of time.
They were not Extreme Coupon-ers before, but are temporarily using that mechanism as a stress the outer boundaries of the current project.
After their (now) four activities, the biggest thing they’ve found, after subjecting themselves voluntarily to abuse, and noting the results is that a quite a bit of angst would be reduced if other Extreme Coupon-er just were civil citizens, and followed the same guidance points mentioned here on Frugal Living and really relating back to Heather’s great post on Queen Bee Coupons at http://queenbeecoupons.com/2011/05/the-empty-shelf-epidemic-what-can-we-do-my-thoughts-suggestions/.
Their next schedule of this project does not involve shelf-sweeping (yay for us that shop at the Ballard/Fremont Fred Meyer!).
As a strong suggestion to the Extreme Couponer enemies: if you are going to buy in great quantities that result in evil shelf-sweeping, please do the leg-work and pre-order. You already know what you want. Man-up and take three minutes to go through a simple process to make your addiction less impact-full on regular shoppers.
The local store managers around here are extremely delighted to accomodate bulk orders to stock up your food bunker. It’s all good for them, as more orders equals a larger gross that week for the store, and makes them a better person in the eyes of corporate management for pulling in more bucks. It doesn’t really matter if you get in the order prior to launch of that weeks event. Even within the week after the sale kicks off, just roll on up to a sales associate at your local store, ask to see the manager, and fill out a really simple 3 or 4 item form. While you won’t get the product for take home at that moment, waiting a couple of days for the manager to call to say the item is now in for pick-up is a small price to pay…particularly balancing it against the alternative of the tremendous evil of you sweeping everything off shelves, and the resultant dismay of dozens of people who rolled into the store looking for one or two of the featured items, and finding none.
Karma…
…just saying.
Wow! Bill that is interesting. I read the book “Drive! The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel Pink. It talks about this company “G” and how they came up with things like googlemaps, gmail, etc. The company gives their employees 20% of their hours to be autonomous and work on whatever they want to work on. It has been very successful for them. If you read the chapter on Autonomy, I’ll bet it you would find that this is probably one person’s brain child and they are doing this during their “20% autonomy” time. I’m not into all the techy stuff, but what a cool thing they do!
This type of ‘shopping’ technology has been in the works for some time. The day will come in the abstract future where you walk in, grab your products, walk out. No scanning, no paying, it will all be done automatically. We are a ways away, but in the next 18 – 24 months, we will be (in the Seattle area at least) paying with our phones as much as with our plastic cards.
Interesting reading… Onward by Howard Schultz (Starbucks). Starbucks is continuing to lead through marketing innovation and business adaptation. If you get excited by this kind of information about consumer behavior, economics and business, this book is worth checking out.
I agree with the people up up up above me! We all would like to save money when we can! Is it really worse filling up your entire house with all of the stuff?????? I love to have a stock pile too my count is 10-12 items each. That makes me happy!
The only thing I don’t like about Rite Aid is you no longer can get free stuff with bogoFree. All of the people who have cleared out the shelf made that unfair to the rest of US!
Thank you for this post! I have been frustrated lately because the shelves are cleared when I want 2 or 3 of the item. I went Rite Aid the other day to get my one free tube of toothpaste and there was none. The checkout lady was so kind to give me a different one same size at no cost. It is people like her who make me want to keep hope.
I too am sure this will only be a fad and people will get tired of it or realize they have way too much and do not know what to do with it. I think right it is also people being greedy not thinking of the REAL reasons for couponing.
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