Food/Groceries – Page 7

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Beware Albertsons’ Bait & Switch Vaccine Offer

September 15, 2025 by Edgar (aka MrConsumer)

Many supermarkets and drug chains have just started promoting free flu shots by offering money-saving coupons good on other purchases at the store.

Customers of some of Albertsons’ divisions, like Star Market in Boston and Safeway in Seattle, just received such email offers for getting vaccinated at one of their pharmacies. You may have also gotten the offer if you are a customer of their other divisions like Vons, Pavilions, Jewel Osco, Randalls, Albertsons, United, Acme, Tom Thumb, and others.

It says that if you get a flu shot at their store, they will give you a coupon for “up to $20 off your next grocery purchase*.” Sounds pretty generous until you follow the asterisk all the way to the bottom of the long email. There, in very small type, enlarged below, you learn the true nature of the offer.

*MOUSE PRINT:

So this really is a “save 10% off on groceries” offer. In order to get the $20 off they promised, however, you have to make a $200 purchase. Say what? And if you buy less than $40 of groceries, you won’t get any savings because of the minimum purchase requirement. So if you were expecting to get $20 off your next grocery purchase, think again.

Albertsons Companies seem to bait recipients with seemingly very generous offers, but then in the fine print switch the deal to something far less valuable. Just last month we told you about another promotion of theirs where if you filled out a health questionnaire, you would get a $10-off grocery coupon. Buried deep in the promotion, and not even in the offer email, was the requirement of making a $50 purchase in order to get that $10 off.

Hmmm. There seems to be a little pattern developing here, so we asked the company to explain themselves, but did not get a response.

Interestingly, CVS, which usually is not praised for anything when it comes to prices, is offering a similar vaccine promotion, but they are completely upfront about it. Get a shot, and get a $10 off a $20 purchase coupon. Simple, straight forward, and no bait and switch.

Why can’t Albertsons do the same thing?

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Supermarkets Drop Prices, But Remember When Groceries Were Really Cheap?

August 25, 2025August 25, 2025 by Edgar (aka MrConsumer)

Last week, Stop & Shop, the leading supermarket chain in the Northeast, announced that it was dropping everyday prices on thousands of grocery items. Just weeks earlier, a few Albertsons Companies divisions including Star Market and Shaw’s in the Boston area introduced “New Lower Prices, Every Day.”

Interestingly, Albertsons even defines what it means by “lower prices” in the fine print on the homepage of all its divisions.

*MOUSE PRINT

Definition of "lower prices"

All these price cuts are certainly good news for inflation-weary grocery shoppers. But this move is reminiscent of similar price cuts done by various supermarket chains over the decades. (Funny how they don’t ballyhoo price hikes in store ads.)

Ace supermarket guru, Bill Wunner, who runs Coupons In The News, found this Stop & Shop ad from over 50 years ago when the supermarket made a similar announcement cutting prices:

Stop & Shop prices 1971

Look how low grocery prices were then.

Gold Medal Flour – 10 pounds was $1.15. Today $11.99.
Stop & Shop Butter – 1 pound was 77 cents. Today $3.99.
Skippy Peanut Butter – 28 ounces was 91 cents. Today $4.99.
Coffee Mate – 16 ounces was 87 cents. Today $3.99

And if you turn back the clock some more decades, there were supermarket price wars then too. And you could find even more amazing prices because back then groceries literally cost pennies (but wages were low too).

Piggly Wiggly – (~1941-1944) – Palm Beach Post

Eggs – 21 cents a dozen
Maxwell House Coffee – 19 cents a pound
Maine potatoes – 21 cents for 10 pounds
Sirloin steak – 29 cents a pound
Carrots – 5 cents a bunch
[Piggly Wiggly does not show today’s prices on its website]

Ah, if only groceries were this cheap now.

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Albertsons Baits Shoppers Then Discloses the Real Deal

August 18, 2025August 18, 2025 by Edgar (aka MrConsumer)

Star Market and Shaw’s in New England are part of the Albertsons family of supermarkets. They recently send emails with the subject line: “Get up to $20 off groceries this August.” With the price of food, who wouldn’t be interested? Similar offers were probably made to customers of their other supermarket chains.

The main offer was inviting customers to create a Sincerely Health profile and you would receive a $10 off coupon (among other money back opportunities).

Of course, there is a nasty asterisk after the $10 off promise which leads to not very helpful fine print.

*MOUSE PRINT:

That tiny type says to see the rewards account for minimum purchase requirements.

Only when checking the terms online, do you learn that a $50 minimum purchase is necessary to use the $10 coupon.

*MOUSE PRINT:

A company that values playing it straight with customers more would not play games like this. They would simply say, “Create a Sincerely Health profile, and get $10 off a $50 a purchase.”

Is this too much to ask?

We asked Albertsons some pointed questions about this promotion twice, but they did not reply.