Health

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You’ll Never Guess the Main Ingredient in These Stouffer’s Meals

In MrConsumer’s mind, Stouffer’s is a respected name brand of frozen food. So it came as a big surprise when he learned that some of their meals like roast turkey, salisbury steak, and meatloaf all had the same first ingredient. How can that be?

Can you guess the first ingredient of all these meals?

*MOUSE PRINT:

Stouffer's meatloaf

Stouffer's turkey

Stouffer's salisbury steak

How is that possible? We asked the company for an explanation, but they never responded.

So maybe the company should rename those products to various varieties of meat-flavored water:

Stouffer's Salisbury Steak Flavored Water

Happy holidays. The next new Mouse Print* story will be published on Monday, January 5th.

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CVS Email Offered 50% Off Memberships, But It’s Full Price Online

CVS just sent out a sensational year-end promotion via email for CVS ExtraCare Plus — its premium loyalty program — promising customers a $10 monthly bonus reward for a year and it would only cost $2 a month.
CVSExtraCare Plus offer

Whatta deal — pay $2 a month and get $10 off every month!

CVS maintains two types of loyalty programs. The most common is CVS ExtraCare – a free card with a barcode that most of us have. The other is called CVS ExtraCare Plus – which is a $48 a year program that provides extra benefits, including 20% off on full price CVS brand products, free delivery and shipping, and a $10 monthly credit on purchases.

Since MrConsumer had planned to feature this offer in Consumer World as the “Bargain of the Week,” he tested the promotion on the CVS website to ensure it was giving customers what it promised.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Charge for CVS ExtraCare Plus

To his surprise, the screen on which customers would finalize the purchase of the plan for a year was charging the full price — $48.

We immediately contacted CVS’ PR folks to alert them to the issue and get an explanation. And the answer was, where else, lurking in the fine print:

*MOUSE PRINT:

CVS promotion fine print

So you have to be a first-time “plus” member, and enroll in person in the store. The company could have made it a lot easier for customers if they simply issued a promo code that could be entered on the CVS website in order to get the half off deal.

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Albertsons Baits Shoppers Then Discloses the Real Deal

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).

Get $10 coupon

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

*MOUSE PRINT:

Star Market fine 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:

Star Market offer details

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.