Star Market – Mouse Print*

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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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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.

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Did Albertsons Make Digital Coupons Easier to Find and Use?

November 11, 2024November 11, 2024 by Edgar (aka MrConsumer)

For the past two years, consumer groups including Consumer World have tried to sensitize leaders in the supermarket industry about the discriminatory effect of offering certain grocery deals only when using a digital coupon (see story). The issue is that many seniors and lower income folks don’t have cellphones or internet access. As such, they have been cut out of a major way to save on one’s grocery bill at a time of very high grocery prices.

In addition, digitally-savvy shoppers have complained that the digital coupon section of supermarket apps is hard to use because there are hundreds of coupons there thus making that week’s sale item coupons hard to find.

So, are stores doing anything to address these concerns?

Star Market and Shaw’s

MrConsumer got very excited recently when Star Market and Shaw’s in New England (owned by Albertsons) seemed to be offering an easy way to clip all that week’s digital coupons required to purchase advertised sale items with just one-click of the cellphone.

And when he followed their instructions, this is a screenshot of what he saw:

*MOUSE PRINT:

We tracked down the firm that helps create functionality like this for companies. They claimed it worked after testing it around the country (but we suspect they did not follow the explicit instructions noted above to scan the QR code in the app where it absolutely did not work). But, when we contacted Albertsons, they admitted they goofed.

The QR code does not scan from within the 4U Rewards app. We recognize that the verbiage in the flyer needs to be clarified, and our team is making these updates for future circulars. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

They also indicated that all the QR code does is bring one to the coupon section of their app where “the customer can click on the deals that are most valuable for their shopping trip.” So contrary to the plain wording in their circular, the company did not create a simple way “to add all the digital offers” to one’s account.

Safeway

Albertsons owns many other supermarket chains including Safeway. For several years, they have utilized “clip or click” coupons but in only some of their locations. These allow non-tech-savvy shoppers to clip and use their digital coupons the old-fashioned way with scissors. Great! More chains should do that.

But despite what some might assume, those with the Safeway app cannot simply scan the coupons they want to load them directly into their account. They have to visit the Safeway website or app, and sort through the hundreds of digital offers there to find and e-clip them individually.

In reply to an inquiry from us, Albertsons demonstrated that roundabout way one has to e-clip digital coupons to one’s account. We suggested they could make the system so much easier if they allowed coupons in the ad to be scanned directly into one’s account. They did not comment.

Shoppers at Safeway also cannot automatically “add all digital offers” from this ad to one’s account by scanning the master barcode in the upper right corner of the circular. As with Star and Shaw’s, all that code does when it works is take you to the coupon section of their website or app. Then you have to find the ones you want.

We continue to hope that supermarkets will make it easier for all shoppers, tech savvy or not, to save money by being able to buy digital-only sale items with less hassle. That day is coming at some chains… so stay tuned.

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