Beware Albertsons’ Bait & Switch Vaccine Offer

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?