As of April 1, yet another major supermarket chain has put an end to double coupons, in which a store matches a manufacturer coupon, doubling the discount.
At some level, all shoppers know that a game is being played in every aisle of every store. Original prices, weekly promotions, clearance racks, coupons, Black Friday, blue-light specials, flash sales, oddly specific prices ending in .99 or .97 — these are just a few of the strategies employed to entice shoppers into making a [...]
A new study reveals that people who shop at Amazon, Costco, Publix, and Nordstrom are among the happiest consumers of late. Walmart and Netflix customers, on the other hand, aren’t particularly pleased.
There’s an art to getting the unsuspecting shopper to spend more at the grocery store. Among the classic ploys is the use of misleading pricing and signage—like posting a “NOW!” price that would imply a discount, when the item is actually selling at the same old price.
Thanks to the rising commodity prices, a Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings will cost about 13% more than last year. No word on the costs of a Turducken.
It’s not a coupon. It’s not exactly a rebate either. Saving money requires the shopper to purchase specific brands, but it’s not necessary to make all purchases at one time, nor even at the same store. Facebook is involved.
The global financial crisis of 2009 hit consumers hard. Two years later, and they’re still reeling. Spending is down across the board, and even the more affluent are watching their pennies. In this fearful climate, retailers are applying ever more scientific and psychological tactics to lure them back. This was made clear to me on [...]
The weekly ads for drugstore chains like CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens are loaded with special deals and discounts. These stores have also expanded the selection of groceries stocked in the aisles, hoping to entice consumers into gathering food basics at the drugstore rather than the supermarket. But is it wise to take one-stop shopping [...]
Last October, Rachel Hoff and Tom Ferguson embarked on an experiment in hyper-locavore healthy eating. For the next 12 months, the couple from Vallejo, Calif., wouldn’t set foot in a grocery store or restaurant. Their family’s diet would consist entirely of non-processed foods gathered from farmers markets, a local sustainable food-buying club, and their own [...]
Two core parts of a delicious, if not necessarily the most healthy, breakfast have been selling at near all-time highs recently: We speak, of course, of coffee and bacon. Consumers can rejoice a little that the price of Java has finally stopped rising, and even begun to decrease in some cases. As for America’s favorite [...]
The takeaway from an experiment in comparison shopping for groceries is that consumers could save a significant amount of money, as well as time, by never setting foot in the store.
