6. "Our discount cards help us to meet our biggest spenders ..."
Many supermarkets offer loyalty cards that purchases are scanned at the cash savings on specially marked products. But saving money is not what these cards are real. Whenever you use your registration card purchases at stores large databases containing information on their years of purchase. That means they know what they buy every year, how often and when you buy a coupon bearing on their purchases. And using
this information for everything from promoting new products to decide what actions.
More importantly, these data stores to take advantage of customers who buy lots of food on a regular basis. Woolf said that as much as 65 percent of a store's sales are derived from these major buyers, who represent only 12 to 25 percent of its customers. Loyalty card programs to allow stores to serve these people by sending free samples, special offers from other buyers do not receive discounts and structuring as a reward for its regular, expensive trips. "The most valuable customers, you look better, after them," says Woolf.
7. "... But it is not always the best option for big savings."
Stores that use these loyalty programs that I think will save large participants. But that is not always the case: Wal-Mart, which has no such program, undermining the competitors on price, and most of the shops without these programs their prices to match competitors' discount card prices. In many cases, retailers may even be able to offer lower prices than the stores with the development of loyalty card programs, said David Livingstone, managing partner with industry consultant DJL Research. "loyalty card programs to add a spending Store, "says Livingston." And the stores can offer the same deals without the card programs. "
In the end, what consumers to obtain delivery of their data? It depends. According to Stephen Hoch, professor of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the loyalty card discounts actually change prices higher in those without cards. Even the best reward is not always amount to much. Supermarkets have a narrow profit margin of about 2 percent, making it "difficult to supermarkets to offer customers great rewards," says Hoch.
8. Big sales do not mean lower costs for you. "
Supermarkets want to know that tenders. And we use to get bids through the door, through the brochures and advertising discounts. But the key is to make sure not to give too much once you get inside.
How do they do? To begin with, the atmosphere. Supermarkets know the first thing you see when you set foot on the pitch for their shopping trip. If you object to the sale or discounted products close to the entrance, you can create the impression of no real value to be had, if that is true or not, the consultant said Hertel. That is also why the space at the end of the corridors is often used to show a small number of items sold. Stores know that it is likely to buy a bunch of other products, while you're shopping, many of which are not for sale or trade marks, helping to cover the discounts in promotional items. In fact, studies show that supermarkets have been effective in limiting gifts, says K. Sudhir, a professor at the Yale School of Management. "Shops want to create the perception that customers are getting a good deal," he says. "But they do not want everyone to get the lowest prices."
9. "We can take the local production, but not in the market for farmers."
When former software engineer Michael Morowitz of Chicago wants to buy strawberries, wait and wait until the summer to local growers. "Strawberries sent to Chicago in February will never be as good as those grown around June," said Morowitz, who heads the local sugar beet, a Web site about food grown locally in Chicago. As Morowitz, more people are looking for products from nearby farms as a way to improve, fresh foods and supporting local farmers, not to mention reducing pollution from transport. And supermarkets have heard the call-up to the point that Wal-Mart now megaretailer resellers locally grown produce.
But it is not as clear as it seems. On the one hand, there is no agreement on what local media. For example, Wal-Mart is defined as the local production which grew in the same state, but in a great state like California, that does not mean much. Furthermore, it is difficult to find a big number of local farms to meet their needs, and smaller farms can struggle to keep up with a great chain of demands, said Julia Stewart, a spokeswoman for the Produce Marketing Association. In the case of Wal-Mart, some of their local suppliers are the same mass that usually provide their farm products. "It just makes it a positive press release," says Livingston. A spokesman for Wal-Mart says the company works with farms in many sizes and is not opposed to their local farmers from selling their products elsewhere.
10. "We are experts in human behavior."
Marketers know a lot about how to buy and what is likely to make you a lift. For example, the stores have found that buyers are more comfortable staying on the right as they move through a store, said Ron Larson, associate professor of marketing at Western Michigan University. How much difference does it make? According to market research firm Sorensen Associates, buyers moving to the spending
$ 2 more per trip than going the opposite direction.
Avoiding psyched by marketing expert? Know what you want to buy before entering the supermarket. Livingston recommends planning meals for the week and sticking firmly to the list once in the store. Moreover, making the car smaller than contain all items, and pay attention to the old saw "Never shop when hungry."
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
What the Supermarket Won't Tell You -part1
1. "You feel the pressure? In fact, we, too."
When the economy slows and companies start to feel the heat, food stores are often exceptions to the rule. This is because when consumers fell in luxuries like eating out, tend to make more trips to the supermarket. However, all bets could be off after the accident in 2008.
Citi Investment Research analyst Deborah Weinswig forecast drop in same store sales growth in many major chains in 2009, one that is top performer Kroger experiencing a decline in store sales of growth of around 5 percent in 2008 to 4 percent next year. Meanwhile, supermarket chain Supervalu its own forecast of sales growth over 2009 levels.
Even big-box-now contenders in the supermarket sector is facing tough headwinds following the merger of the market. Weinswig said he hoped the same ups and downs in sales growth in the store BJ's Wholesale Club, 11 per cent in 2008 to less than 7 percent in 2009 and a decrease of 8-6 percent growth over the same period Costco. In short, it is difficult to pass through higher costs when consumers have a laser-like focus on price, "said Mitchell Corwin, senior analyst at Morningstar equity.
2. "You're getting less for the same price."
When Linda Edwards, a nurse in East Windsor, NJ, picked up his usual $ 4.99 pitcher of orange juice in the Shop Rite this summer, she was surprised to discover that it contained 7 oz usually less than what he did. A few months later he realized his Skippy peanut butter and chicken strips were also slight, but not everything is cheaper. "Everything seems to be shrinking, but my family has not fallen," said the single mother of five children. A spokesman for Unilever, owner of Skippy, said that the reduction in size of the product is one way the company is coping with increased costs of fuel and food.
Manufacturers know that a strong economy, consumers are driven by higher prices, so quietly shrink products, hoping a few oz. here and there not to be missed, said Alexia Howard, senior research analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. But it is counterproductive from, said Ben Popken, editor of Consumerist.com, which says that more and more complaints from readers about the decline of products. "People are very sensitive to any decline in their purchasing power," he says. Popken recommends checking the unit price of the marks to see if you're paying the same price for less food.
3. "It takes us to raise prices when you are least likely to notice."
When times are hard, super-markets buyers know vigilant even notice tiny changes in the price of foods like milk, cereal, bread and cheese. In fact, there are about 500 such products, stores and raise prices in these commodities at your own risk.
How to deal with rising markets in food costs? To play with the price of the approximately 45,000 items people do not usually buy enough to have a fixed cost of tacking on 3 and 4 per cent to special products such as gourmet pasta sauce sweet or squeezed juices without consumers noticing. "There is an opportunity to make some room on those issues," said Jim Hertel, managing partner of Willard Bishop, an industry consultant.
But do not expect the savings to be passed on to you when costs are reduced. Many manufacturers lock in prices ahead of time, and often hold out the prices down to compensate for losses, said Howard. One way to ensure you are getting the best deal when prices fall: Stick to the basics. Products like coffee and meat is likely "that reflect their underlying costs faster than most other foods," says Howard.
4. "You can not always believe our nutrition."
It seems people are more concerned about their health these days, but the nutrition labeling on most foods can be difficult to decipher. Hoping to bridge the gap, the supermarket chain Hannaford Bros developed a program called Guiding Stars that posts nutritional ratings of one to three stars on the shelf labels for some products. "We would like to see FDA approval of the national program," said Bruce Silverglade, legal affairs director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Sounds great, but according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, the FDA has not verified the accuracy of random nutrition labeling of more than a decade, and the products has tested due to the obvious flags red, more than 20 percent had errors. (A spokesman for the FDA said that the random sampling is not needed, the FDA testing of products according to guidelines set by the Office of Regulatory Affairs.) With little oversight, consumers can not rely on manufacturers labels nutrition or any system of classification based on that data.
"It's the manufacturer's responsibility to provide accurate information, that's all we can use to evaluate products," says Julie Greene, director of healthy living for Hannaford Bros.
5. "We will not take your coupons."
The newspaper on Sunday used to be the power source for coupons. But now they are increasingly available online, sites like Coupons.com and manufacturers and supermarkets' own Web pages. The problem is not always easy to use. More than 10.6 million Internet coupons were redeemed last year, according to Carolina Marketing Services. While that amount is expected to increase, it is still a fraction of all coupons redeemed, and many shops are still unfamiliar with them.
That's what 61 years old, retired CJ Shearrer discovered when printing about $ 30 worth of coupons and took them to a Wal-Mart in Midwest City, Oklahoma Shearrer said the store manager told him not to accept Online coupons and only when he showed him a copy of Wal-Mart coupon policy, said Shearrer made the director agreed to take. (He says a company spokesperson Wal-Mart accepts an Internet coupon per item per customer, to the extent that the legitimate and explorations in the record.) Stephanie Nelson, founder of CouponMom.com information site, suggests what to do Shearrer made: Bring along a copy of a coupon in the store policy, which should be found on their website.
When the economy slows and companies start to feel the heat, food stores are often exceptions to the rule. This is because when consumers fell in luxuries like eating out, tend to make more trips to the supermarket. However, all bets could be off after the accident in 2008.
Citi Investment Research analyst Deborah Weinswig forecast drop in same store sales growth in many major chains in 2009, one that is top performer Kroger experiencing a decline in store sales of growth of around 5 percent in 2008 to 4 percent next year. Meanwhile, supermarket chain Supervalu its own forecast of sales growth over 2009 levels.
Even big-box-now contenders in the supermarket sector is facing tough headwinds following the merger of the market. Weinswig said he hoped the same ups and downs in sales growth in the store BJ's Wholesale Club, 11 per cent in 2008 to less than 7 percent in 2009 and a decrease of 8-6 percent growth over the same period Costco. In short, it is difficult to pass through higher costs when consumers have a laser-like focus on price, "said Mitchell Corwin, senior analyst at Morningstar equity.
2. "You're getting less for the same price."
When Linda Edwards, a nurse in East Windsor, NJ, picked up his usual $ 4.99 pitcher of orange juice in the Shop Rite this summer, she was surprised to discover that it contained 7 oz usually less than what he did. A few months later he realized his Skippy peanut butter and chicken strips were also slight, but not everything is cheaper. "Everything seems to be shrinking, but my family has not fallen," said the single mother of five children. A spokesman for Unilever, owner of Skippy, said that the reduction in size of the product is one way the company is coping with increased costs of fuel and food.
Manufacturers know that a strong economy, consumers are driven by higher prices, so quietly shrink products, hoping a few oz. here and there not to be missed, said Alexia Howard, senior research analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. But it is counterproductive from, said Ben Popken, editor of Consumerist.com, which says that more and more complaints from readers about the decline of products. "People are very sensitive to any decline in their purchasing power," he says. Popken recommends checking the unit price of the marks to see if you're paying the same price for less food.
3. "It takes us to raise prices when you are least likely to notice."
When times are hard, super-markets buyers know vigilant even notice tiny changes in the price of foods like milk, cereal, bread and cheese. In fact, there are about 500 such products, stores and raise prices in these commodities at your own risk.
How to deal with rising markets in food costs? To play with the price of the approximately 45,000 items people do not usually buy enough to have a fixed cost of tacking on 3 and 4 per cent to special products such as gourmet pasta sauce sweet or squeezed juices without consumers noticing. "There is an opportunity to make some room on those issues," said Jim Hertel, managing partner of Willard Bishop, an industry consultant.
But do not expect the savings to be passed on to you when costs are reduced. Many manufacturers lock in prices ahead of time, and often hold out the prices down to compensate for losses, said Howard. One way to ensure you are getting the best deal when prices fall: Stick to the basics. Products like coffee and meat is likely "that reflect their underlying costs faster than most other foods," says Howard.
4. "You can not always believe our nutrition."
It seems people are more concerned about their health these days, but the nutrition labeling on most foods can be difficult to decipher. Hoping to bridge the gap, the supermarket chain Hannaford Bros developed a program called Guiding Stars that posts nutritional ratings of one to three stars on the shelf labels for some products. "We would like to see FDA approval of the national program," said Bruce Silverglade, legal affairs director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Sounds great, but according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, the FDA has not verified the accuracy of random nutrition labeling of more than a decade, and the products has tested due to the obvious flags red, more than 20 percent had errors. (A spokesman for the FDA said that the random sampling is not needed, the FDA testing of products according to guidelines set by the Office of Regulatory Affairs.) With little oversight, consumers can not rely on manufacturers labels nutrition or any system of classification based on that data.
"It's the manufacturer's responsibility to provide accurate information, that's all we can use to evaluate products," says Julie Greene, director of healthy living for Hannaford Bros.
5. "We will not take your coupons."
The newspaper on Sunday used to be the power source for coupons. But now they are increasingly available online, sites like Coupons.com and manufacturers and supermarkets' own Web pages. The problem is not always easy to use. More than 10.6 million Internet coupons were redeemed last year, according to Carolina Marketing Services. While that amount is expected to increase, it is still a fraction of all coupons redeemed, and many shops are still unfamiliar with them.
That's what 61 years old, retired CJ Shearrer discovered when printing about $ 30 worth of coupons and took them to a Wal-Mart in Midwest City, Oklahoma Shearrer said the store manager told him not to accept Online coupons and only when he showed him a copy of Wal-Mart coupon policy, said Shearrer made the director agreed to take. (He says a company spokesperson Wal-Mart accepts an Internet coupon per item per customer, to the extent that the legitimate and explorations in the record.) Stephanie Nelson, founder of CouponMom.com information site, suggests what to do Shearrer made: Bring along a copy of a coupon in the store policy, which should be found on their website.
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