Safeway strikes back!! (!)
It is so gratifying when this little daily blog entry has an impact outside Estes Park, generally for the greater good. Our local Safeway, completely coincidentally, I'm sure, lowered their gasoline prices yesterday. So maybe this was all just a misguided corporate "gouge the tourists on weekends" decision. Safeway employees have no idea what gas prices are going to be day to day, they just respond to a directive to raise the price or lower the price. If something came over the batwire to jack prices up $7.23 per gallon, who are they to question? $10 gasoline seems high, probably higher than their hourly wage, so it's better not to bother asking questions where a truthful answer is required, because they know any truth-telling may have them asking their own questions from the business end of a breadline.
But you don't think corporate is just going to lower prices in one place without raising them somewhere else, do you? At Safeway, as in politics, it is always a zero-sum game. And curses if they didn't just raise discounted prices a penny on a Colorado product I actually like, and occasionally enjoy buying more than one or two of.
Look closely, especially at the zoomed-in version, and do the math (or just examine the small print, where Safeway did the math for you). (Note: If you are still feeling left out, my only advice is to either destroy your Safeway club card immediately, or strongly consider NOT buying three or more of any flavor of Noosa yogurts until this "special offer" expires on February 6.)
This is back in the dairy section, along the north wall of the store. Safeway is pulling another one of their famous discount/no-discount tricks here. (Nothing has been photoshopped or altered in any way, go check it out for yourself if you don't believe me - There was a Safeway stocker or independent contractor in this section when I took the picture this morning. He saw me take this picture, and he looked over at what I took a picture of as I was walking away, but no words were exchanged between us, and my demeanor gave nothing away - Of course I was laughing hysterically on the inside, but my exterior was cool and professional in every way, no head-shaking, no "what will they think of next?"double-take, no jubilant "this is going straight to the internet" glee - let's all collectively do the same quiet experiment, and watch to see how quickly this "volume discount" gets "fixed", if ever.)
I shop at Safeway every morning. It has become increasing routine for me to walk directly from checkout to the customer service counter, to rectify one or more price discrepancies that are always, I repeat always, Safeway's fault, and always, I repeat always, in Safeway's favor, in that they are overcharging for items they have priced at a discount (according to the tags) that the scanner doesn't acknowledge, or are overcharging for items where the discount tag has expired, but has yet to be removed.
I have a bit more sympathy for the individual at the service counter in the second instance, because they are generally not directly responsible for removing expired tags, but the tags are misleading nonetheless, and I make a special point now to check and make sure the tag is still within the honored period before purchasing and then challenging, that is, before making the customer service representative accompany me back to the expired tag. Safeway, in my opinion, wastes way too much money on yellow "Club member" tags (which occasionally discount as little as 3% off an obviously inflated price), and red "Clearance/Overstock" tags (again, which occasionally discount less than 15% - exactly how desperately overstocked are you?). Just price the item and go with that price, until a change in price is actually necessary. The hangtags upon hangtags are sensory overload - they don't really mean anything, and the money they spend on making insiders feel "special" is undoubtedly recovered from these same insiders somewhere else.
I have an adult relative who has difficulty with simple math. In all other academic fields they are more than qualified, but addition and subtraction and fractions just escape them. I feel for them, because they are being blatantly discriminated against when they shop at places like Safeway. And don't think Safeway doesn't know this.
If our local Safeway really cared about giving shoppers the best possible prices and the best possible service, they would hire someone like me, someone who, in a matter of a few minutes every morning, can immediately locate and exploit all their weak points, someone not on regular payroll who could walk the store and note where things don't compute. Instead, they allow me, and people like me, to get all my "attempted overcharge" merchandise free (Safeway in Estes Park doesn't honor this policy, and couldn't, because they would lose way too much money, but other Safeways across the country, meaning Safeways that actually care and are have managers who are good at their jobs, do).
Generally, I point out tag problems to the customer service counter when I find them, but I can tell they don't appreciate it, because it just makes their lives more difficult, and prevents Safeway from adding more ill-gotten gains to their bottom line. Yes, I recognize in this case it's just a penny, but it's not always just a penny, and even if it was, think of "Office Space" and the penny tray.
This morning, I was afraid that, even if I did delicately point out this amusing yogurt fail to other Safeway customers, perhaps over a commandeered p.a. system, they wouldn't understand, and, like the oh-so-lovely Jennifer Aniston, just get more frustrated when I patiently tried to have it stop making sense.
Update at 3:00 p.m. the same day: A reader informed me, and I just confirmed, that all the mathematically challenged Noosa yogurt tags had been replaced with "three for $5" tags. Another handyman victory! Yea!! (!)
But you don't think corporate is just going to lower prices in one place without raising them somewhere else, do you? At Safeway, as in politics, it is always a zero-sum game. And curses if they didn't just raise discounted prices a penny on a Colorado product I actually like, and occasionally enjoy buying more than one or two of.
I shop at Safeway every morning. It has become increasing routine for me to walk directly from checkout to the customer service counter, to rectify one or more price discrepancies that are always, I repeat always, Safeway's fault, and always, I repeat always, in Safeway's favor, in that they are overcharging for items they have priced at a discount (according to the tags) that the scanner doesn't acknowledge, or are overcharging for items where the discount tag has expired, but has yet to be removed.
I have a bit more sympathy for the individual at the service counter in the second instance, because they are generally not directly responsible for removing expired tags, but the tags are misleading nonetheless, and I make a special point now to check and make sure the tag is still within the honored period before purchasing and then challenging, that is, before making the customer service representative accompany me back to the expired tag. Safeway, in my opinion, wastes way too much money on yellow "Club member" tags (which occasionally discount as little as 3% off an obviously inflated price), and red "Clearance/Overstock" tags (again, which occasionally discount less than 15% - exactly how desperately overstocked are you?). Just price the item and go with that price, until a change in price is actually necessary. The hangtags upon hangtags are sensory overload - they don't really mean anything, and the money they spend on making insiders feel "special" is undoubtedly recovered from these same insiders somewhere else.
I have an adult relative who has difficulty with simple math. In all other academic fields they are more than qualified, but addition and subtraction and fractions just escape them. I feel for them, because they are being blatantly discriminated against when they shop at places like Safeway. And don't think Safeway doesn't know this.
If our local Safeway really cared about giving shoppers the best possible prices and the best possible service, they would hire someone like me, someone who, in a matter of a few minutes every morning, can immediately locate and exploit all their weak points, someone not on regular payroll who could walk the store and note where things don't compute. Instead, they allow me, and people like me, to get all my "attempted overcharge" merchandise free (Safeway in Estes Park doesn't honor this policy, and couldn't, because they would lose way too much money, but other Safeways across the country, meaning Safeways that actually care and are have managers who are good at their jobs, do).
Generally, I point out tag problems to the customer service counter when I find them, but I can tell they don't appreciate it, because it just makes their lives more difficult, and prevents Safeway from adding more ill-gotten gains to their bottom line. Yes, I recognize in this case it's just a penny, but it's not always just a penny, and even if it was, think of "Office Space" and the penny tray.
Update at 3:00 p.m. the same day: A reader informed me, and I just confirmed, that all the mathematically challenged Noosa yogurt tags had been replaced with "three for $5" tags. Another handyman victory! Yea!! (!)
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