Albertsons (NorthWest) ~ Other Albertsons NW: In regards to no longer accepting comp coupons:

pumello · 01-21-2009, 01:18:13 PM

I had posted a few weeks ago about an email I received from albertson's corp that stated they would no longer be accepting comp coupons. I just wanted to say that I got a phone call from them retracting that email, and stating that they would, in fact, continue to accept competitor coupons for the time being, and they were sorry for the misunderstanding. It was a rather strange phone call, I should add. The lady was very nice, but sounded rather confused about the whole thing.

Anyways, just thought I'd pass that on.

diva_dynamite · 01-22-2009, 10:44:14 AM

Wonderful news! Thanks for posting this. :)

ikkims · 01-25-2009, 08:55:19 PM

Hmmmm, mine still had the signs posted at the til that they weren't excepting them. I am going in Monday I am curious to see if it is still true. I was very disappointed when they didn't continue the doubles and took away the comp coupons. I don't usually write to a store but I did e-mail them this time to tell them it wasn't a good idea because we are a small town and I could easily shop at another store where the clerks are much friendlier about taking coupons.

pumello · 01-28-2009, 09:02:00 AM

Originally Posted by ikkims

Hmmmm, mine still had the signs posted at the til that they weren't excepting them. I am going in Monday I am curious to see if it is still true. I was very disappointed when they didn't continue the doubles and took away the comp coupons. I don't usually write to a store but I did e-mail them this time to tell them it wasn't a good idea because we are a small town and I could easily shop at another store where the clerks are much friendlier about taking coupons.

:shrug7:I am in the Portland Metro area, if that makes a difference. She didn't say if the policy was company-wide or not, and I was so thrown off that they had called, I didn't have the presence of mind to question her, unfortunately.

Hopefully the response to your email will bring to light the details about the situation in your area??

jetty56 · 01-29-2009, 05:18:30 AM

Well, in my area THEY WILL NOT ACCEPT after Feb. 1st, clerk pointed it out yesterday, taped to board by till. She let me know cause I use alot of coupons, like I told her, quess I will have to spread it out now. DANG IT!!! She has to do the same too.:sad:

02-01-2009, 05:22:07 AM

Hello Coupon Shoppers! I work for Albertson's and I just wanted to give you a little insight on this whole competitor coupon thing. First of all, I work in Western Washington... as of today Feb. 1st I have heard nothing "official" about NOT taking competitor coupons. But I will be honest in saying I doubt it will be long before that becomes true. Now having said that, please don't get angry and upset with us, especially those of us at store level... we don't make the rules and there is good business reasons for the company to make these decisions. I would say less than 5% of our customers use competitor coupons, I would venture to say that more than 80% of our customers don't even know that we accept competitor coupons.

I know all of you are "good" shoppers and you realize the value of a dollar. The price of groceries is not marked up much higher than we (Albertson's) pays for them... we honestly only make pennies on the dollar. Therefore when you bring in a coupon from Sarr's Market Place for .44 cent Avocados and we (Albertson's) paid $1.50/Avocado to start with.... we start losing a lot of money and profits quickly. Even though I said only 5% of our customers are using these coupons...it adds up quickly when we are losing money on 5% of our transactions and in today's world that is a big deal, so you can say "I will just have to shop my coupons else where" and unfortunately I have to say, that is fine with me that puts more money in our pocket. Please do not take that the wrong way, I love all of our customers, I just wanted to give you the insight on the issue.

Now having said please know that the company loves all of our customers as well and they are not going to just say "oh well shop elsewhere!"... we figure with the amount of money that we will be saving, we will be able to reinvest that money to have even more awesome promotions at our stores, while still protecting our profits. We will be able to have more 4/$5 Digiorno Pizza deals like we did this past week, hope you were all able to take advantage of that!

And for the person that commented that the cashiers are not friendly when they take your coupons I do apologize... and I really hope that person does not work at my store. There are a few things you can do to help with the checkstand process. First always have your preferred card ready to be scanned first. Second, we just changed the way we enter the competitor coupons in the register...I can't speak for everyone...but for me it would be nice if you had the competitor coupons with the items they belong to, this also goes for manufacture coupons that are for free, or buy one get one free too. Any other manufacture coupons, for example .35 cents off Campbells soup, can be done anytime in the order, so I don't care when you give them to me as long as it is before you pay.

Finally, there are a few of your coupon sisters that have ruined the joy of coupons for us cashiers. First are the ones that come to the checkstand treating us like we are second class citizens and telling us how to do our jobs, this is rude and really makes us hate coupons. Then there are those who try to scam by cutting dates off the coupons, I have a lady who I tell every Wednesday that I will not accept the ones without dates and every Wednesday she says to me, "Well it would have been nice to know that before I came here!" LOL

Saving money is fun, Shopping is fun, Working with awesome customers is fun... so bring on your coupons and your energetic, friendly attitudes and let us take care of you!

firefly779 · 02-01-2009, 10:56:59 PM

My Albies in Eastern Washington had a sign up I just saw today at the tills that said "after Jan 31 we will no longer be accepting competitor's coupons". Guess it's for real after all! Bummer :( I really liked the convenience of using Freddy's milk Q's there. And the occasional stellar Q from Fiesta Foods on random items. LOL Oh well. Good thing I hadn't planned on getting milk there tonight!