Publix: Reply to Email Regarding New Penny Item Policy

[tori729]

I wrote to Publix complaining a bit about their penny item and the fact that you have to buy a paper just to get the coupon for it. Here's what they sent me back:

Thank you for your email. We appreciate our customers taking the time to contact us. In regards to your concern, we received the following:

"For budgetary reasons, Publix made a decision to limit its Sunday advertising to metro Atlanta and Nashville, TN. The Mystery Coupon program is active in all of the Atlanta Division markets including Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee. Because Sunday advertising was eliminated in other cities in Georgia, Tennessee and all of Alabama and South Carolina, we had to move the advertising of the Mystery Coupon to the same day as the appearance of our weekly ad insert which is Thursday (or Wednesday depending on the market). This change enabled us to continue providing the Mystery Coupon to all of the many customers who have become accustomed to using it each week.

We apologize for any inconvenience this change has caused our customers. We would never knowingly disappoint them. Switching to a week day advertisement and making the coupon effective for one day only helped us to continue the Mystery Coupon program for another year and for the maximum number of customers. We will consider making the coupon available online at publix.com/ads at some future time. Thank you for taking the time to write to us."

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us. If we can be of any further assistance regarding this matter, please either call our Consumer Relations toll-free number at 1-800-242-1227, write us at the Publix Super Markets Corporate Office, PO Box 407, Lakeland, FL 33802, ATTN: Consumer Relations, or contact us at our website, publix.com and mention your reference number...



I really hope they do the bolded! I don't mind that it's a different day, and that it's only the one day (I only ever went on Monday before anyway.) but the fact that you have to buy a paper just makes it not worth it to me. So I REALLY hope they make it available either in their ads in-store or online! That would be awesome!

[johnfdeluca]

Yes, perhaps I'll drop them an email as well in a week or so....if we can have a steady flow of "suggestions" on how to improve the penny item (e.g., on-line coupon availability),then perhaps they will listen.

[sporky]

Thanks for this post. I think I will send them an email. I don't mind the penny item being during the week, but I only buy a Sunday Paper. Wish they would put the coupon in the Sunday paper still. I have not been buying the extra paper just for the sake of the penny item. Really hope they will offer a online coupon.

[justamom2six]

yes, thanks for posting this and for taking the time to write to Publix. I really hope they make the coupon available "on line".

[cheapcheap]

Thank you for writing and posting the response! Publix's reply is surprisingly candid and it makes me love them even more. Personally, the penny item had been my motivation to show up on slow weeks and cobble together $10 worth of stuff. I completely skipped last week and almost didn't make it the week before. I wonder if our collective drop in sales has shown up on their balance sheets yet.