Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.
Ten Things Your Supermarket Won't Tell You
getrichslowly.org — Just like the title says, here are ten ways your supermarket is either aiming to rip you off or potentially messing with your health. Practical information you can use to make wise choices rather than alarmist propaganda. Possibly limited to U.S. supermarkets but still worth reading.
GodCast- 548 diggs
- digg it
- b_flats, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1
In general, all of it is unfortunately true. I took exception to the cleanliness item. In the store that I work in, we are very diligent about food dates/temps and cleanliness.- szelij, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I don't think its true over here. Its all very clean and such. The most disturbing thing i know about supermarkets are the chickens they sell.
You know that chicken you buy for cheap? The reason its so cheap is because its mass-produced in chicken factories...usually you can see the marks on the chickens. They're called "hock burns" and are caused by acidic conditions from the waste(***** and such).
I still eat them because i can't get free running chickens here..
- szelij, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I don't think its true over here. Its all very clean and such. The most disturbing thing i know about supermarkets are the chickens they sell.
- admdrew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Having worked at a Cub Foods (in Minnesota) for a number of years while in college, I can say at least *that* store isn't aiming to rip anyone off.
- warmonger48, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1admdrew: I only shop at the Cub stores here in Mankato, I won't shop at the Wal-Mart super store if I can possibly avoid it.
- aresef, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14I work at a supermarket (cashier), I'll field these.
1 is BS. It contradicts itself. We're not trying to trick you--the unit pricing is right there. What are we hiding?
2- While sometimes a sale may be a precursor to a price hike, I have never seen price hikes passed off as sales.
3- There's no privacy risk with loyalty programs. At the store I work at, your address is only used to send you thank-you coupons and crap from us, and your phone number is only used to look up your card in our system should you forget to bring it. Hell, you don't even need to have a card--use a fake phone number when I ask you, and on most deals, it works just the same
4- That's what health department inspections are for.
5- Employees are required to wash their hands in the bathroom and there are wet wipes all over the place (there are dispensers under registers, etc.). We keep our hands clean.
6- I can't speak for other stores, other chains, but the one I work at has a pretty good record.
7- Pfft, BS. We take no chances.
8- I'll give you that. We'll advertise something as "10 for $10" when in reality it's really $1. We're just trying to get you to buy 10.
9- Not qualified to answer this one.
10- 99% of the time, our register gets it right. The other 1%, usually the customer notices and I fix it with a store coupon, end of story.- m85476585, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I also work at a supermarket.
1. I have seen bulk cost more than regular quantities, but only once or twice. We list the price per unit on the tags.
2. I have never seen that.
3. We don't have a loyalty program to avoid #3.
4. Health department inspections, employees help keep the store clean
5. same as @aresef
6. ???
7. One time a batch of a product had the wrong date printed on it (the food was fine), but we had to throw all of it out.
8. We do advertise 3 for $3, but you can buy one if you want.
9. ???
10. That doesn't happen too often, but if a customer notices they get it for free. A manager then fixes the problem immediately. - jinexile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Loyalty cards are much more than just sending thankyou coupons, they are used by the corporations to track demographics, they got your name, number, address, phone number and possibly your age, gender and email, this is all _very_ valuable information for marketing companies.
- PowerCow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+63- There's no privacy risk with loyalty programs. At the store I work at, your address is only used to send you thank-you coupons and crap from us, and your phone number is only used to look up your card in our system should you forget to bring it. Hell, you don't even need to have a card--use a fake phone number when I ask you, and on most deals, it works just the same
the us government is teh biggest purchecer of this data.
I shopped at same story for 20 years, I left my card at home and had only planned on getting coffee, but they had a sale on coffee and a reat sale on doggfood.. so i grabed some.. since i use fake info, I hate smpam and calls and sorry i dont trust strangers with my info(i wouldnt give my number to any stranger, i dont know why people do this.
SO i went to checkout and noticed i had left my card at home.. The GM was right there i asked for his help. He explained since i couldnt remember my number used, i could not get my items at a discount. I could go home and get it, but at higher price, or not buy at all..
I noticed my neighbour who works there as a cashier, she was pregnant. I asked her if she minded if i borrow her card as all i wanted was a quick stop and didnt want to leave and come back. so she swiped me.. the manager saw and came yelling at both me and her. He threaten to fire the pregnant woman and yelled at me for trying to get her to break unposted rules. The man was in my face yelling. Needless to say after 20 years i now have a new groccer.. I have already forgotten my card and they were glad to let my demographics slide just once... They have my loyalty forever.
The point on bulk stuff inst that they are misleading, it is that people have been trianed to grab them and often in MY store it isnt the best deal.
We also get money if we cn prove that any one item was rung up wrong... there are thousands of items and while i am sure some unscroupulous stores scam peopel, i'd say the majority is accidentcial. - timpkmn89, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"1 is BS. It contradicts itself. We're not trying to trick you--the unit pricing is right there. What are we hiding?"
People usually assume bulk is cheaper, and don't bother to add up the amount of buying it individually - planksconstant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i agree with the above, i too work at a supermarket, and 50% of the time, when its a wrong price, its not some kind of ploy to rip you off, its just that the store's computer hasn't been updated with a sale price. the other half of the time, its because the customer read the prices on the shelves wrong.
- m85476585, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I also work at a supermarket.
- tehgooch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8What the hell? I read the blog post, and then see a "read the whole article" link. Thanks, douche.
- joerod, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2sounds like most big buisness in the US. its a shame people don't have more pride in what they do.
- bobx2001, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2can somone please edit the article link to go to the real article and not the blog.
- Mace37, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1 You’re overcharged more than you think. “Over the course of one year, [one man] patronized California supermarkets that give customers an item for free if the scanner rings up the wrong price. By year’s end, he says, he took home more than $4,000 in free good…”
holy crap.- planksconstant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1either that person went to a crap supermarket, or he was purposly looking for items that were overpirced. people do that a lot and its very annoying.
- IVIrMP3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Where the hell do you shop that does this? Must be Walmart. I used to work for Farmer Jack and none of this ever happened.
- drchadwick, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Not that most or all of this isn't still relevant, but if you click through to the original article, you'll see at the bottom:
"Originally published on August 1, 2001." - Teaboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1These are nothing like UK supermarkets. My local Tesco is very clean, and all products are marked like '10p per 100g', so you can easily work out what quantity's cheaper.
- therernospoons, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They forgot to mention those bloody shopping "savings" cards. Prices for items requiring the shopper's card, are inflated on purpose to require you to "register" for one in order to give up your personal information.
edit: nevermind it's #3- aresef, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2As I said, we don't really do anything with your info. Your phone number is used to access your card should you forget it and your address is used only by us to send you coupons and freebies.
- therernospoons, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@aresf: If your in the U.S. there IS a privacy risk. After 9-11, some supermarket giants willingly turned over their shopping card customer data to the Feds without any questions asked or a court order.
- aresef, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's right there in black and white in our policy. And when we ask for your phone number should you not have a card on you at the checkout, you can give a bogus phone number and it doesn't make a difference.
- kickmenow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"As I said, we don't really do anything with your info"
As has been pointed out, that's simply not true. No store would bother going to so much trouble, just to not "really do anything" with the information.
Beyond that, it's insulting to be told you have to pay inflated prices if you don't give up your personal information. I refuse to shop at ANY store that uses their customer cards in that way. Around here, that's Safeway, QFC, and Albertsons. We have plenty of independent options to choose from that don't do this crap, and they are who get our business. - aresef, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1And around and around we go. You just need a phone number (at least at Giant) to set off the discounts. Not your phone number necessarily, not even a right one, just A phone number for me to type into the system. When I go to total it, sure, it may return an error, but the discounts stay.
- scottso, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ therernospoons: I didn't see this in the press - which supermarkets gave up information? I work in the supermarket industry and this would have been in the trade press - I didn't see it anywhere.
@ kickmenow: You'd be amazed at how inefficient many big compaies are! Most really don't do a whole lot with it... anything they do use it for is in the aggregate, where they aren't viewing any individual shoppers' information. There's a number of smaller chains that have phased out their card programs because it cost too much to maintain something that they weren't really getting any use out of.
- blinky04, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I work in a supermarket. This is pretty crappy. It's not like I like my job, but they make it look like we are some evil empire trying to steal all of your money.
Others have already proved the point well enough, just thought i'd back them up.
However, ^ what therernospoons just said is 100% correct. We do use those, and sell the information to advertising companies, as the primary purpose. - m85476585, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"Some stores, he adds, even use special mood-enhancing lighting that filters out higher frequencies in the visible light spectrum. It produces only relaxing colors such as blues and purples"
Blues and purples ARE the higher frequencies in the visible light spectrum!- scottso, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1...
- gorac369, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5well as a current employee of Safeway i can tell you that alot of these things are true. I am a cashier that works graveyard stocking shelfs and doing price changes. since i have started changing prices i have noticed a lot of tricks that Safeway uses.
1. the sale price can only be .50 less the the full price. sometimes its more.
2. everything at a grocery store is close to double the price of walmart or target
3. i have seen the actual price go up to make you think your saving money with the sale. (safeway brand sodas use to be on sale for $1.00 full price was $1.19 for a six-pack now they are 1.49 and they are on sale for 1.25.)
As far as dates go, as a shelf stocker, we dont have enough time to pull everything off the shelf and check the dates. a lot of the time the stuff in the front gets pushed to that back of the shelf. which means the stuff in the back could be expired. there have been nights where i had to pull each piece of a item cause it was expired. if we notice something has an expired date then it gets pulled, but we dont look for the dates. we only have 8 hours a person, with 2-3 people to stock 300-700 pieces (each containing an average of 12 items)- aresef, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1True at Safeway maybe, but not at Giant.
- spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Every year Mercedes Benz has a "save 5% on next year's model" sale for a week or two. Guess what their annual markup is right before this sale becomes active?
- scottso, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Everything at Safeway is twice what it is at Wal-Mart? Baloney - maybe a bit more, but twice as much? That would mean Classico pasta sauce that's normally $2.50 in a regular store ($2.00 on sale) is $1.25 or $1.00 at Wal-Mart? I know that's not even remotely close to the truth. You may have a point - but don't exaggerate so ridiculously!
- spyrochaete, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I don't know if this is true of all supermarkets but it is true of the Dominion chain in Toronto, Canada.
There are anti-theft devices in many stores past each checkout - like the ones found at clothing stores that sound an alarm when you try to sneak something through. These are ordinary, working anti-theft devices, but they are unplugged and non-operational. They are only for show. Do you see any magnetic anti-theft stickers on the apples?- nikkesen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Of course not. They're cleverly hidden underneath the apple peel. Duh!
- creepyjunk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0ridiculous!!!!
not surprising though..:p - chucklehead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I worked in the Marketing department for a large supermarket for several years. I can tell you unequivocally that the loyalty card programs are there for the supermarket to maintain their margins (which are the lowest of all retail formats, usually less than 3% markup on almost anything). Yes they also get quite a cost savings by selling the data to advertising companies, but the general gist is so that they can spend less on advertising and send pertinent deals specifically to you (micromarketing at its best). As a general rule, all supermarkets are run on the cheap, and are always looking to save a buck. The neat thing is that many are moving towards a personalized email/circular idea that offers items YOU buy when they are on sale, saving you time and effort.
- chucklehead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Oh, and even if they wanted to more shifty things with your info, (which they don't), they don't have the resources to use the data much beyond what they already do. It's just too much to sift through, and believe me, they usually only have a few folks even working in the Card Marketing/Loyalty departments to begin with.
- otherland, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I don't get what the big deal is with those club cards, I "sign up" for a new one practically everytime I'm buying something on sale. I don't give them any real info either. The only thing I'm missing out on is that free turkey at thanksgiving for people that spent 75 bucks or so... something I wouldn't want anyway.
- otherland, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1This is a true story, it's also why any meat I buy comes from a professional, independent butcher:
A year ago a ocal supermarket got fined for having a legally blind guy working at the head of the meat dept. He didn't even see the flies buzzing around and ***** unless customers complained. Apparently couldn't smell either. And the supermarket didn't even fire him, they transfered him to another store.- iamdecal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i'm pretty sure you cant fire some one for having a disability (not trolling - seriously i dont think you can here in the uk - same as you cant fire a postal delivery driver if they lose (loose ;-p) their licence - you just have to move them to differnt job )
- bilangew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Adding my two cents about the slotting fee point:
Not only this is true, but the most expensive shelve to "get" for the companies is the one easily accessed. For example, notice how often the well-known brand of ketchup is located near the bottom, and some no-name ketchup brand is near the eye level.
Furthermore, I dont know about the US, but here in Canada there is an invasion of grocery store's own brands on the shelves. For example, Loblaws/Provigo owns a series of products called "President's Choice", which mimicks the well-known brands using usually cheaper ingredients, or just using batches that didnt fully pass the QA test.
What you may not know about this: the grocery stores are paid back by the grocery's headquarters depending on how much this self-owned brand sells.
To sum up: not only that store's brand is usually cheaper for the customer, but the local store are being paid to put it on the shelves. Makes you wonder how really cheap/bad quality those products can be!- nuvem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't know which President's Choice products you've tried, but they certainly aren't mimicing anyone; PC products are some of the most original I've found on store shelves. I can't think of a well known brand that makes oven-ready onion and pesto chicken on focaccia bread or moussaka. Not to mention, the prices are pretty much in line with the name brands for similar products (usually a little bit cheaper, but not by much).
Perhaps you meant Master's Choice? (or Equality... both seem to fit your description of questionable food at questionably low prices) - scottso, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Having worked for a company that manufacturers goods under supermarkets brands - they NEVER sell product that doesn't pass a QA test. Never. Those products get returned and destroyed. Even the supermarkets set quality standards for the store brands - not to mention FDA and other regulatory requirements.
- scottso, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The store also gets "paid" when shoppers buy name brands! Most supermarkets are company owned - meaning that if the HQ paid the store for selling more store brand products... they'd be paying themselves. The logic in your point doesn't make sense!
- bilangew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ scottso (2nd post): Ive seen a printed out e-mail (from the HQ to our local supermarket) saying what ive said in the parent post. I had no idea that was possible until I saw this printed out mail, but too bad for me that I dont work here anymore, because I would try to get a copy for you :)
nuvem: I know... PC's wellington chicken is quite good for example!
But... Ive made a mistake, though... I meant "using ingredients which arent top-notch but still passable " instead of "just using batches that didnt fully pass the QA test."
Ive messed that with something else: our local store uses canned products that customers wont buy because of visibles bumps and other damages to the aluminium package (that, and products getting close to its best-before date) to make ready-to-eat meals like sandwiches or microwaveable dishes... and thats totally legal, but risky for the freshness of the products. If a can was too much damaged and had an hole on it for some time... tasty stuff :)
- nuvem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't know which President's Choice products you've tried, but they certainly aren't mimicing anyone; PC products are some of the most original I've found on store shelves. I can't think of a well known brand that makes oven-ready onion and pesto chicken on focaccia bread or moussaka. Not to mention, the prices are pretty much in line with the name brands for similar products (usually a little bit cheaper, but not by much).
- kosmoX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I work at a popular grocery store in the south and most of this is untrue.
The information we get for our loyalty programs isn't sold to advertisers or telemarketers; you'll occasionally get free coupons and offers in the mail. You can use fake information if you want. We can't look up your card by your phone number, as other stores can, so I sometimes tell customers that the phone number is optional. One thing that irks me is our policy is a customer doesn't have their loyalty card with them. Each manager has a card that they can scan, but we aren't supposed to ask for it unless the customer requests it. Unless they say, "Can I use yours?", we aren't supposed to use the manager's card. This can become a problem during rush hour when the managers are running about the store and we can't locate them. Most cashiers will just grab one of the applications for loyalty cards that we have under our register and use the card that is attached to it. Since there is no activation required for the card, they can be used before any personal information is collected. Hence, if a cashier says,"Just take this application home, fill it out, and bring it back next time you come", don't bother bringing it back. Once you have the loyalty card in your hands, you're good to go. Unless of course, the store can look the card up by your phone number, which the store I work at can't. Occasionally, I will use my own personal card for a customer if I can't find an application with a card attached to it. The managers are required to track and cards that are used more than x number of times in a day. If it is found to be an employees card, the employee gets written up. We aren't allowed to use our own personal cards because they don't want us receiving any of the free promotions for using your card.
Continuing my rant, let me say a few words about the "U-Scan" or "Self-Checkout(SCO)" stations. To customers: If you have more than 15 items, it will probably be quicker to go to a regular register. I've had customers with a full cart go to the SCO and take fifteen minutes to finish up. Usually, they have a ton of produce items, for which they have to scroll through the pages of produce items to find the one they have. SCO stations are meant for customers with just a few items(much like an express lane).
All produce items have a unique four-digit number called a Price-Look Up(PLU). Cashiers memorize PLU's for most produce items, but we have a piece of paper that has all of the PLU's on it in case a customer has an item that we don't know. Don't tell the cashier that your lettuce is 99 cents a pound, because that means nothing to us. We have no idea how much something costs per pound, we have to have the PLU number. Given the number of produce items we carry and the rapidly changing prices of produce, it is unreasonable to expect cashiers to keep up with the price of each individual item. Most produce items have a little sticker with the PLU on it (yes, the Chequitta Banana stickers serve a purpose other than letting you know the company you are buying from). For the produce items without a sticker, we look up the PLU number which automatically looks up the price-per-pound of price-per-item of the product.
All employees must wash their hands after using the bathroom, eating, or handling any kind of raw meat. At each register is a bottle of hand sanitizer. As bad as it is, we use this stuff when we just get bored. There is no need to worry about employees hands being dirty at our store.
Although our store is kept reasonably clean, there is one incident that was, well, so disgusting it was funny. A few days ago, a security technician came in to work on our security system. We have a TV hanging from the ceiling at the front of the store which is attached to one of the cameras. I have worked at the store since September of 2005, and the TV has been off since then. Several times, I have been talking with other employees and we have wondered why we have a TV hanging from the ceiling that is always off. Well, the security guy climbed up his ladder to the TV, and here is the dialog that followed:
Cashier: "Are you going to fix the TV?"
Security Technician: "What do you mean fix it?"
C: "It has been off for a while."
ST: "This TV works just fine. It hasn't been turned off." At this point, he wiped one finger across the screen revealing the picture behind a thick layer of dust. Yes, the dust on the screen was so thick that we thought for months that the TV was off. Apparently, nobody thought of dusting it once in a while. The health department must have thought it was off as well, because they didn't shut us down for having a ***** ton of dust built up.
That's all for now. - freonchill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2“Everybody pays a price for our ‘loyalty’ program.”
mine is registered to the STORE
wonder if they have noticed they they have been buying a lot of beer. - dmclone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I haven't worked in a grocery store for 10 years and I still can remember the PLU of Bananas (I think)
4011?- planksconstant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yep.
- dmclone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was in the grocery business for a long time.
I think the busier stores are usually the best for freshness. Can goods hardly ever get rotated so some of those in the back are pretty damn old but most things last a real long time in those cans.
A few more interesting things
I’ve seen very few bad produce isles. The stores know that if it looks bad it won’t sell.
When you walk by the seafood counter it shouldn’t smell like fish.
The big money is made in the surrounding departments like the Bakery, Meat, Pharmacy, Frozen Food Aisles, etc. The main aisles are less then 3% profit margin. There are a lot of items they actually lose money on. For example, Miracle Whip, Velveeta, etc seem to be popular ones. These are loss leaders. And they are usually items people seem to remember the price of.
Most grocery stores are pretty clean. They have to go through a lot of inspections.
Most meat departments are moving away from cutting their own meat. This is another one of those things in America that is being done by Mexican workers for ½ price. - RegisteredUser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Glad we got some input from supermarket employees. Here's my input as a shopper..
1. Buying in bulk doesn't pay off unless you do the math and figure out the price per unit or price per weight. As someone else stated, some markets do print out this information on the shelf tags.
2. Be smart and do some comparison shopping.
3. Supermarkets don't require you to provide your personal info for loyalty cards anymore. The checker just told me to write "none" on the name field. And that was it. Just don't use your credit card or ATM when you use your loyalty card.
4, 5, 6. No comment
7. Old news. This has been exposed on many news shows over the years.
8. I don't know about that stuff. All I know is, that you should never go grocery shopping when you're hungry. Otherwise, you'll buy a lot of stuff on impulse. Especially, all the promotional items that are conveniently located on the end-caps.
9. No comment. But I already knew about the slotting and preferred product placement stuff.
10. I don't think it's intentional, but scanner errors do occur. Most of the time it's a software glitch, or maybe the new prices haven't been updated yet in the database. Always be aware of the shelf tag price and watch the display as the items are being scanned. Or just keep a mental tally of what your groceries should total up to. The supermarket that I go to will give you the item for free if it scans at the wrong price.- aresef, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1And just to clear it up, we are not trying to rob you, at least not at the individual store level. We want you to save as much money as we can reasonably help you save. It's in our best interest to do so, because it keeps you coming back. It is not in our best interest as a store to rip people off. Therefore, when a customer expresses interest in the Redbox DVD machine by the door, I give them some free codes. When a customer has earned coupons from the little machine that spits them out at the register, I see if there's something they can use right away and I scan it for them. Hell, it brings a smile to my face when I help somebody out. The last thing I or anybody else in my store wants to do (can't speak for corporate) is bilk money out of the unsuspecting customer.
- Hockey6668, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0You have to love how they put all the essential food items (like milk) in the back corner of the store.
- BuddhaLite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0People that claim that grocery stores only use their “loyalty” cards to send out coupons truly have no clue what they’re talking about. Catalina Marketing in St Pete FL boasts this on their web site:
“In the retail industry, Catalina Marketing retrieves about 250 million transactions per week, across more than 21,000 grocery stores. On behalf of our grocery retail clients, we manage one of the six largest databases in the world, containing the purchase histories of over 100 million household IDs.”
Still think grocery stores aren’t making money by tracking you with those cards?
© Digg Inc. 2008 —
Content posted by