Supervalu, other retailers offer extra bucks for tax rebate checks

Planning on paying off your bills with your tax refund or economic stimulus check? You may consider buying food instead.

[HELLO]

So if you get your money direct deposited how would one take advantage of these deals?

[Homer J]

HELLO wrote:

So if you get your money direct deposited how would one take advantage of these deals?

Draw it out and go to Cub. I have seen a few different retailers offering the same thing. Good deal for all.

[Wondering Mind]

Its interesting. It seems that when ever we have a special rebate/refund like this they worry that we'll just pay off our debt, and tell us that its a bad thing to do so. Next they complain about how much debt the average US citizen has and how that's a bad thing. Yet they say our use of credit is a good thing because it spurs economic growth. But if having too much debt is bad and paying off the debt is bad how can having credit be good unless we assume its not to be paid off? Just wondering.

[HELLO]

Homer- It says that they will cash rebate stimulus checks. Not give out $30 to anyone who brings in $300 cash or a regular check to buy a gift card. They'll do it up to 1200 so 4 $300 gift cards. If they take my personal check I could come in there over the next few months multiple times if I am using my own cash/checks rather then the stimulus check.

[Cheach]

eating is overrated anyhow

[ten percent]

ten percent is nice but paying down credit cards with higher than 10% interest rates if you have them is wiser.

[Just Sayin]

Wow, Cub offering a 10% bonus on the rebate. That will almost cover the 50% hikes they've pushed on us for almost everything in the store. Milk used to be 2.79, now its 4.70, cheese slices used to be 1.50, now they're almost 3 bucks. generic bread went from 95 cents to almost 1.45. frozen pizza, pasta, lunchmeat, everything is way higher than it was just TWO years ago. I realize energy prices are part of the problem, but most of the blame lies with the government/taxpayer subsidized corn ethanol scam.

[Anon]

ITS STILL BOB TO EM wrote:

IT'S TOO BAD THAT MOST PEOPLE ARE TOO STUPID TO SEE WHAT THESE RETAILERS ARE REALLY DOING. THEY WILL JACK THE PRICES UP TO COMPENSATE FOR ANY AMOUNT THAT THEY ARE "GIVING" AWAY. THERE REALLY IS NO DEAL. NO FREE LUNCH. NO "SOMETHING FOR NOTHING". DEAL WITH IT.
I KNOW THAT WHENEVER CUB HAS A "BUY 1 GET 1 FREE" SALE THE ITEMS ARE MARKED 50-75% HIGHER THAN USUAL & THEN MARKED BACK DOWN AFTER THE SALE IS OVER. I SEE IT ALL THE TIME.
SUPERVALU - WHO DO YOU THINK YOU'RE FOOLING?????

Looks like they only have people like you fooled. Do you really think that is what they do? Price is based upon a number of things like economy, supply and demand, etc. The price is not increased just so that they can place an item on sale.

A deal like this is what they call a loss leader. They are willing to loose 10% in order to gain customer loyalty. They are betting that you will want to return to their store more often then going to one of their competitors.

[Anon]

HELLO wrote:

So if you get your money direct deposited how would one take advantage of these deals?

Some retailers that use loyalty cards will let you still get the bonus amount as long as you use your loyalty card. The use of the loyalty card will help to keep someone from getting more than the max amount.

[Cat]

These stimulus checks comingout? well, it's just the government trying to tell us what to spend money on. I still say "pay off your bills" sure frivulous is fine but you always have those gosh darn bills to be paid, so lets pay off those bills.

[DAK]

Does anyone realize that many people are not going to receive an actual check? But get a direct deposit. People in a hurry for their tax refund choose direct deposit since that's the fastest or if they took out a refund anticipation loan they are probably going to get a direct deposit also

[Mellers]

DAK wrote:

Does anyone realize that many people are not going to receive an actual check? But get a direct deposit. People in a hurry for their tax refund choose direct deposit since that's the fastest or if they took out a refund anticipation loan they are probably going to get a direct deposit also

I don't understand the issue. What you do is BUY a gift card, with cash or with a credit/debit card. It's not as if you hand over the physical paper check to Cub Foods or the other retailers. That does nothing.

Deposit the stimulus check into your checking account (or get it cashed at your bank) and purchase a gift card.

[Jeff Ohio]

ITS STILL BOB TO EM wrote:

IT'S TOO BAD THAT MOST PEOPLE ARE TOO STUPID TO SEE WHAT THESE RETAILERS ARE REALLY DOING. THEY WILL JACK THE PRICES UP TO COMPENSATE FOR ANY AMOUNT THAT THEY ARE "GIVING" AWAY. THERE REALLY IS NO DEAL. NO FREE LUNCH. NO "SOMETHING FOR NOTHING". DEAL WITH IT.
I KNOW THAT WHENEVER CUB HAS A "BUY 1 GET 1 FREE" SALE THE ITEMS ARE MARKED 50-75% HIGHER THAN USUAL & THEN MARKED BACK DOWN AFTER THE SALE IS OVER. I SEE IT ALL THE TIME.
SUPERVALU - WHO DO YOU THINK YOU'RE FOOLING?????

I can appreciate what you are saying. You are right! The days of getting something for nothing are long gone. However, if you are one of the lucky few that can afford to tie up the stimulus check for groceries, then use it to buy ONLY items on sale, items that are truly needed, staple items. Stock up what you will need, sooner or later. I think that if the shopper pays very close attention to prices, they will find that they will save...it may not be 10%, but it will be more than nothing. Just like investing, the gift cards must be used very carefully.

[Anon]

ITS STILL BOB TO EM wrote:

<quoted text>
ANON - IF YOU HAD HALF A BRAIN YOU WOULD KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. I'LL TRY & EXPLAIN IT TO YOU -THERE ARE ITEMS THAT I BUY ON A REGULAR BASIS SO I AM AWARE OF THE PRICE. WHEN THEY HAVE A BUY 1 - GET 1 FREE THE PRICE IS ALWAYS MARKED WAY HIGHER THAN THE DAY BEFORE. THEN AFTER THE SALE THE PRICE RETURNS TO WHERE IT WAS BEFORE THE SALE. IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE - ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS REMEMBER A FEW NUMBERS & YOU, TOO WILL SEE. AS FAR AS LOSS LEADERS THAT IS A DIFFERENT CASE ENTIRELY. IF YOU CAN REMEMBER PRICES YOU WILL BE MORE AWARE OF WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON.

I happen to be an analyst whose job is to look at data for items on sale. I look at the number of items sold before, during, and after the sale. With thousands of items going on and off sale each week, it would be impossible to do what you say is being done.

Changing a price for an item requires a lot of labor and involves a lot of people: Product Manager, Pricing Manager, Pricing Assistant, Printing Employee, Store Manager (for each store), and Tag Hanger (for each store).

Lets say that it only takes 1 minute for each of these people to do a price change. Lets also assume that there are only 200 stores and 1000 items involved in the price change.

405 employees * 1 minute / 60 minutes = 6.75 hours
6.75 hours *$7 wage =$47.25 per item
$47.25 * 1000 items =$47,250.

If they have 400 stores and 5000 items going on sale, the total becomes:$469,583

Changing a price to a higher amount just to lower it again for a sale would double that labor.

Now there is a possiblility that an item is on a Long Term Sale (meaning it is at a sale price for over 6 months) and that the LTS goes off sale before the new sale has been negotiated with the vendor. If that happens, then the price goes up to the regular retail before going back on sale at the new sale price.

[Walleye]

The problem is being locked in. You commit the whole amount to Cub to make 10%-- which I like!-- but then some other store starts having better prices.

There are lots of lock-in gimmicks. Used to be S&H Green Stamps. Nowadays it's things like the tenth latte free.

Cub currently gives a gasoline coupon worth one cent for ten dollars spent, up to twelve gallons, for an effective rebate of 12/1000 or 1.2%. In today's environment of high gas prices this seems like a deal, so we lock in.

[Inquiring Mind]

Supervalu? They've been on the skids downhill for several years. They keep laying off clerks and replacing them with automatic checkout machines. Then they had to hire a few clerks back to show people how to use the machines.

And guess what? To no surprise to we dumb clods who shop weekly, we hate the fricking machines. Bring back a live clerk.

So now they're stuck with this bullshit auto checkout technology and deeper in debt.

GREED!!!