Last year, I did an experiment where I priced the exact same items for about 50 dollars worth of food in two grocery stores. Shaws, being one of the stores, priced at a lot higher and based on that experiment, I stopped going there. But it might be time to take another look at Shaws.
Yesterday I attended a media event for Shaws down in Dedham, MA. VP of Marketing Bill Nasshan told the group of women bloggers that Shaws is trying to make shoppers’ lives easier (including lower prices) through the use of several programs:
• Weekly Specials – based on the weekly flyer
• Gas Savings based on purchases
• Locked in specials – where a price is locked in for a specified amount of time
• Price Watch – where they watch competitor’s coupons
• Compare and Save – comparison of Shaws brand to other brands
We were told that the weekly flyer was designed with coming events in mind. For example this week’s has Memorial Day as the focus and some of the sale items are pretty impressive. A sampling of the savings include:
• Ball Park Franks – Buy one get one free (there are coupons floating around for these if you can get one)
• Lays Potato chips – 2 bags for 4 dollars (with a Store coupon that gives you another free bag when you buy two – such a deal)
• Ground beef – 1.79 per pound
And wouldn’t you know, I’m looking for some ground beef on sale so that I can add to my Great Hamburger Experiment. If you add coupons to these specials, you can get some pretty impressive deals.
Having not been in Shaws for awhile, I also wasn’t aware of the meal programs they have like 4:15 – a station where you can buy all the ingredients you need to make a quick, wholesome dinner quickly. They also have rotisserie chickens where if they don’t have the flavor you want, you are given a coupon for a free chicken for the next day.
In order to get the most for my food budget (140 dollars/week for a family of 8 including 4 teenage boys) I shop at several stores. It’s time to put Shaws back on my list of grocery shopping stops.
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Wendy, I’m interested to hear more once you are shopping there. I’m going to need more convincing that the extra time is worth it as Shaw’s seems so much more expensive to me.