If you do at least some of your shopping at one of Safeway’s twenty stores across the state, you might want to take a look at my Hawaii Monitor column today over at Civil Beat (“Safeway Overcharges — Mistakes Or Corporate Policy?“). And then read down to the bottom of this post for a suggestion of what can be done.
Safeway has a lot riding on its “Just for U” and “Deal Match” promotions, which offer targeted or individualized discount offers geared to customers’ past purchasing history and predicted interests.
It’s a strategy that relies heavily on a complex computer system to keep track of individualized prices on multiple items offered to millions of consumers who have signed up for the program. My own experience with the program has been quite mixed. When it works, you can save real money. But it also requires defensive shopping and constant attention to detail to avoid being charged higher prices than promised.
The problems are exacerbated by Safeway’s poor customer service record. According to a recent story in USA Today, Safeways has earned consistently low rating from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index, which bills itself as “an independent national benchmark of customer satisfaction with the quality of products and services available to household consumers in the United States.”
Each year, roughly 70,000 customers are surveyed about the products and services they use the most. The survey data serve as inputs to an econometric model that benchmarks customer satisfaction with more than 230 companies in 47 industries and 10 economic sectors, as well as over 100 services, programs, and websites of federal government agencies.
“Safeway, which had among the lowest scores among all retailers, has underperformed in customer satisfaction every year the past 10 years,” USA Today reported. Only Netflix and Walmart received worse customer satisfaction scores in the latest survey of retailers.
State regulators may be able to step in to protect consumers, as they have done in California, but they need as much evidence of the overcharging problems as possible.
You can help by making a note (date, store, item, amount of overcharge, etc) every time an item that should be discounted scans at a higher price when you check out. Whether or not the store promptly refunds your money, data on errors will be useful to regulators. And if Safeway refuses to honor those special advertised prices, or uses deceptive displays, signage, or “fine print” to mislead, note those as well. Copies of receipts, with notes about the transactions, may also help.
Gathering data is slow and can be frustrating, but it may eventually make all the difference in protecting the our rights as consumers of Safeway’s products and services.
If you are willing to start collecting these kinds of data, let me know (email:ian(at)ilind.net) and we’ll try to build a network of monitors.
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Good Lord, Ian!!! Are you actually encouraging people to shop at Safeway??? I haven’t for years and don’t know why anyone would.
Perhaps I wasn’t properly aware of some ideological litmus test that requires avoidance of Safeway.
Actually, we’ve always shopped relatively carefully. Safeway has been in the rotation since we moved to Kaaawa some 25 years ago, and its Kaneohe store is right there on our daily commute. Foodland and Times are also conveniently located along our commute.
We shop reguarly, but certainly not exclusively, at Safeway. In addition to Times and Foodland, we make regular runs to Tamura’s in Hauula, and make an occasional stop at Whole Foods.
Safeway offers several things, including a unionized work place and good benefits for its employees, which we support. The company has been expanding its offering of organic foods. And careful price comparison, along with use of its loyalty programs, can yield significant savings.
However, I’m not pushing Safeway. My post was aimed, as it fully disclosed right off the bat, at anyone who already shops at Safeway.
Makiki Barb obviously doesn’t fall in that category, so she has nothing to fear.
-Ian
I never check receipts – except for Safeway. If you shop at Safeway and don’t check your receipt carefully you ARE paying too much ! If they were just ” mistakes ” than once in a while the customer would come out ahead – don’t you think ? When the ” mistake ” is always in favor of the store there has to be more going on.
I think that I will just boycott Safeway! I have experienced to much mispricing, miss charging of products.
It ought to be possible to set up a website to gather complaints. There are several examples out there already. Sure, that approach has its problems, but somehow the complaint-logging has to be organized or it won’t gather momentum nor be effective.
We buy very few items at supermarkets, and Safeway’s various discount programs have done nothing for us, except that we do get the discounts that require card membership.
Another track would be to assume that information on overcharges could be gathered. So if it becomes available, what to do with it?
It’s a mental health issue for me. I don’t consciously boycott Safeway, but every time the opportunity to shop there arises arises, I think about the ‘drama factor’ at checkout and then pass.
I’m also interested in the employees–They always seem so casual when I complain. It must be extremely difficult for them to constantly cover for the company.