What I won't be buying this week... or ever.
So, I'm walking through Jewel and I spot an item in the dairy case that many readers have written me to say exists, yet it hadn't hit my store... until now.
"Shopper's Value" imitation shredded cheese.
For those who missed the news, SuperValu's CEO has decided to take a more "Wal-Mart-like" approach to Jewel and remove up to 25% of the products they previously carried, replacing them with Shopper's Value house brands in an attempt to "cater to women." (Note that the Jewel stores themselves are not at fault here -- they have no say in this as it was ultimately SuperValu's decision.)
But... is ANYONE going to buy this? Especially with a Catalina sale running this week that makes name-brand Kraft shredded cheese one-quarter of this price?
$1.89 a bag for fake cheese, or .59 a bag for real, Kraft shredded cheese in a current Catalina/coupon deal.
This woman wants real cheese, thank you very much.
UPDATE: One of my readers sent this article today: Supervalu's first-quarter net income drops 40 percent
Evidently we're not the only ones who don't want a store full of low-quality house brands. (The sad reality though is that these are first-quarter numbers. The house brand/Project SHE strategy is likely in response to a bad first quarter, and that strategy is only going to make things worse.)
those with surveys, speak up
One way to try to get corporate to listen that we don't want/like this change is for those with surveys (the ones that print out at the bottom of the receipt with the $2 coupon, thank you very much) to answer with a "1" when asked if they found what they were looking for. Enough responses here might get the message across.
boooooooo!
Jewel please don't ruin a good thing. I have been a Jewel shopper all my life, I even worked there during my college years! Don't think your shoppers are uneducated and will go for cheap over quality.
I feel very sorry for kids
I feel very sorry for kids being fed this junk.
Nutritional comparison
If you click on these links you can compare the nutritional information for Kraft slices vs. the Shoppers Value. They should be ashamed of themselves. 260mg of sodium in one slice??!! Granted, I'm not a person who lives a grains and tofu lifestyle by any means but this is ridiculous!
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/shoppers-value-cheese-singles-...
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/kraft-cheese-slices-32-count-1...
I looked at the ingredients in the imitation cheese
today. The second or third item was hydrogenated soybean oil. Who want trans fatty acids in their cheese. I looked at the real cheese products next to the Shopper's Value and they did not have hydrogenated soybean oil in them. Do they really think they will fool us? (I also went to Target and bought the Bear Naked granola for cheap. Very healthy product for a great price) Aren't fast food places in the hot seat because of the less than healthy foods, oil, etc that are in their products. Doesn't this speak to the same issue? If it costs less people will buy it but the product contributes to unhealthy practices.
Fake?
We have 2 of us at home that can't have dairy. I would LOVE if the cheese in fact did not have any milk because we could actually eat it! There are very little meals that we love that don't include cheese, so this may be a Dairy Allergy Dream!!
Casein
One of my readers on Super-Couponing's Facebook (the discussion's buzzing over there too!) checked it out and said it's made with casein and vegetable oil. Casein is a dairy product, so this isn't intended for those on a dairy-free diet.
40% Net Income Drop
This drop in net income cannot be chiefly explained by shoppers cutting back. Food is the hardest place for people to tighten the belt. More likely the drop in net income has to do with costs related to store closures, labor costs, reserves for increased gov't mandated healthcare charges and other OTC's (one-time charges).
Albertsons vs. Super Value
So is it true that Jewel isn't even owned by Albertsons anymore? That would explain all the new "JUNK" in the stores. What happened, why did Albertson's sell us out???? :( HATE fake cheese and these new changes to our favorite store!
It's true.
SuperValu owns both Jewel AND Albertson's now, along with a bunch of other stores (Shaw's, Acme, and the dreaded Save-A-Lot, which offers almost entirely-house branded Supervalu product, like an Aldi.)
And, with regard to the post that SuperValu sold off a bunch of their Albertson's stores today... if you guys are selling stores, would you consider selling Jewel to someone who cares about it and will stop this Project SHE and junky house-brand-overload madness?
Then you won't like this!
I read this today:
"To make matters even worse, reports are that Walmart is getting ready to open a low-price small store grocery chain and is pushing new stores deeper into the Chicago market, one that Supervalu had identified as a growth zone for Save-A-Lot."
Here is the link to the blog http://industry.bnet.com/retail/1000...ctor-perfector
And they announced today that they sold most of their Utah Albertson's stores. http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2009/07/27/daily17....
Yuck
I can see Save-A-Lot working in the city, somewhat, as the shopping options are more limited and Aldi hasn't really tapped downtown yet. But don't you dare convert my Jewels to Save-A-Lots..!
Speaking of which (and I love that my readers are as smart and passionate about researching the corporate goings-on of our supermarkets as I am!) check out this page on SuperValu's site about their private-labeled products.
My blog is so widely read that I'm sure, once I point this out, that it will get edited, but look at how SuperValu describes Shopper's Value on their OWN site! First, they discuss their National Brand Equivalent house brands (the better-quality ones,) and then they get into Shopper's Value:
(Screenshot taken at 10:34pm, 7/26/10)
Entry Level Price Point - These Store Brand products provide customers with "good" quality products in a limited number of commodity items. Under the Shoppers Value label, these products give the price conscious customers a value alternative to the regional or local brands.
Um... has their copy editor actually studied punctuation? When you put quotes around something in this context, you're implying that the opposite is true.
So, in essence, they're actually acknowledging the low quality of the Shopper's Value line..!
As a former copy editor, this cracks me up to no end..! If you like this kind of humor, you might enjoy www.unnecessaryquotes.com too.
Is there another link to the SV site?
I can't get it when I click on the current link. Thanks, Jill! : )
Try again?
There was a space in the URL - try again?
This may need its own topic soon
Perhaps I should move some of this into a "What the heck is SuperValu thinking?" post at some point, but in this article about their decision to sell some Albertson's stores today, look at what a reader has posted in the comments:
Same thing that they're doing to Jewel.
We are not the only ones who see it
Here's a good article about what the analysts think of their strategy.
"Supervalu Inc.'s choice of profits over wooing more customers with low prices will hurt performance in future years, an analyst said Wednesday as he cut estimates on the national grocery chain.
..analyst Jonathan Feeney said the company's first-quarter results, released Tuesday, beat estimates and included higher gross margins because the company, which operates Albertsons, Jewel-Osco and other grocery chains, is choosing to sell more profitable items rather than entice shoppers with promotions and less expensive products
We think this strategy could be a slippery slope as long as the competitive environment remains tough and inflation nonexistent," he said.
Feeney said maintaining the guidance is "remarkable — bordering on breathtaking" and indicates the company plans to keep reducing promotions. Retailers are wooing shoppers with deals and other promotions to keep them spending."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5itVFdzfufpabqHCPjzz4mN...
We could have told them that weeks ago. Where the deals go...we go. My favorite part is reading between the lines on "bordering on breathtaking"...seems like code for "What IS this guy THINKING?" hee hee
shopping at Trader Joe's instead
Who owns Trader Joe's? I might have to start shopping there again instead of Jewel. It's expensive, but at least they aren't selling anything like fake cookies or cheese food. The employees are nice and happy. Their company gives a good retirement package, I hear.
cheese
Got my 5 real cheeses and $5.00 back cat. at Dominick's tonight. Thanks!
Aldi
Believe it or not, Aldi owns Trader Joe's.
Not quite. TJ is now owned by
Not quite. TJ is now owned by a family trust set up by one of the family members that started Aldi. Not quite the same as being owned by Aldi.
TJ's
Trader Joe's actually isn't expensive . . . I find it to be the opposite. They private label lots of their items so they can sell them for less because they don't have the name brand on them. I'm actually a big fan of Trader Joe's being vegetarian (with a vegan husband).
Yuck!
We wont even eat stuff like velveta or "cheese food". Isn't cheese food what you feed your pet cheese?
I know Jill isn't a big fan of Woodmans, but their cheese pricing and selection is just amazing. Ditto for Caputos.
For well over a decade we wouldn't buy anything at all from Kraft or Nabisco; even now it's not much. Kraft owns about 200 different brands in the grocery store.
Jewel, wake up and bring back all the President's Choice stuff you used to carry. They had a lot of really good items at bargain prices. And Jewel regularly had sales on the whole PC line, making them even better bargains.
And yes, I'm another man that does a most of the family grocery shopping, especially now that I'm the one not working again :-(
Woodman's Cheese
We buy most of our cheese at Woodman's. If you haven't tried the dill cheese "nuggets" I highly recommend them. :)
" cater to women"
UUHHMM excuse me here, I'm a man, and I do all the shopping in my home ( because I'm single) so why not cater to men too. How about catering to humans?? How about a fake paycheck to your "ideas" department, for really being just a horrible idea on this cheese, I saw it and almost vomitted. I would never buy this crap. Kind of like imitation crab meat, who r u kidding here. Does Jewel think that only women shop at their stores. WAKE UP JEWEL and start kissing some men's as*es, as some men are divorced with the kids, and they have to be the shopper. Start helping men out, and quit being discriminatory towards men. You must think that only men want frozen food and beer. Think again! Or in this case start thinking!! And you wonder why you are losing money. And I'm not even p&*%#$ off yet! Have an awesome day fellow couponers.
My 7 year old just saw the
My 7 year old just saw the photo--his comment-
"Fake cheese? Why?"
Because Jewel wants us to shop at Dominicks or even Aldi for cheese--Even Aldi has real shredded cheese for 1.79 every day.--sheesh --or rather Project SHEesh.
"Cater to Women" I am offended!
How offensive can this man be. Not to mention, what the heck is imitation cheese? After reading the rest of the comments, I will not be purchasing any of the SuperValue Brands. YUCK!
catered to women?!
lol...yeah because we like to fill our kids diet with everything imitation. no thanks!
DISGUSTING! - bad, bad Jewel, for shame!
That is just disgusting, disgusting. You know what 'fake' cheese is? It's plastic - a polymer.
Last week I bought Shopper's Value chocolate chip cookies. Kids will eat anything with chocolate in it pretty much. My kids thought they were disgusting. I tried one and totally agreed. Disgusting. We threw the whole package away. I should have taken them back to Jewel.
This customer also doesn't want FAKE food!
I called my Jewel this morning to complain about the Shopper's Value food (and to compliment them on their wonderful employees. They're pretty good there.)
Asked for the store manager and told him.
My husband bought the value
My husband bought the value cheese to make a homemade pizza (trying to save money). The cheese didn't melt and was horrible tasting. My kids who love pizza wouldn't even eat the pizza. I would pay extra for Kraft than that cheese. It ruined our meal!
OOPS
Accidentally bought imitation cheese once before and used it while cooking. After taking one bite, I thought that something terrible was in my meal, like I forgot to take the plastic wrap off before cooking. It was imitation cheese. I had to throw out our meal and run out for take-out. It was a waste of money and I think my taste buds have yet to forgive me!
Disgusting
Aldi's (I don't know if it's still made this way because this was years ago that I bought it) had cheese slices and I thought I could substitute it for Kraft American Cheese slices. That stuff was inedible, I think it was "imitation cheese" too since it certainly didn't taste like real cheese, vegetable oil was in the ingredients, yuck.
Gross.
I would not eat that! I would not even feel good donating that product.
what IS it?
I didn't even know there was such a thing. Yuck!
I had to look online to see what it is even made of, I am dying over here. Google it:
Imitation cheese relies on a combined of casein and vegetable oil that is used instead of milk solids. Imitation cheese tends to lack the same level of nutrition that is found with real cheese or even with substitute cheese.
Because there is a marked absence of dairy products within the formula for imitation cheese, the product has very little food value. The main advantages of imitation cheese have to do with the price and the shelf life. The low cost of the ingredients for imitation cheese help to make the finished product very affordable. Also, the lack of dairy product in the cheese also helps the product to last a very long time.
Casein
This wouldn't even work for my husband, who is on a dairy-free diet, because of the casein. So seriously...I'm not going to eat fake cheese...my husband can't eat this fake cheese...who is going to buy this??