Jill Cataldo

Get ready to stock up for big-game snacks for the weekend... reader SusieQs2 spotted an awesome deal on pizza and ice cream!

UPDATE: Through 2/5, the price of the DiGiorno pizzas at Dominick's is $3.99. You can do the deal as written below and pay just a dollar more than it was on Thursday, when the pizzas were $3.49!

2/2, Dominick's is having a sale on DiGiorno pizzas. 14-32oz. pizzas are on sale for $3.49 each, limit 2. The 1/29 RP insert (It's the insert with the dog on the cover) has a $2-off-2 coupon for DiGiorno pizzas. So, buy two, and with coupon, you'll pay $4.98 for TWO pizzas, or $2.49 each!

Now, if you have your new Jewel ad, which came out yesterday, flip to the middle... and you'll see a manufacturer coupon for FREE 48oz. Edy's Ice Cream when you buy two DiGiorno pizzas! Clip this and bring it along, and for $4.98, you'll get TWO pizzas and free ice cream!

Reader Outlander writes that there are also peelie coupons on Miller Lite beer for $5 off 2 DiGiorno pizzas when you buy Miller Lite. If you're buying the beer anyway ($12.77) use this coupon instead, and you'll pay $1.98 for two pizzas, or .99 each! (And again, don't forget to work the Edy's coupon into that deal too for free ice cream!) 1:00pm UPDATE to beer deal: If you're doing this deal WITH beer, it's actually cheaper to do it at Jewel instead. Click here to see why.

UPDATE: GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED! The winner is Firegod97!

Hey, Super-Couponers... it's time for another great giveaway! Dominick's shoppers, would you like to win a $50 Dominick's gift card?

Dominick's has launched a new free mobile shopping app for the iPhone. It allows you to build your shopping list, view your store's weekly ad, and load and view your Just for U ecoupons from your phone. You can download the app from the iTunes store at this link. As an added bonus, the first 100,000 people to download the Dominick's app will also receive a free Ragu pasta sauce! (Offer valid through 12/15/11.)

To celebrate the launch of the Dominick's app, I've got a $50 Dominick's gift card to give away to one lucky reader! To enter, simply post a reply in the comments under this article that includes your thoughts on the app! (You don't have to own an iPhone to comment or enter.) Do you like the idea of a Dominick's app? Will you use it or not? Share your thoughts for a chance to win! This Dominick's $50 gift card giveaway begins today, November 10th, 2011, and runs for one week. The giveaway will end on November 16th at 11:59pm CST, and on November 17th, one winner will be chosen via a random number generator!

(I'd like to clarify that this shouldn't have been funny. But in light of Dominick's past issues with having expired food on the shelves... it was.)

Last week, Doritos were pretty cheap at Dominick's with an e-coupon. With the cost of some chips and snacks lately, any price break is welcome, so I picked up a few bags. When I bought the Doritos, I noticed that in addition to the usual Doritos flavors like Cool Ranch and Nacho Cheese, Dominick's had a display of original-flavor Taco Doritos with the 1960s-era Doritos logo and packaging.

I am a big sucker for anything retro, so I grabbed a bag of Taco in addition to my other (modern) Doritos flavors.

My daughter went down to the pantry to bring up some snacks for today's football and race-watching. When she came back to the kitchen, Taco Doritos in hand, the expression on her face was priceless. She held up the bag and said:

"You bought these at Dominick's, right?"

"Yes."

"How old are they?"

Reader Phyllis sent over a screenshot of an "incredible" deal on Laughing Cow Baby Bell Cheese from her Dominick's Just For U, which added new ecoupons for personalized deals today:

She writes, "The worst part is I actually added it. I aimlessly clicked the deal before fully reading it. Oh well - I'll have to avoid that item."

UPDATE: I checked my own Just For U deals too, and I've got a stellar price on pork chops!

But that's not all...

I'm sure my regular audience is ready to get back to the usual fare on my blog - lively discussion of the best grocery sales and coupon deals in Chicagoland. I am too.

However, I received a lengthy, richly detailed email from a former Safeway manager in another state explaining what it's like to run a supermarket under Safeway's tight budget and time constraints. He has graciously allowed me to share portions of his email with my audience.

As you read this eye-opening mail, you will understand that the expired food issue is an enormous one, not only at Dominick's but at other Safeway-owned stores around the country. And, to anyone who (incorrectly) felt that I was attacking Dominick's employees or trying to somehow cause people's jobs to be in jeopardy, that is not the case. His email will shed some light on how large a problem that the expired food is with Safeway. With the way the stores are currently structured, there is little, and in most cases, no time at all, devoted to stock rotation -- causing products to sit on shelves for years at a time.

Here are some excerpts:

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First of all, Safeway is in a panic mode here over your website. Knowing them like I do, I am sure this is a panic situation throughout the entire Company. Safeway is so worried, they have recruited as many employees as possible on overtime pay, time and a half, to work the last couple of overnight shifts to check and pull dates in all the stores. Keep in mind overtime is usually the subject of disciplinary action against the store manager.

If you have time to go to any Dominick's stores today, you will probably see lots of empty holes in the aisles where out of date product has been pulled but not restocked yet.

So why the problem with code dates?

Not long ago, one of my blog readers wrote to tell me about some frozen meatballs she purchased at Dominick's. She made them for her family, but when they sat down and began eating, everyone commented on how terrible they tasted -- "like plastic." They didn't finish their dinner, and she scoured the bag for an expiration date. Finding none, she called the manufacturer the next day. After reading a production code stamped into the bag, the manufacturer informed her that the meatballs had expired in 2007, and they "absolutely should not have been eaten" past that date.

While there are no laws in Illinois against selling expired food (unless it is baby formula or baby food,) the fact is that expired food at Dominick's is a rampant problem throughout many of their suburban stores. Nearly every day I read and hear stories of people buying expired products at Dominick's because they forgot to check the dates. I, and many other Dominick's shoppers, have been patiently trying to bring this issue to Dominick's corporate's attention for over a year. But after this reader shared her story with me, I couldn't stop thinking what might have happened to her if she or her family had gotten severely sick from eating meat that expired four years ago.

(If you haven't already, please read Part One of this story, in which we found 425 expired food products at one Dominick's location.)

After finding 425 expired products on the shelves at the Carpentersville Dominick's location on February 10th, I wanted to see if we would find a similar situation at a different Dominick's store. On February 15th, I joined the same two blog readers who I had accompanied on our previous trip, this time at the Lake in the Hills Dominick's location (101 North Randall Road, Lake in the Hills, IL.)

For this trip, we decided to set a one-hour limit to walk some of the aisles and look for expired groceries and food on the shelves. We took a much quicker approach, moving through the store at a fair pace, not looking at every single thing -- this time focusing mainly on products with expired date codes visible from the front of the shelf. I really wanted to determine whether or not this problem was limited to one Dominick's location.

What a difference a day makes.

(If you haven't already, please read Part One of this story, in which we found 425 expired food products at one Dominick's location and Part Two of this story, in which we found 336 at another.)

After Chicago's CBS News, WGN Radio, WGN News and the Chicago Tribune all reported on this story yesterday, I received a great deal of email from shoppers witnessing some changes at their local Dominick's stores. Numerous reports of stores dispatching employees to the aisles and loading shopping carts with expired products popped up on CBS's website, local coupon blogs, messageboards and forums. Shoppers who thought it was "only my store" rapidly began sharing stories with each other of mistakenly buying expired food, as all around Chicagoland, Dominick's stores were clearing their shelves of expired products. Surprise -- this wasn't a problem limited to one or two stores, which shoppers already knew all too well, but Dominick's corporate may or may not have:

There are probably a few skeptics who will think I planned this, but I assure you that I did not.

It is, however, perhaps the most fitting end to my Dominick's expired food saga.

On Tuesday evening, when we visited the Lake in the Hills Dominicks and found another 336 expired products on the shelves, I was also doing some shopping for my family. I bought three cartons of O Organics Milk, two cartons of Minute Maid orange juice (all of which I checked dates on to make sure they were unexpired) and 3 pounds of Fuji apples.

As we were leaving the store, I remembered that I had an ecoupon loaded to my card for FREE Foster Farms Great Bites chicken sandwiches with a $15 Dominick's purchase.

The Chicago Tribune just posted a story about the Dominick's expired food situation on their site. Look for it in tomorrow's paper:

Dominick's has upset a contingent of consumers over selling packaged food with expired dates.

The supermarket chain's fan page on social networking site Facebook has been riddled with comments from posters who identify themselves as customers — angry that some stores had food with expired "best if used by," "sell by" or "use by" dates.