Jill Cataldo

Look at what showed up in my email today... a notice of NEW Avenu ecoupon offers at Jewel!

Check your Avenu ecoupons, as you may find:

$2.50 off P. F. Chang's Home Menu Meals (22oz.)
- Stack with $2 coupon from 9/12 RP

$2 off Breyer's Smooth & Dreamy Ice Cream (1.5qt. or 6-pack)
- No manufacturer coupons currently, but cross your fingers for a B1G1F sale!

$2 off Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers (6.95-7.95oz.)
- $1 off - 10/24 SS

$2 off Dove Men's Body Wash (8.2-25.5oz.)
- Stack with $1 coupon from 10/3 RP

Now... to check prices on these at the store... and watch the sales!

Yes, you read that right! After spending some time in the city today working on another coupon-related project, I walked into the Lakeview-area Jewel-Osco, located at 3630 N. Southport in Chicago, just a few blocks from Wrigley Field. And, seven days into one of the most fun "Spend $25, Get $10" General Mills Catalina sales of the year, stores from downtown to downstate have long been wiped clean of this sale's hottest movers (Grands, MultiGrain Cheerios, Totino's, Sweet Moments, Progresso, Betty Crocker cake mixes, brownies, frosting, and others I'm sure you can name.) Many stores have told me the warehouse has been drained of these items, and there was really no chance in finding ANY of them on the shelves today... the last day of the sale.

And yet, when I walked into the store, I saw... a freezer case FILLED with Pizza Rolls!

This crazy sale is definitely an exception to shopping just once a week..! Jewel's General Mills $25/$10 Catalina sale is in full swing. Here's my youngest in the midst of "unpacking."

Nine rounds later... Grand total out of pocket, including tax: $13.08.

While everyone's busy saving stickers to earn a free pot or pan with the current Jewel cookware promo, here's your chance to win an entire eight-piece SET of it! Jewel-Osco's launched a "Cookware Intervention" contest with a challenge (or a dare!) to their shoppers... show off your WORST piece of cookware, and in 50 words, describe the offending pot or pan and the results you get cooking with it.

The contest begins September 23rd, and runs through October 20th! Visit Jewel's Cookware Intervention page to submit your story and photo! Feel free to be creative, serious, irreverent or fun with your entry, as FIVE people will be chosen to receive new, eight-piece sets of Thomas Professional Cookware based on the stories and photos submitted.

And... a fun little aside... one of the judges your cookware contest entry will have to impress is yours truly :) I can't wait to judge the crazy entries we'll receive over the next month!

Last week, Jewel-Osco hosted their first-ever invitation-only blogger event. It took place at the Jewel-Osco on DesPlaines in Chicago, which truly is the most beautiful Jewel store I’ve ever seen. Nestled in the Fulton River District, this is Jewel’s “green store,” their first to receive LEED certification for a green, energy-conscious building. And it’s unlike any other Jewel-Osco in our area – the décor is very upscale in feel and theme, with warm wood tones and great use of color throughout the building. The building was constructed with many environmentally-friendly features, including a green roof... literally green, as there's grass growing on top!

This Jewel is an impressive shopping destination, to say the least. The theme of the event was “Back to Routine,” and Chicagoland bloggers were taken throughout the store, department by department, to speak with representatives from corporate. Jewel’s on-staff nutritionist and dietitian, the chef for the CK Grill, and many other department heads, sales managers and marketing representatives were also on hand.

As we traveled through the store, there were lots of foods to taste and enjoy. Each department had a sampling station set up for us as we moved through the store – fresh fruit and vegetable trays in produce, cupcakes and white-chocolate popcorn snack mix from bakery, tortilla soup and organic Tex-Mex mac and cheese at the CK Grill (a fresh, while-you-wait kitchen where a chef prepares hot meals on the spot), wines, cheeses and bruschetta in the liquor department, and so on. And, in each area, attendees enjoyed a short presentation and question-and-answer session with staff members who enthusiastically educated us on some lesser-known Jewel facts along the way.

While I spend time every single week in one Jewel-Osco or another, I was surprised to learn a few things that I didn’t already know. Here are a few things you may not know about Jewel:

Tomorrow, Jewel kicks off their "Professional Cookware for a Penny" promo. There's been lots of talk about this on the boards, with many people speculating how much one would need to spend to collect the set of pots and pans. I attended a bloggers' event in Chicago sponsored by Jewel yesterday (which I'll post more about soon!) but the pots and pans promo was explained to all of the Chicagoland bloggers in attendance.

The deal is this: Starting 8/26/10 through 1/12/11, you'll receive a sticker for every $10 you spend (PRE-COUPON) at Jewel. (Purchases will also not be rounded up - a $29.99 total at the register will earn you 2 stickers, but a $30.01 purchase will earn you three.)

Save the stickers in a card that you can pick up at the customer service counter. When you collect enough stickers for a pan, you turn them in and buy that pan for a penny. If you fill the card halfway, you can buy a pan at a reduced price.

It is in no way my intention to complain about, slam, or otherwise present Jewel-Osco or any of its staff in a negative light. I've publicly stated hundreds of times that Jewel is my favorite Chicagoland shopping destination. However, the amount of press their parent company, SuperValu, has received lately regarding their decisions for Jewel-Osco's future has left me and many of my readers wondering what's going on with one of our favorite places to shop. We have had numerous concurrent discussions running in the blog forum over the past few weeks about shoppers' unhappiness with some of SuperValu's changes being implemented at Jewel, with readers asking what's going on and why. Special thanks to all of my readers who sent articles and links that contributed to this post.

Overview

Craig Herkert is the CEO of SuperValu. He joined SuperValu in 2009 after leaving a CEO position at Wal-Mart. When he took over, both trade publications and coupon boards buzzed with speculation and fears that Mr. Herkert would ultimately try to "Wal-Mart-ize" its SuperValu-owned supermarkets, moving away from a "high/low" pricing structure to an "everyday low price" model, with more house-branded products to maximize profits. (Yes, this is probably something the average, rest-of-the-world Jewel shopper neither researches nor worries about, but couponers are a much different breed!) And, over the past few months, those of us who have long been loyal Jewel customers have seen signs that the direction Mr. Herkert's taking Jewel in may be negatively affecting its shoppers.

Last fall, Mr. Herkert announced plans to open 1,200 new Save-A-Lot stores nationally over the next five years [link]. My readers may be unfamiliar with Save-A-Lot, but it's comparable to Aldi, offering mostly house brands, very few national brands, and a stripped-down product offering. Again, shoppers on blogs and messageboards around the country wondered if this "many house brands" strategy would, over time, carry over to the SuperValu-owned supermarkets too -- including Jewel.

In February, Retail Industry News reported that "The news over the weekend ended months of speculation about Supervalu’s plans for various divisions now that its new CEO, Craig Herkert, has made clear that he believes the Save-A-Lot business model - stressing reduced SKUs and a strong value proposition - is the company’s retailing future." [link] And shoppers knew changes were to come.

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?

In my travels, I spotted two signs that I thought were worth sharing with you guys.

The first: "Jewel-Osco extends a very warm welcome to all Dominick's customers"

And the second, spotted as I ran into Deals to pick up a $1 Tribune (and get a head start on writing up Monday's sales for you...)

"Deals now accepting manufacturer coupons"

Nice, as not all "dollar stores" do.

Here's an article everyone should read, as it concerns not only Jewel shoppers but supermarket shopping trends in general:

Jewel thins out selection as grocery competition from Wal-Mart intensifies

Excerpts:

Chicago's largest grocer is testing a new store format in Bolingbrook that cuts out 15% to 25% of products. Jewel says it plans to take the Bolingbrook design to more stores under a mandate from parent company Supervalu Inc. to reduce clutter, cut costs and make room for more of its own brands.

But Jewel, which has long prided itself on offering a wide selection, risks alienating shoppers by removing their favorite brands. Wal-Mart and Deerfield-based Walgreen Co. pursued similar initiatives this year. Both chains have said they had to restock some items when customers went elsewhere...

Craig Herkert, a former Wal-Mart executive who took over as Minnesota-based Supervalu's CEO last year, told investors in April that scaling back inventory is a central component of a new growth strategy dubbed "Project SHE, which stands for Simplify Her Experience."