Jill Cataldo

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."

NEW OFFERS ACTIVE 3/24! Log back in to add them to your card!

If you shop at Jewel, here's a new Catalina promotion you'll want to know about! It's called YourBucks, and it's kind of a combination of electronic coupon offers and on-your-next-order (cash) Catalinas. Head over to tv.catalinamarketing.com and register your Jewel Preferred Card number for a series of single-product Catalinas that will be loaded to your card. This program began 2/10/10, and runs through 5/4/10.

New offers are scheduled throughout the program! The following offers are now active. When I buy any of these products, they will generate a Catalina in the dollar amount shown:

Offers good through 5/4/10:

Any 1 (One) or more all® laundry detergent 32 load of larger $1.25
Any 1 (One) or more Bags of Tyson® Frozen Breaded Chicken $2.00
Any 2 (Two) or more Mountain Dew 2lt $1.00
Any 2 (Two) or more Bertolli Sauce 24oz or larger $1.50
Any 2 (Two) or more of French's Mustard $1.00
Any 1 (One) or more FINISH® QUANTUM® Automatic Dishwasher Detergent $1.50
Any 2 (Two) or more Chips Ahoy 10 oz or larger $2.00
Any 2 (Two) or more HEALTHY ONES™ Lunch Meat $1.00
Any 1 (One) or more Welch's® 100% Grape Juice 64oz $1.00
Any 1 (One) or more FINISH® JET-DRY® Rinse Agent 8.45 oz or larger $1.25
Any 1 (One) or more Jewel Premium Bacon 16 oz. $1.00
Any 2 (Two) or more ECKRICH® Smoked Sausage $1.00
Any 2 (Two) or more New Pieces candies 10oz bag or larger $1.00
Any 2 (Two) or more Palmolive® Dish Liquid 20 fl oz or larger $0.75
Any 1 (One) or more Maxwell House Coffee - 8 oz or larger $1.50
Any 2 (Two) or more Jewel Sugar 4 lb. $1.00

Is your head spinning yet? Jewel shows shoppers their love once again by offering shoppers not one, not two, not even three, and no, not four either... but FIVE simultaneous high-value Catalina deals running at once! Since we have so many promotions going at the same time, I'm going to outline these for you here with names, dates, and values:

General Mills "Spend $20, get $7" - running through 3/3/10
Notes: Double-dips with Catalina deals on Fiber One bars and BC Fruit Snacks
Discussion of this deal

C.H.I.L.L. Out And Save "Buy 10, get $10" - running through 3/24
Notes: Double-dips with YourBucks deals on Hot/Lean Pockets through entire sale
Discussion of this deal

ConAgra / Georgia Pacific / Snapple "Spend $25, get $10" beginning 3/4 and running through 3/10
Notes: Scheduled to hit the ad this coming Thursday ... and a huge, high-value Catalina deal on ConAgra. One of our BEST seasonal sales for shopping big and stocking up!
Discussion of this deal

P&G / Kraft "Spend $30, get $10" beginning 3/3 and running through 3/10
Notes: Also hasn't started yet, but wanted to give you a heads-up... also has GREAT potential for big stockups (remember how much cheap Kraft cheese we took home during the last big one?)
Discussion of this deal

YourBucks Catalina deals (ongoing) through 5/4
Notes: Currently in second round of offers - MANY products totally free after YourBucks! EVERYONE should be doing this deal. (I giggled when I was at Meijer this week, and my Meijer cashier almost hugged me over the counter because she was having so much fun with YourBucks... at Jewel!)
Discussion of this deal

The annual Jewel freezer deal is this weekend, 2/7 and 2/8! For those of you who've been looking to add a second freezer to your home (the best way to stockpile and save on meats and frozen foods) you won't want to miss this!

For $149.99, you get a 5.2 cubic foot Igloo chest freezer AND $150 worth of free frozen food coupons! It's like buying the food and getting the freezer free, or vice versa. This really is the best, most inexpensive way to get a chest freezer! Now, if you've taken my Super-Couponing class, you know the best way to use these coupons... Do NOT be in a hurry to redeem them right away.

Keep your eyes open for these new $39 Value Your Heart coupon books at Jewel! They're free and can be found in a large, stand-up cardboard display in the store (I found it near the produce/cereal area.)

The book contains the following manufacturer coupons, all expiring 2/28/10-4/30/10:

$1 off 2 Dasani 12 packs
$1 off 2 Diet Coke 12 packs
$1 off 2 Nestea .5liter 12 packs
$1 off 12 cups Yoplait Light or Thick & Creamy Light
$1 off 2 Welch's 64 oz 100% Grape or grape juice blends
$1 off 2 Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers