There have been rumors swirling around Nashville that Publix has changed their competitor coupon usage policy here. I have a call into Dave Fulmer (District Manager for my area of Nashville) to verify this change and to find out the reason for the change. When a change like this occurs I always go straight to the top of the local organization to get the facts. When I speak with him I will also find out if this is a citywide change or if the policy will be at the discretion of management. The changes were supposed to take effect the middle of September.
This change may affect the quantity of competitor coupons that we can use per item and per transaction. I'll keep you posted.
No lamenting please.
This is just a game. The rules may change but the person with the most smarts at the end of the day still wins. We'll get a chance to see how adaptable you can be.
Don't forget that many of us were paying full retail less than a year ago. Let's keep it in perspective.
NOTE: Please post a comment here if you have had problems lately with using competitor Q's in Nashville. Please also post which store you were shopping at and the situation that occurred. And please keep it positive. I will delete and/or edit any responses that I feel do not aid our goal of have a great community on this website. I'm not interested in rants about your bad experience nor am I interested in posts that smack of "well this is my right to be able to use these coupons." Publix is a business and as such they have the right to change their rules as they see fit. We should have the brains to respond to these changes intelligently by communicating with their management about the situation and it's effect on us.
27 comments:
Interesting. Can't wait to hear. BTW, your pics crack me up!!! :)
I hope he gets back with you...curious to see what he says. :)
oh- out of curiosity, what stores have been saying this? I have shopped several stores in the last week and have used several competitor q's at each with no problems.
Melissa said....
One of my favorite Publix changed policy a few months ago, to limit the amount competitor coupons to $12 per day. The manager said he had to do something so he could still be able to accept comp. coupons. At the rate it was going I guess they were losing too much money.
I thought $12 per day was a pretty reasonable amount, and since we were given about a two-week notice of the change, I adapted just fine.
It's when I've been shopping at a store for months, following their coupon policies as I know them to be, only to reach the register and be told they had been changed, from one week to the next, without any kind of notice or even a note on the door as you walk in saying "Effective Immediately...."
Melissa, what store were you shopping at? Was it local to Nashville? I think the Manager at that store is a very good businessman. I like his solution.
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Brandy, there have been changes reported at Spring Hill and Nipper's corner. Many of my friends have encountered problems and have spoken with management and they are being told the same thing...."the policy has changed." They indicated that there was a corporate meeting (which bascially means a local meeting of the Nashville managers) and some decisions were made. I'm still waiting to hear back from Dave re: confirmation of the details and the change.
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EVERYONE, so far this change should only affect Nashville stores. This is a local meeting with local consequences. For now, if you are shopping in Nashville I would suggest that you try and use more than one competitor Q at your store and see what happens (just make sure you put those groceries towards the end of your transaction so that they can be easily removed if there is a problem).
I did not shop at Publix last week but in all previous weeks I have not had any problems using multiple competitor coupons. This was at the Franklin Publix (across from KMart). I will test it this weekend.
I've not encountered anything like that in my neck of the woods (Hermitage) yet. But I was pretty sure our old way of doing things wouldn't last too long, considering the growing number of couponers. - Carissa
I am NOT in Nashville, I am in Atlanta, but I have already heard this rumor and addressed it with both my store manager and district manager.
The story here (Lawrenceville/Atl suburb) is that the most coupon friendly stores are losing too much money and have tracked it back to the overuse of competitor coupons. BUT at the same time, these coupon friendly stores are tracking in an exponential number of sales with other non-competitor coupon usage (Publix and MF) compared to other Publix stores in the immediate area who do not allow competitor coupons. So they are at a point where they have met and left it up to the local stores to decide what to do to curb losses, while still trying to keep up the high coupon usage rate.
I chatted with one store manager who said his way was to allow only one competitor coupon per kind of item per transaction. He said some people were coming in using 10-20 of the same coupon, ie. a Target coupon for a brand of cat food, in the same transaction. So they wont allow that anymore. But there is no limit to the total number of competitor coupons of different kinds/products in each transaction. This is the policy at just this one store. a
To note, the other store manager did not call me back. These two stores are only a couple miles apart, so I think its interesting to find out some of the behind the scene things that influence their decisions. One has a better coupon policy which equals higher # product sales, more customers, but less profit vs the other store which accepts only 1 competitors coupons, less actual sales, but more profit.
Personally I have adapted just fine. I never felt it was fair to bring in more than one or two competitor coupons of the same kind anyway, so it didnt affect me much.
Sorry if this is so long! Just wanted to make it thorough so it would all make sense :)
I shop at Spring Hill and had to spend 20 mins at customer service last night where all of my coupons were sorted through and read by one of the managers. I was told that Publix coupons are considered competitor coupons and that they can only take one per transaction and I can't use them w/ another competitor coupon. This seems crazy to me that they would consider their own coupon a competitor coupon! Is that right?
No, Kelly, I'm in NW Georgia. It's the Publix in Villa Rica.
I have shopped at Maryland Farms, Hermitage, and Hendersonville stores this week, and used several comp Q's at all of them. The only 'issue' I have had was at the Hendersonville store where they did not accept a Target Q, but this is not unique to this particular store. Overall, I was thrilled with my shops this week!
In Smyrna TN you are not allowed to use a competitor's q and a store q with a manu.q. So-manu q and competitor's OR store q.
I shop at the Spring Hill store. I was told a couple of weeks ago there were only allowing one competitor coupon of a kind per shop. The cashier and customer service said this was due to someone using 90 FLIPs for the planters' trail mix. I have made a few small shops since then and have only used one competitor coupon for each of those shops so I'm unsure if the policy is still in effect. At my last shop, the cashier apologized when she took my coupons and said it would take her awhile that the coupon policy had changed and she was now required to read each coupon. However, I had my coupons organized and she was very capable - I did not notice it taking any longer than usual.
I shopped at Concord store tonight and didn't have any problems using multiple competitor coupons. The cashier did seem to be reading my coupons more carefully but no troubles at all at checkout.
Also found a new moneymaker for the week. The Covergirl mascaras are on sale 40% off this week. I bought the professional all-in-one mascara (blue) for $2.39 and then used the $1/1 Q and the $2/1 Publix Q for FREE+ $.61 in overage.
Karla thanks for your comment. There are actually many reasons that Spring Hill is changing their policy (and the story about the lady that used the planter's coupons keeps getting more and more exaggerated everytime I hear it). LOL.
All that to say, it doesn't bother me that someone tried to use that many competitor coupons; that's a personal choice and involves individual ethics. What bothers me is how upset people are by the choice that this woman made. People are ignorant and they get upset when other people make choices but they don't always understand that there are multiple reasons that a store makes a decision and sometimes it just takes a catalyst for that decision to be made. I believe that Spring Hill was just looking for a reason to curb their policy. That's my personal conclusion though as I'm still waiting to hear back from the District Manager (who must be very busy dealing with the results of the decision that was made).
Publix is a business and they have the right to do whatever they please; we just need to work hard to communicate with our stores regarding the effects that their changes will have on us and we need to do it in an intelligent manner.
So far it seems as though Spring Hill has taken steps to limit the use of their competitor coupons and quantity limits. I'm not sure if this change is going to affect all of the stores.
In the meantime, I suggest if any of you are shopping at other stores that you continue to coupon business as usual. I shopped tonight and put the items that I had multiple competitor coupons for at the end of my transaction just in case I had any problems so that the cashier could take them off from the last bag of groceries.
Karla, nice pic BTW. :)
I shopped at the Concord Rd. store yesterday with no problems. I did not have that many competitor coupons though. Just a $/$$ and 2 Target Eggo coupons; the rest of my Q's were MQ and Publix Q's.
I shopped at the Maryland Farms location in Brentwood, TN yesterday. It seemed to be business as usual. Checked with the CS rep first and had no problem at the register. Rai
Rai, did you use multiple competitor coupons in one transaction for the same item?
Yes, I used 3 MQ and 3 Target coupons for free Purina One cat food! I'll let you all know if any thing comes up. I usually shop at the Cool Springs location or Maryland Farms.
I shop at the Publix in McKays Mill. The manager told me they only accept HG Hills and Food Lion coupons, not Target or GFS.
I spoke with Eric today (manager at Maryland Farms). He informed me that their policy is not going to change. They still allow multiple competitor coupons (within reason) at their store. They may limit the B1G1 items as they have had problems running out of stock. I assured him that this would not be a problem since he indicated that we could get a raincheck for the remaining items that we were unable to purchase the day that we were in the store.
He is a super nice guy and an amazing listener and a good businessman. I was so thankful to get a chance to talk with him today.
I also addressed the issue that I was having with the new customer service guy (Jim). He informed me that he had spoken with Jim and that we shouldn't have any problems in the future.
I think that I am going to do something really nice for the staff at this store (maybe gift certificates for the folks that are always so helpful).
I also think that I am going to write to Dave Fulmer (District Manager) to tell him how great this store is now towards couponers. This used to be one of the worst stores in the area for couponers and it has turned into one of the best stores to shop at.
I told you Eric was great. I was planning on making cookies for them or something. I hadn't decided yet.
I did finally hear back from Dave Fulmer yesterday. He indicated that he was unaware of a corporate meeting that was held re: the use of competitor coupons. Sounds like it was a local meeting with some of the managers but I'm still not sure what happened.
All that to say, he told me that there is no "official" change that has taken place. He also told me that the coupon policies for each individual store are still set by the manager for that store.
I was a little distracted when he called (making lunch for my little ones) so I wasn't able to get much clarification about what happened at the local meeting, however, I did have a great conversation with him about couponing.
I told him that it would help if the managers posted their new policies at the register a month in advance so that we could get used to the new policies. I explained to him that it is very difficult for couponers as a group to keep up with the changes everytime a new manager takes over a store and decides to change things.
He is a great District Manager and I appreciate the relationship that we have. I know that he is a busy man so I will save future phone calls for major issues like the one that we were facing a few weeks ago.
He did tell me that he heard about the local blog that was calling people names (i.e. trail mix hussies) and that he didn't think that they should be doing that as he did not think that was professional. He brought it up during our conversation and I was glad that he viewed that with as much disdain as I do. He doesn't view his customers this way.
On another note...I shopped at Concord tonight and didn't have any problems although they did inform me that they are no longer taking GFS coupons ($/$$).
I shopped at Concord on Friday & they took my GFS coupon. I went there today & they wouldn't take them. :( When I questioned it, they told me they've "never" accepted them (um...not true). I questioned the cashier & CS rep. They asked Phil & he said they're not accepting them.
Does anybody have any insight on this change? Is it only NC & MF that take the $/$$ coupons?
I stopped by customer service before shopping this week at the Spring Hill store to ask about how many Publix coupons for a specific item I could use. I was told I could use two. She told me if I had any problem at the register to give her name. The cashier did question it and asked if I minded if she checked. No problem, the lady bagging my groceries came back and verified it was o.k.
I am sharing this for those who shop at the Spring Hill store. It might be worthwhile to check at customer service before you shop. You may be able to use more than one competitor/Publix coupon depending on who is working when you shop.
Jennifer, Concord still takes the $/$$ they just won't take the GFS coupon any longer. I used an HG Hill $/$$ coupon last night without any problems (they wouldn't take my GFS either).
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