Safeway ‘Just For U’ Not For Everyone
When it comes to national brands and promotions, Hawaii residents usually get the short end of the stick. Just check the fine print of most TV commercials — “Prices higher in Hawaii and Puerto Rico,” goes the standard disclaimer. (Heck, the fact that we’re finally getting a Bath & Body Works store was headline news.) So if anything, it’s at least notable that national grocery chain Safeway has chosen Hawaii as one of the first markets (behind South Dakota?) to try “Just For U,” a new “personalized savings” program that adds an online component to its Safeway Club Card loyalty program.
I was among a number of bloggers invited to review the “Just For U” program — see reviews by Donna, Nat, Paula, Kailani, and Liza — but took forever to actually try it… largely because I try to avoid supermarket grocery shopping. (It’s nothing personal, but our bustling household lives off Costco bulk shopping and a giant freezer.) And now that I’ve made my first “Just For U” shopping trip, I don’t know if I’ll make another one.
The program requires time and patience, and could use a few tweaks. But for Safeway regulars who are web savvy and regular coupon clippers, the savings could be worth the effort.
And if you take the effort to comment on this post by Wednesday, Aug. 4, you could win one of two $50 Safeway gift cards, courtesy Safeway and DEI Worldwide, its social media marketing partner.*
A Penny for Your Personal Information?
Grocery shopping lists are probably among the most personal data sets out there. Your supermarket knows when you’re trying to avoid getting pregnant, when you think you might be pregnant, when you’re expecting, and when you have a baby. Your receipts reveal when you’ve got a cold, when you’ve got indigestion, and when you’re constipated. And supermarkets know how valuable this information is.
A “loyalty card” helps them build a detailed profile of individual shoppers, as well as track the buying habits of a neighborhood, a city, a whole region. Of course they’ll give you discounts on hundreds of items. It’s a small price to pay for the information they get in return. And to be sure, lots of people oppose this form of data collection.
Me? I have no problem with it. Then again, I’ve been pretty liberal with my personal information since discovering the web and starting an online journal over 15 years ago. I make regular use of Google and Facebook and other “free” online services, and I know that I’m getting those services in exchange for letting them analyze me and show me ads.
So one reason “Just For U” piqued my interest was because, in theory, it would allow me to more directly benefit from the information I’d already been giving Safeway over the years. They still win, of course, since I’d just be buying more groceries. But the “Just For U” program lifts the curtain a bit to see what Safeway’s algorithms think I want. And if the system is right, and throws in a few more cents off? I’ll take it.
Or at least, I’d like to.
How It Works (In Theory)
To start using “Just For U,” you set up an account with an e-mail address and register your Club Card on the Safeway website. No card? No problem. I haven’t carried my Club Card for years, using only a phone number at the register. (Heck, the phone number on my card is from six years ago. I sure hope the person who has the number now doesn’t shop at Safeway.) You don’t even need a computer, as Safeway says you can use a computer and printer at the store’s Customer Service desk.
Once set up, you get access to a Coupon Center, Personalized Deals, and Your Club Specials. The Coupon Center just seems  to be a co-brand of Coupons.com. The other two sections are where the magic is supposed to happen. “Personalized Deals” are based on your purchase history, and should be different for every user. And “Your Club Specials” are items that you’ve purchased that are also Club Card specials at “the store where you do most of your shopping.”
The first deal you see? One dozen eggs, free, just for signing up. Some deals are one-time only, and some are unlimited within a time period. As your browse each section, you click “add” to “load” deals onto your Club Card. Although the “Personalized Deals” are the marquee feature, I found the “Your Club Specials” section to be the most interesting. Or, at least, the most clearly tied to my purchase history. I ended up adding more items from that section, as that section had items I’d buy at Safeway anyway.
Once you’ve added the deals you want, you can print out or email yourself a shopping list. And within 30 minutes, Safeway says, your card (or phone number) will get you the discounts at the store. With my shopping list loaded up on my iPhone, I headed out.
How It Works (In Practice)
Much as we love Costco, buying perishables there can be hit-or-miss, so neighborhood supermarkets still play a part in stocking our fridge and pantry. And while Safeway is the furthest of the supermarkets from where I live in Mililani, we do make the trip now and then for specific items. Which is to say, most of the time, I’m in and out of Safeway in five minutes, tops.
As a result, shopping with a “Just For U” list took a lot longer than I expected. Part of it was being a poorly skilled shopper, of course, but it occurred to me that the program also meant most shoppers would have to carry two shopping lists instead of one. The website could make itself considerably more useful if they would allow users to type in their own items, even if they don’t come with discounts. Heck, a free-text field could still net some pretty interesting data for Safeway’s marketing gurus.
But today, at least, my shopping trip was driven by my personalized offers, and not by what I actually needed (which is certainly a good thing for Safeway if it happens for other shoppers). Following my emailed shopping list, I wandered the store, hunting down my deals.
I didn’t do very well.
The free dozen large eggs featured on the site (and in every print ad) for “Just For U”? Not in stock. Another woman who caught me frowning at the empty shelves sighed, “Those are always sold out.” Now, free eggs are a great incentive, but they become a disincentive when shoppers can’t get them. I’d suggest Safeway drop its next full-page newspaper ad and buy an extra Matson container of eggs instead.
The half gallon of store-brand Lucerne milk for $2.29? Also sold out, in every eligible variety. Had this been a regular shopping trip, I probably would’ve just grabbbed a more expensive brand. Perhaps that’s the point?
Next up, Barilla pasta for 96 cents. My shopping list said, “12-16oz, Selected Varieties.” And as I stood before the pasta shelf and its many, many varieties, I wondered exactly which ones were “selected.” Since we needed some rotini, I grabbed a 1-lb. box, and hoped for the best.
Suddenly, my wife called. Could I get some Yoplait yogurt? The ones she just bought at Safeway last week were almost a month expired. “Sure,” I said, promising to check the expiration dates. I remembered that one of the “Just for U” deals were for Yoplait yogurt, so I launched my web browser on my iPhone to “add” it to my cart.
Ian Lind had been stymied by the “mobile version” of the Safeway website (which detected his iPhone and sent him to a largely useless, stripped-down version), so I went straight to the “Just For U” login page. For a moment, I was happy to discover that I could log in into the system… but once inside, I still couldn’t see or do anything. I don’t know if it was a Flash issue or just a bug (all I saw was glowing copy about printing coupons with Coupons.com), but I was miffed to find that “Just For U” was something I could only really use at home.
I did have better luck with the rest of my “Just For U” list. A box of eight Nestle Drumsticks for $6.49 and a package of Nabisco Chips Ahoy for $3.14 (both said to be at a “Personalized Price”), and a few bags of C&W petite frozen vegetables for $2.99 (a “Club Price”). I struggled a bit to double-check the item names and package sizes, but this is a hassle scissors-wielding coupon shoppers already know well. I then headed for the register, punched in my phone number, and waited for my receipt.
Success. I did get every item on my “Just For U” list for the advertised price (so I did pick a “selected” variety of pasta). The total savings for my trip? A little over $3.
Time Is Money
If I were a coupon clipper, I’d probably be impressed. And whenever I do shop at Safeway, I do enjoy seeing my total Club Card savings, even without the “Just For U” boost. But I couldn’t help but think that the time and energy I spent choosing and “adding” my discounts, then hunting them down in the store, was worth way more than $3.
The geek in me liked the technology, the personalization, and the “shopping list” builder. I hope mobile support is coming, as well as a way to add non-specials to your list. But the transition from the virtual store to the real one was pretty rough. (Ian had a similar experience.) For all the information Safeway already has on me, the basic Club Card discounts are enough. I think it would take some pretty generous discounts — more than a few cents off, if not free eggs — to motivate me to use “Just For U” regularly.
* Safeway offered bloggers one gift card to give away, and one card for their review, but why not double the prizes? As with my Plantronics BlueTooth Headsets, I’m obviously not great with “sponsored reviews.”
I’m still testing this program out myself. I agree with you about spending time just to add things to my card. For the length of time that I have been part of the program, I probably only logged into the site twice. I still don’t understand what the advantage of this would be versus what they currently have going. That is to have things on sale, swipe the card, get the savings. The only part that intrigues me is where you get additional savings for products that you buy frequently. I’m waiting for that to kick in to see if its significant.
sweet! I’ll comment. Safeway isn’t as close as it used to be, but I still make a stop in there once a week to check out their deals. I’m interested in trying the program… And of course, It would be super cool if I won a gift card. =)
Oh makes even me want to try it. i do like the Kihei Safeway better than Kahului one,but i am not a frequent shopper,but thanks for the insite of this new way to shop there. great overview .aloha
We don’t have a Times or Foodland in Kapolei so we stop into Safeway for our non-CostCo items. I wouldn’t mind a gift card at all. :-)
The coupon section of Just for U works for me because coupons.com and similar web sites don’t. I can’t get their printing software to work. Safeway coupons don’t need special software. I’m not much of a coupon clipper but if I was then Just for U would be a time godsend. For me, it takes more time than it’s worth but I still use it…when I remember to. Isn’t Safeway supposed to send an email when the personalized deals are updated? If not, then going back to the site week after week and seeing the same deals will get very old very fast. Oh, and I did get my eggs on the first try. When I got them home I noticed the exp. date was one week later!
Sue, I share your frustration with Coupons.com, and I do like that I was able to use “Just For U” without printing anything. Save the trees! I just wish the site worked on mobile devices, so I can “add” items while in the store.
Fran, I hear you. We in Mililani are lucky to have a Times, Foodland, and Safeway. I generally like Safeway’s selection and prices better, anyway, so they’d get my business even without “Just For U.”
Ali, looking forward to your review. I, too, am happy with what the Club Card already does for my bottom line. Perhaps I don’t shop at Safeway often enough to get a knock-my-socks-off “personalized deal”?
Safeway promotes “Just For U” as a time saver, but they make you hunt through 3 separate lists of offers (Coupons, Personalized Deals, and Club Specials), and those don’t even include all the weekly specials that are in the newspaper flyer. There should be only 1 list with the best of all 4 sources of offers, and (as you suggested) it should be searchable. I won’t waste my time on it again.
I couldn’t get my card to synch with the program. Tried a number of times.
Ryan – did you try to add the yogurt at the Just For U kiosk at the store?
mahalo nui for the giveaway and the honest review. i’ ve seen the monitors set up at safeway but can’t be bothered to set up this just for u and connect it to my safeway card. judging from past prizes and promotions, safeway isn’t really interested in helping me save more $$ so i don’t have a lot of faith in this new deal.
Thanks for the review. I’m a Safeway coupon clipper so this program may work for me. I didn’t know Hawaii is the first state to test this out.
Wow this sounds like a cool program.. and I shop at Safeway a lot since it’s right near my place!
Ryan,
I’m a big coupon clipper and savings chaser, and I have to admit that the Safeway Just For U program is not that enticing.
I signed up right away because of the dozen eggs (heck, I go through a dozen in about 5 days or less!), however found the program too confusing.
I think that Safeway’s problem is offering too many options at the same time.
For example, have you noticed at the bottom of your receipt, where it says something like “you have earned 1 out 8 points towards your next free sandwich”? I have bought all kinds of sandwiches there yet to figure out how exaxctly you get these points!!!
I find the cards that they mailed a couple months ago much better. The ones that had the $5 off your next $50purchase on one side and a couple coupons on the other side around a meal idea on the other. The deals were really good and a lot of the stuff was fir free (as long as you meet a $10 purchase). The whole thing had a purpose: make an inexpensive meal. That talks to me better than 60 random coupons.
Also I completely agree that the “12-16oz, Selected Varieties” footer is confusing, heck! even some friendly store clerk at the Kapahulu store knew which one was the correct one!
My senior father jumped on board with this surprisingly quickly. I helped him quickly select and add deals to his card, and off we went.
We got the free eggs. The other deals were fairly nice too. However, similar to your pasta story, we hit a snag on the “A&H Toothpaste” which, even though we selected the right size, did not match the deal. We were later told that “it didn’t include the ones with baking soda,” which sends a WTF flag straight up..
They need to start specifying UPC codes or something!
Thanks for the detailed review! I also have had trouble printing coupons.
Our Safeway is a pretty horrible store. I don’t usually go there because I don’t find them to be stocked well and they don’t seem to have the sale that other stores in the area have. I will go there when I’m close by it if I need some things though, and I do get the circulars. There is a Giant that is a little further out, but a much nicer store. I tend to go where I like to shop rather than where is convenience. Of course, you don’t have that luxury!
I just used Safeways’ Just For U yesterday. It was the 2nd time I’ve tried it. If I had to choose only one reason why I like it, it’s a greener way to save. And save I did. I saved a total of &73.91. Per Safeway, I saved 47% off of my groceries! I was so proud that I thought of making a scrapbook page for it. I agree that the email list I got on my iPhone could be alittle more user friendly, but just like everything, it takes alittle getting use to. So far I love it and the Kapahulu Safeway always has eggs.
Ugh, too much work for too little savings. I reality appreciate you taking the time to review this new process Ryan. It will probably keep me from trying it. I live in Maryland, and avoid Safeway because they consistently have the highest prices in town. My suggestion for Safeway: keep it simple. Require me to use my club number (I too do not carry my card, and am using a phone number from 7 years ago) to enjoy weekly specials, then reduce evey item to it’s lowest profitable price for every club customer. Why should I pay more for an item simply because I don’t purchase it frequently? Perhaps if the price was lower, I would try it, like it, and begin purchasing it more often. Until Safeway lowers their prices across the board, I’m afraid I’ll continue driving past them on my way to Giant.
I haven’t really looked into the details of it yet.
I don’t need a shopping list. I’ve never bought that much stuff at one time. I have my 15 items I buy every time I go to safeway and they rarely vary. But since moving here, I have been very annoyed by the sold out products there. Eggs!! they are always sold out, as is half&half and my fav candy, jelly beans… I’m getting used to seeing whole missing sections on shelves now, but when I first moved here, I thought it quite strange. Then I had to remind myself we are 3000 m iles out in the ocean and some boat has to be bringing those damn eggs in. But I’ll play with it at some point if I can save a little more $
I really liked that I got free eggs without even knowing my wife had signed us up. I also agree with you that the ‘private’ information isn’t as big of a deal, since I was using a club card already — they know what I buy.
A functional mobile site and more applicable shopping list would make this service better.
Denise, good point, I suppose I could have used the in-store computer for an on-site “add.” But that’d would’ve also added more time to an already extended shopping trip.
Damian, David, good point that the multiple coupon sections can be overwhelming. A single list, maybe prioritized by the degree of discount, would be much more compelling.
Joyce, I’m glad it worked for you! Saving almost half off your bill is nothing to sneeze at. Perhaps my problem, as I noted, is that I only buy one-off things at supermarkets these days.
I shop at safeway once or twice a month, when combining my shopping with Times and Costco. Costco is too big for 2 people and the other places fill in the gap. I like that I don’t have to have the coupons with me and just use the card, in my case my phone number. I just have to be proactive and know that I have to purchase certain items before I go in. I think the system will get better as it grows and knows your shopping habits to have a predictive shopping list of specials
A friend of mine used to be a store manager for Bath & Body Works, and she said there was a guy who used to come in once a month from Honolulu to buy up a whole lot of inventory to resell back in his store!
We currently have only 1 Safeway on Kaua’i which is far from where I live, but I think it would be cool to check out this just for u stuff when I move back to O’ahu. I wonder how good their algorithm for choosing deals for you is…
I like that you can add coupons without having to print them, I’ve never been a fan of the clipping business. It’d be more amusing to be able to see your purchase history online.
Probably the most painful sign-up / authentication experience I’ve had in years. And I’ve had a club card for what feels like a decade.
Data mining at its worst. With so much personal information out there, do I really want to give even more for the chance that I might save a few pennies here and there? Not this time.
Suprised everybody is hating it so much. Any chance to save is a good thing in my eyes. I haven’t tried it yet, but I will next time I go down to Kihei.
our family goes the opposite of ryan… we go very small for local foods (admittedly, on the mainland). but, i’ve also really enjoyed the farmers markets and local food manufacturers when i’m in hawaii.
Farmer’s markets in Hawaii are awesome. Super fresh food that didn’t have to travel thousands of miles to get here. But I’m gonna try out this “Just for you” program.
What? That Plantronics review and contest you had was awesome! ;)
My wife is a diligent coupon cutter and wasn’t overly impressed with Just for U. Just not enough savings for the items we regularly buy, even on basics like juice and milk.
The ease of use of the Club Card is great on the other hand, especially when they can look up your info based on your phone number.
I agree with Brian’s comment. Make this program dead simple to use and get the best prices.
I enjoy going to my neigborhood Safeway, they always have a friendly smile, the isles are wide, and when they have something advertised for sale it’s also in stock. I just signed up for “Just for you” and liked the savings so far.
I signed up for “Just For You (JFY)” and never saw veggie burger-type products in the coupon sections. However, when I went into the store they were on sale. I went back into JFY but still no veggie burger coupons. No love for the vegetarians???
I signed up after reading blogger Paula Bender’s review. I, too, am not too concerned about how they use my shopping history and was interested in how personal the specials would be in matching my interests. First set featured a few varieties of ice cream, so I guess it works pretty well. The trouble, like Ian Lind encountered, was at the store. They couldn’t seem to find me in the system when I tried to include the free eggs in a regular shopping run. I left the eggs and tried again later. Still couldn’t find me, but they let me take the eggs. I still get the e-mails and the specials, but not sure if I want to risk embarrassment at the checkout or hold everyone up while they “look” for me on their system.
Thanks for all the comments! The winners of the gift cards are (thanks to Random.org) funhiguy and Sarakata! I’ll be in touch!
Thanks for your post. I am very thankful for Safeway in some respects because I usually can find way better deals than the local supermarkets here in Montana (Roseurs, Albertsons, Costco and even SuperWalmart in some things). The quality of items like produce are usually better than walmart and some things compared with Costco. I was even thankful for Safeway when I lived in Alaska…their meat deals are some of the best I have ever found.
With that said, I think Safeway should cut through all the extra advertisement and other misc costs for their Just for U program. I think they should offer an incentive program for people with cards… if you spend like $500, you get $50 dollars off. Or how about this program…If you buy an item more than 2 times in one month, you get 15-20% off that item the next time you buy it. That way, you don’t have to mess with the “just for U” program and spend extra time staring at the computer screen. One thing I think people should do in their lives, is to reduce the time that you sit and stare at screens. It is proven in studies that you will improve your quality of life if you get out and recreate etc.
I found your post from “Oregonlive.com” when I googled “what is the “Just for U” safeway program”.
I enjoy spending time on the internet and have more time than money, so I thought the “Just for U” program would be, indeed, just what I needed. Alas, my experience has not been great. On my last visit, for example, the two personal savings items I most wanted weren’t available, and two of the coupon items I wanted weren’t available either. In fact, the artichokes were not only unavailable, they’d never been available! The store hadn’t had any in stock for weeks. “We keep ordering them, but the warehouse doesn’t deliver them.” Fine, but then don’t offer a coupon for them!
The high number of unavailable items increased my frustration level more than enough to make up for any savings. In fact, the unavailable to available ratio was high enough to make me see the whole program as a form of deceptive advertising – get you in the store with the promise of deals that don’t, in fact, exist. I don’t plan to be suckered in again.
Today I tried Safeway’s ‘Just For U’ thing for the third, and last, time. At least until I hear they’ve worked out the bugs. What a waste of time.
I shop at Safeway fairly often, so this sounded good (at first). But here’s what happens: when I go through checkout I type my ph# into the POS terminal, as per usual. Do I automatically get the discounts on personalized coupons I’ve added to my ‘cart’ before leaving home? Uh, no. Each of the three times this has happened I did eventually get the discounts, but only after waiting in another line to get a refund, explaining the problem, the steps I took, blah. Again – what a waste of time.
I totally understood what you were saying about wandering around Safeway while browsing on the inadequate app, so I don’t mess with it. I want to get in and get out of the grocery store as quickly as possible. So I look at the deals on my home PC monitor, where you can see everything on 1 or 2 pages, click some buttons, and bam you’re done.
The store employee evangelists that are there to help customers work out the kinks were just as clueless and frustrated as I was. All they could suggest was to make sure my ph# was entered in my Safeway online account, which it already was. But we weren’t able to verify that while I was in the store, because Safeway’s website was down at the time!
And the guy told me that the very day they rolled out the program here (Washington state) the site had gone down, presumably an overloaded server, and it was down for 4 days! This is the kind of thing one would expect from a mom & pop corner grocery, not a national restaurant chain. All I can think of is that Safeway tried to save some money by hiring overseas programmers, and you get what you pay for.
The bottom line is that if I use my physical club card at checkout I’ll get the discount, but not if I key in my ph#. Shouldn’t be a big deal, right? But I don’t even have a card anymore so I’d have to order one, and I guess it’s just the principle of the thing.
I have some experience with programming, and programmers, and it should NOT be this hard to use Safeway’s ‘Just For U’ system. My time is too valuable to waste a bunch of it just to save a few bucks, so… thanks, but no thanks, Safeway.
It would be lovely to feel “loaded” up with coupons if it would actually sync my “list” to my phone. I see the list on-line but no matter what I do it won’t appear in my phone. So I arrived beaming with joy, no notepad, no pencil, no scratching on anything flat in the aisles only to find that I had merely my coupons loaded and no list with which to reference – VERY DISAPPOINTED. Then again, going paperless always seems to generate more paper and time….UGGG. WHO TESTS THIS STUFF BEFORE IT’S DEPLOYED TO THE MASSES!!! Now there’s just one or two more trips this week to the store for things “forgotten” – or is THAT the reason it didn’t sync ; )
This qualifies as the worst shopping experience of my life. NOTHING that I had selected was on my card at the check out counter. * The store manager did take off the amounts that should have registered at check out (except for the bananas that should have been a penny less per pound for me) but not without an admonition that I did something wrong, and a “You come over here [to the sign up computers] when you are finished checking out.”
I went, and guess what! The screen showed that I had indeed done it correctly, and she “must have a glitch in my system.”
Having shopped at Safeway several times with the cash register listing mistakes (which I am sorry to say I believe are intentional as they are ALWAYS in Safeway’s favor, I happen to think this is not an accident.) [Sorry Safeway, but fair is fair.]
In our small town, Safeway is the only supermarket. There are some Mexican stores which I intend to start frequenting. I will still go to Safeway on occasion, but the savings to drive 30 miles to do my twice monthly shopping more than pays for the extra gas. [King Soopers (aka Kroger’s) has the right idea. I noticed that they simply had several identical, or lower prices, on Safeway’s “just for u” items. YES! King Soopers!]
Deborah’s comments resonated with me!!
*Chef Boyardee rang up at the sale price, as did the frosting flavor packet from Duncan Hines–which interestingly enough is “formulated to flavor Duncan Hines Frosting Creations.” which were on sale, but definitely not free. Only the flavoring packet was free. :)
Neither of these rang up at my “just for u” price.
Let them know EVERYTHING about you, so that they can continue to know exactly what are you going to buy before you buy it. That way they can lure you in with free eggs and they will easily make up the difference with your continued loyalty and raising prices on goods you will consistently buy regardless of price increases.
Personally, I work for Safeway and helped introduce the shoppers to the program. I am young and don’t need to buy groceries for myself yet but i can help my parents who struggle with money. For instance just last week they had 40$ to spend on groceries. So I knew right away that i could help them. I showed them how to use the Just 4 U program and added the coupons and at the end of their purchase they saved 48% just by the program and were able to get twice as many groceries for the week. Yes, my opinion may be a little biased but I love the program and really do think that everyone who shops at Safeway should try it out and see if it’s right for them. It takes about 10 minutes to load coupons on for a big shopping trip for my parents and I and they save almost half a bill, great!
I wanted to try Just for U to see how it worked. So far it is a pain in the butt. For a little extra savings, I have to log into Just for U once a week to update and then print out the page for my shopping trip. This adds more time to my shopping trip and list making. Not worth it to me.
Am I correct the many of the just four you discounts are
not even posted at the store, but only on the website. I made a
list today and came home with$5 of just for you I posted
savings
This program is horrible. I have written to Safeway 3 times letting them know what a time waster this is. I cannot believe there is not a huge customer sat issue. If I had an alternative store close to my house, I would switch in a minute. What a pain….
I have been using Just for U for some time and save a few $. However, all of a sudden every link in every new Safeway email times out so navigating among the various lists is impossible. I have complained twice before and this will be the 3 times and out.