The internet is FULL of information. But just because you read it on the internet, doesn’t mean it’s true. It’s becoming almost a chore to plow through un-necessary or even inaccurate information. So what’s true and what isn’t? Reliable sources can be hard to find. And the best sources may cost money.
Many websites are starting to recognize that people will pay for premium content. The Wall Street Journal online has tons of free articles. But to get premium content, you can buy online access for $1.99 a week. And I guess that’s now a bigger seller than the hard copies of WSJ. That’s just one indicator that people are beginning to recognize the true value of paying for premium content on the web.
The other day, I blogged that TheGroceryGame.com showed 121 UN-advertised sales on one of our Kroger LISTs. 6 of those Unadvertised sales were for free items. Our Quality Control department compared that Kroger LIST to the “same” list at one of the most popular free sites. This site claims to have Unadvertised sales. We’ve always known that on the few lists where they actually do have Unadvertised sales, they only have a few. And on most lists, they actually don’t have any UNadvertised sales. On this Kroger list, however, they did indeed have 7 of the 121 Unadvertised sales.But among those 7 of 121, the free items were missing.
The loss of savings on those seven missing free items is $9.19. But it doesn’t stop there. This free list is missing coupons on lots of their advertised sales. Even worse, where coupons are included, too many of them are listed at the wrong time. According to our databases, this free site arbitrarily posts coupons with any sales in the sales ad without regard to timing. Our databases indicate that many of those sales are not at their historical lows. This and too many more awful mistakes to list just lead to more lost savings. All in all, someone shopping this week at Kroger with that “free” list stands to lose up to $56 in potential savings than if they had shopped with the premium list at TheGroceryGame.com for a nominal sum of $1.25.
Long before the idea of paying for premium content was popular,TheGroceryGame.com was a “pay to play” content site and still is. Now, we have tons of free things like Teri’s Coupon Tracker, printable coupons, and other resources in Teri’s Coupon Center. But by and large, it’s the “pay to play” portion that has become ever more valuable to those who really want to save the most time and money. In fact, they usually save enough in the four week free trial to buy a deep freezer. Sure, there’s lots of free grocery information out there on the web, even free “lists” loaded with unreliable information. But they’re not the premium content as in The Grocery Game, and they don’t deliver the same savings… not even close!
I feel vindicated once again, that sometimes you have to “pay to play”. And glad we’re providing truly premium content that saves our members more money than anywhere else on the web… Every week on our 220+ LISTs nationwide!
