Vons in SoCal will stop doubling as of tomorrow, August 1st.
I know that none of us like to hear that, especially me! Vons has been my store since I got married in 1980. But… Even though Vons has been doubling for most of these past decades, some weeks, I shop at Albertsons, a “no double” store. Why? Because at TheGroceryGame.com , we have comparison shopping made fast and easy. It’s fun to log in and merge my “big 3″, Vons, Ralphs, and Albertsons, and sort by savings percentage. Within seconds, I can ascertain where the lowest prices and best deals are for my weekly grocery shopping. I also like to use the search feature to search all the stores’ deals for specific things I need, like orange juice, eggs, bread, and more… And lo and behold, there are weeks it turns out that Albertsons has the best deals, even though double coupons are down the road.
The fact that a non-doubling store could win my favor over a doubling stores is not surprising for two reasons: #1 the biggest savings are not about coupons, but about the sales. And #2, most coupons are for one dollar, and they don’t double anyway.
As we’ve done in the past, just to see what this really means, we did the numbers on the Vons list this week. There were (are) 169 blue and green deals on the Vons list thru July 31st. Noone would buy all 169 deals, but for the sake of this exercise, here are the #s… There were 229 deals on this week’s Vons list, of which 169 were blue for “investing”. IF you bought ALL the blue items:
WITH DOUBLES:
- 169 blue items
- Orig Total: 861.84
- You Pay: 380.25
- You Save: 481.59
- Savings: 55%
NO DOUBLES:
- Same 169 blue items
- Orig Total: 861.84
- You Pay: 391.16 (difference of 10.91)
- You Save: 470.69
- Savings: 54%
Even with coupons not doubling, the difference is barely noticeable, but we’ve got bigger problems to think about… If you follow my blog, you know grocery prices have been rising, and even the USDA tells us that in 2013, consumers will begin to feel it. But you’re not alone…TheGroceryGame.com has always been at the helm of steering Gamers to the best, fastest and easiest savings nationwide. The higher the prices go, all the more reason to get the best possible savings!
During a 4 week free trial of TheGroceryGame.com, even in the land of no doubles, most families save enough to buy a deep freezer!
Now is the time to dig in and play smart!
