Albertson’s will stop matching prices of competitors

Published 5:00 am Thursday, March 19, 2009

On April 3, Albertson’s Inc. will scrap a coupon program that matches any competitor’s prices, saying it will invest the money it has spent on the program back into its own promotions.

The company has faced a flood of new competition since the decades-old program was introduced, and implementing the program became more difficult and costly, said Lilia Rodriguez, a Boise-based spokeswoman for Albertson’s.

“Everyone is looking for value,” Rodriguez said. “That is what we are doing for our customer.”

Albertson’s, which has two stores in Bend and one in Redmond, has a program called Twice the Value, where the store matches manufacturers’ coupons up to $1, she said. The company also will begin sending more specialized coupons to its regular customers, she said.

Bend-based Bob Mullins, a certified money management volunteer with Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Mid-Oregon, was sorry to hear Albertson’s will drop its longtime program, which he says he started using at least 25 years ago. Mullins’ job is to help people manage their personal finances, he said.

“I have been telling people about this for years,” he said. “Besides saving money, it saved people from having to drive all over. I would tell people about it and recommend that they take advantage.”

Customers can find a similar program at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has stores in Bend and Redmond.

“We have a specific policy in matching competitors’ prices in ads,” said Bill Wertz, a Wal-Mart spokesman in Denver. “We will match any price offering from any competitor.”

At Albertson’s, the program became difficult to manage when customers would come into stores looking for products that the grocer did not sell, Rodriguez said.

“With our many competitors out there, it is impossible for us to know what they will have on ad each week and it makes it hard for us to ensure we have the right amount of product on our shelves,” Rodriguez wrote in an e-mail. “So, by running our own new programs, we can do a better job of staying in stock and can also cater our programs based on our best customers’ needs.”