Grocery chain helps consumers in hard times

Here’s a great idea we wish more retailers would emulate. Instead of playing the typical “high-low” game – in which supermarkets practically give a way a few items one week then jack up prices the next – the folks at Pennsylvania-based Weis Markets have decided to lower – and temporarily freeze – prices on thousands of everyday staples.

Dennis Curtin, spokesman for the 155-store chain, said told me that executives decided to implement a 90-day freeze on the price of some 2,400 products after hearing recent news reports declaring that consumer confidence was at its lowest point since the government started keeping records. The price freeze, which encompasses packaged goods as well as frozen, dairy, produce, meat, deli, and bakery items, will remain in effect through April 2 at the company’s stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and West Virginia. 

“When you’re in food retailing, you’re always looking for ways to make your store and your products more relevant to customers, Curtin said. While customers aren’t necessarily buying fewer items, he said the chain has noticed more and more shoppers trading down to less expensive store brands, which suggests people are looking to save money any way they can.

Before implementing the freeze, Curtin said Weis actually cut the prices on 2,000 of the 2,400 products targeted for the promotion. Some of the deals are pretty good. For example, before the freeze, chicken cutlets were selling for $3.79 a pound. Now, they’re locked in at just $2.59 for 90 days. Similarly, Similarly, Quaker Life cereal has dropped from $3.35 to $2.50; ground beef, from $4.99 a pound to $4.49; and Hunt’s ketchup, from $2.09 to $1.66.

While not all the savings are dramatic, they all add up, and represent a break from most supermarkets’ traditional way of doing business. While a few chains such as Walmart have an everyday low-price strategy, most others still employ the age-old concept of loss leaders to draw customers into the store for deeply discounted bargains in the hope that once there, they’ll purchase other, more-profitable goods.

The price freeze program is being promoted in Weis Markets’ current print, television, and radio ads. In stores, customers will see special Price Freeze shelf tags on participating items.

Is your local supermarket doing anything to help you stretch your food dollars? We’d like to hear from you. Write to tightwad at cro dot consumer dot org.