I am finally sitting down to explain the Just For U program as I understand it. The only way to really understand a program is with a lot of trial and error so I will do my best to answer questions but I am certainly no expert. Also, a lot of my knowledge is based upon the feedback I hear from you guys, so please be sure to let me know how things are rolling along for you. You can also feel free to correct any errors that I may make in explaining this program-Just For U is totally new to me so I may have misunderstood specific points or left out important details.
Here is basic info about this program. It has only rolled out in 3 markets thus far: Hawaii, Illinois and Northern California. It should be rolling out to the entire family of stores (Vons, Genuardi’s, Randall’s, Pavillion’s, Tom Thumb, and Dominick’s) very soon. Safeway is putting a huge amount of resources behind this program so expect to see lots of hoopla at your store once it hits your city. They are also offering a freebie (one dozen eggs) to most markets for people who register when it rolls out- you will need to load the coupon to your card to get your free item.
CLICK BELOW TO GET THE FULL SCOOP ON JUST FOR U:
There are three components to this program:
1. COUPON CENTER.
In a nutshell they want you to stop printing coupons altogether and transition to a load to card system. They also intend to be your one stop resource for coupons- meaning they will have the same coupons as manufacturer web sites, coupons.com, red plum etc.. All of these coupons can be loaded onto your club card and will supposedly come off automatically at the check stand when you scan your store card.
So this has obvious benefits- saving ink, saving time, not having to keep track of your coupons or deal with any beeps at the register etc..
I do have some very big concerns about this feature that makes me very leary of this program:
- If you live in an area with double or triple coupons, the coupon will only be redeemed at face value. So by loading them to your card, you essentially forfeit your doubles.
- You can only redeem that coupon at Safeway stores. Now as of right now this does not appear to be the case, but it will be the case at any time so I would be very careful of this. Safeway intends to have the same coupons that you can find at other places- take coupons.com for example- they will offer the exact same coupons that are available at any given time on coupons.com. We all know that printable coupons almost always have a limit of 2. So let’s take an example, if coupons.com is offering a coupon for .50 off Colgate toothpaste and Safeway has the same coupon available to load to your card- let’s say you choose to load it to your Club card. Well now if you go directly to coupons.com, you will not be able to print that coupon. The coupon will read “print limit reached” just like if you had gone ahead and printed the coupon. So now you will give up the ability to use your coupon at whichever store you feel like shopping at. Even worse, we all know when you print coupons there is a limit of 2. Well guess what? If you decide to load the coupon to your club card you get one coupon one time. So in the example above, if you had printed that Colgate coupon you would have 2 coupons to use at any store you wanted to use them at (including Safeway.) If you live in an area with doubles, your coupon is actually worth $1. You also have 2 of them. If you had decided instead to load it to your card, you would have one coupon, valued at .50 only, that can only be used at Safeway stores.
- You lose control of your coupons. I have a teensy control issue so this is a biggie for me. I like to hand my coupons one by one and be sure that they are all applied. My experience in the past both personally and from what you guys tell me, is that the Safeway loadable coupons do not seem to actually work for many people. (Not Cellfire or Shortcuts, but the coupons that Safeway previously offered at Safeway.com). Safeway indicated that the employees are fully trained to immediately correct any issues at the cash register with personal prices and with coupons not being applied (more about this later). So I am a little torn because on one hand, it would be lovely to not hassle with handing over a zillion coupons at the check stand but on the other hand I can foresee major headaches if the coupons don’t come off as they are supposed to.
- And as we already guessed this is the end to stacking Cellfire, P&G and Shortcuts e-coupons with paper coupons. So this will certainly end many of the amazing freebies and super cheapie deals we have all enjoyed.
- You can not stack loadable coupons with paper coupons. Some loadables are store coupons that can be stacked and many are manufacturer- so you get one manufacturer coupon per item only.
The good stuff:
- These coupons will be tied to your club card so they are supposed to work for online orders! Now that is a major plus since Safeway has a $15 off $50 promotion for your first online order. The $50 needs to be spent prior to coupons- so for your first home delivery this could really be a great deal. (NOTE: We were told that some people might need to be assigned a virtual club card in order to redeem coupons, but for the most part they should come off your total bill when your delivery arrives.)
- In ad coupons can be loaded to your card! I love this feature because who wants to fool with cutting out coupons from the weekly circulars. This is much simpler. The not so great thing though is that I THINK (not certain) the limits on the coupons will be enforced. So if Cheerios are .99 with in ad coupon with a limit of 1, and you have that loaded to your card- you won’t be able to do 2 transactions buying a box each time. They will track that you have already hit the limit and your second box will be at the regular price.
2. PERSONALIZED DEALS:
This aspect is super in some ways and stinks in other ways. First the good news, you get custom deals just for you. So for example, you might have a personalized deal that you can load to your card for $1.99 for Lucerne Butter. What that means is that you can buy as many of them as you want, for a 90 day period, and each and every time you will be charged $1.99. If the price happens to be lower that week in the store, you get the better of the two prices. Now if you happen upon coupons for Lucerne butter, you can absolutely use those with your personal price.
From what I have seen the personal prices aren’t terribly exciting BUT there are a few hidden gems. For example, I happen to have a personal price of $2.48 for Ben and Jerry’s pints. Well we all know those pints are priced at $2.50 pretty much all day everyday at most stores so whoopty-do right? Well I also happen to have a personal price of $1.99 on 80% Lean Ground Beef which is AWESOME. Now, where I see these personal prices being especially fantastic is on BOGO sales. Typically on BOGO sales the price of the item is raised for the sale. So take the ground beef as it is actually on sale Buy One Get One Free at my store this week. They have raised the price of ground beef to $3.99/lb- Buy One Get One Free. Well my personal price is the better of the two so it supersedes the sale price and I can buy Ground Beef at $1.99/lb Buy One Get One Free (or .99/lb.) So that is a FANTASTIC deal.
The major drawback I can see from a blogger’s perspective is that you will really need to do a lot more of your own matchups. The major drawback I can see from a Safeway shopper’s perspective is that this really does add an extra layer of time to your shopping. I know I personally check my list of deals (meaning the lists that I publish here on MFA) and then I shop off that list. Easy. With the new personalized deals, I can see that I will also need to cross reference my personalized deals each week, match up extra coupons and also keep track of what I have loaded to my card.
One very important point about these deals, Safeway would like to tie you to one specific store that you shop at most regularly. So if you mostly shop at the store by your home, and decide one night to stop at the store next to your gym, well your personal prices may not work at that store.
One other note, many of these deals are not terribly specific. So you might see a personalized deal of .99 for Pillsbury products 8oz-11 oz. Well many of us are trained by coupons to look for specific information so this might pose an issue. I mean who knows precisely what is included in that sale price- is is cake mix, is it refrigerated rolls, is it frozen biscuits, is it anything from Pillsbury with those sizes?
This I don’t really see the point of. Safeway tracks what you buy regularly and I think they just highlight what is on sale for you. I don’t know how beneficial this is to couponers because we don’t really buy the same items very regularly. I think this is worth having a look at because there are some deals that are not in the weekly ad, for example I see Lucerne yogurts at .29 this week. I had no idea those were on sale. There are also sales on other items- like green grapes for $2.99- that I would never consider paying that much for. You can add the sale items you like to a shopping list that can then be printed out.
So that is the gist of it. Here are a few other points:
- This is not available for any mobile devices except the iPad. Safeway is working on an app but as of now you can’t view your deals or save coupons or anything on Smart Phones.
- Any coupons you save take 30 minutes to load before they can be redeemed.
- There are supposed to be kiosks in each store to print out all your stuff. I do not have this at my store and if you have to print your coupons, your shopping lists and your personal deals at home- that is a lot of paper.
- If you run into any issues apparently the cashiers can handle things right at the registers, however they will expect that you have everything printed out to show them.
Final thoughts, I think this is just going to take some getting used to. I went into Safeway to test this out and I can tell you I was a hot mess. I had papers with personal prices, club specials, and coupon lists coming out everywhere and I spent considerably more money and more time than I would have otherwise spent. I sort of wandered the aisles aimlessly trying to find something that could possibly be a good deal and it was a real challenge. Much, much harder than just looking at a list of match-ups and deciding what to buy based on that.
I can also tell you, I am utterly delighted with the hot ground beef deal I scored this week so I guess it could work out to be a fantastic program that we all really love after all.
Now what are your thoughts and/or experiences with this program?
alice says
So, with the personalized deals not everyone will have that cool $.99 per lb ground beef? I looked through my deals and did not score that one.
Stephanie says
Ugh, sounds like they took away the best aspect of Safeway shopping:-( The stacking of printables and ecoupons… Boo. I’m not terribly excited about it. I do want to go this week to get some BOGO meats and do the frosted mini wheats deal. Thanks for the post.
Charlene says
No that will be the frustrating part Alice, every person will have deals specific to them plus the regional differences in the ads on top of that. You may have nothing but cruddy personal deals- like $3.99 Tortilla chips and the next person might have $1.49 chicken, $.12 bananas etc.. etc..
Michelle says
So, I just looked to check it out…did you notice that a couple of pages of the coupons expire tomorrow! HaHa. That must be a glitch with everything switching over from the other coupon sites (?) Anyway, our Safeway (SF Bay Area) had signs like every 5 feet in every aisle adversiting the Just for U program. I kinda wish we weren’t the guinnea pigs for the roll out- it would be nice to not worry about it until all the kinks are worked out! 🙂
Barbie says
Charlene-
Thanks for all your info on the new program. I tried it for the second time in my N. CA store in Concord today and scored a few good deals and even still had some cellfire/shortcuts coupons come off my card (much to my surprise!). I had a problem with my personalized deal on a produce item working and when I inquired with customer service, they said I didn’t get the personalized price because I didn’t by a minimum of 1lb of the produce–do you know anything about this? I couldn’t find any details in the program info suggesting a minimum requirement–seems a little strange.
Regarding getting your personalized deals in locations other than your usual store, I was also assured by customer service that “your geographical region” is defined as ALL of California (for those that live in CA). I hope that’s true since I also shop at a store near work which is over 20 miles from my house!
Nicole says
I am already up to my eyeballs frustrated with my Safeway. I hope the registers apply all the coupons, or I might just move my shopping elsewhere. Thanks for the info! P.S. I didn’t get the ground beef deal either, boo!
Rachel G says
I utlized this program on Friday. I was able to separate the transactions with the frosted mini wheat deal to get two free gallons of milk and 8 boxes of mini wheats and everything came off. It was the first time that my cashier had seen it in action herself. My free eggs didn’t come off and she quickly fixed that you really have to watch everything as it scans.
I had all of my coupons cut out but I didn’t need to of course because they are all on there.I didn’t need to use my printable coupons on the 1st transaction of mini wheats because my e coupons came off but I did use them on the second transaction. I was also able to use any of my other coupons with no questions asked. I spent quite a bit of time in line. too bad fo the people behind me 🙁 I’m very upset about loosing the stacking ecoupons with mfg coupons though. No doubles here in Nor Cal
Dallas says
This sounds ridiculous! Way to much extra work and who has time for all that? I for one am not happy about any of it, darn Vons has made one unhappy customer.
Karen Hiebert says
that’s going to be a big mess. there was someone @ the front of the safeway when I went in telling me about the new system. I tried it, it seemed to work okay. I did try to stock up on the meat, but it stunk, they only took off the ground beef purchases, not the other ones I bought. Its okay. But I don’t usually got to safeway for the deals unless its really good one. I stick with nob hill & target.
Dallas says
Oops I almost forgot thank you so much for taking the time to learn this very confusing new coupon “revolution” didn’t seem like it was easy to figure out.
Charlene says
Michelle- I went shopping at the one in Pleasanton and they filmed us and stuff. Like I said Hoopla and a long sales pitch at the register.
Charlene says
Dallas. The guy presenting this whole thing was talking about algorithims (I can’t even spell that) and what a terrible inconvenience using coupons can be. The he was saying what amazing prices you get- like $2.99 Tortilla chips and Target has them for $3.79 so what a huge savings :). Anyhoo, I didn’t know whether to laugh or take a nap. I told them I thought it sounded like a massive nightmare and customers don’t like hassle. I am pretty sure I won’t get a Christmas card this year 😛
Charlene says
Barbie- we were specifically told by the lady that is on the roll out team and seems to be very well informed what the issues they have had with the program thus far. She was the one that told me that and I am inclined to believe her. She said that she shops at 2 stores near her house- one carries a specialty product she buys and the other is larger for her big trips. Anyway, her prices are not the same at both stores. So who knows- maybe it will work anywhere for you. I think the important thing is to just be aware there might be an issue. I don’t think it has to do with where you shop, it has to do with assigning you a store. It doesn’t matter if it is 2 blocks away or 40 miles away. They want you shopping the same place each time.
I told you the personalized stuff is not specific enough- but if it didn’t have a minimum purchase amount they should honor the price no matter. The lady was telling us that cashiers will swiftly adjust the price if there are any issues at all and clearly that was not the case for you.
Whitney says
Well, I am in Fresno, which is part of the S. Cali region but the site let me attach the J4U deals, which I was actually willing to give a fair shot before I decided whether or not I liked it.
They didn’t work.
I think it must be because I am in not in the N. Cali region.
None of my J4U prices came up, the super coupons didn’t go through and when I went to CS to fix it, the manager told me that even though there was a coupon online… I still needed to bring in my paper Super Coupons… which she clearly has not had training on this new program.
Oh, well. There are always deals to be found. I am sure there will be a way to save money at Safeway. eCoupons just started a year or so ago and we all got along fine before them. I just personally think they are trying to scare away those of us that knew about and were able to stack all the ecoupons. It looks like it is working based on the comments I see all over the web.
Judith says
I like the fact that I don’t need to clip the Safeway ad coupons anymore…and that I got a personalized price for Whole Wheat bread at $1.50. But I do most of my shopping at WinCo, not other store can still beat it. I only use Safeway for the really good deals…
Kim says
So, as I’ve said before my son is a Safeway employee. We got to preview the program a week early. I used the coupons and DID receive the lower of the two prices when a sale was lower than my pers. price. And my ecoupons from Cellfire and Shortcuts DID come off as long as I wasn’t using another MQ. According to a Safeway rep that my friend talked to over the phone (and the rep checked with a higher up) they are still honoring those ecoupons, but you can no longer load them on your card from Safeway’s site via their couponlink. But I wouldn’t count on them. And when someone I know wasn’t charged the lower price they WERE quickly refunded. One thing that was wonky is that my “one time only” coupons at the coupon center did not leave my list. I’m going to try and use one of them tomorrow and see if it works. My free egg coupon is still there and so is my .50 off potatoes.
Re: the printing, each store is suppose to have a netbook and a printer at customer service where you can print your shopping list (pers. deals, coupon list & saved club specials). My son said they are really hard to read the small screens. Each store also has an ambassador available to help you understand the program, all the checkers and ambassadors went to a training on the new program. The checkers think we are all going to stop using coupons : ) lol
It does say “regional area”, I think that is very vague. Certainly your prices should be good within your county, and at the very least within your city. I think if you print out your list they would honor the price within your city.
I think this program is okay for the average shopper. But for us, it stinks. I think they’ll be making changes to it over time.
Thank you Charlene for all your work figuring out this program. I hope that we can all give Safeway our feedback so they can understand where we sit with it.
Tiffany T says
I really can’t believe all this. I was at Safeway last night and the cashier was so excited about it. This girl is my cashier often – she remembers me because of my reusable bags and giant stacks of coupons …. anyway she REALLY tried to convince this was going to be better for me. I told her I would try it for a month and report back to her!!! I reminded her that I often got things for FREE or pennies on the dollar with the old program and she assured me it would still be the same, which I highly doubt at this point! I am beginning to believe that they have made this whole program so confusing to discourage people from using coupons at all. And the biggest problem I have seen thus far – let’s take for example Fiber One bars – well, I can load a $0.50/1 coupon to my card right now, but as we know there has been a $2/1 printable lately, which I would obviously like to use over the $0.50 coupon. So at checkout can I have them override it? Doubt it! So I am thinking at this point that I am not going to load my coupons until the very last minute to compare which coupons are better – which really stinks it my opinion!!!
Charlene says
@Tiffany, I will ask about that- I don’t know what happens if your printed coupon is better. I think this could be better- the loadable in ad coupons are awesome. I will be very sad if there are indeed enforced limits with in ad coupons. I guess we all have to see- I would trade cheap ground beef for free fruit snacks 😉 But that is me trying to stay positive that these are just a few bumps in the road and it will get better.
@Kim, I tried the cellfire and shortcuts coupons and watched the register take them right back off. I think it is just luck of the draw. I don’t think they understand coupons which is why this is a bit of a mess. They were a little smug about how great the free eggs are (which they were .99 last week so I wasn’t excited about that really) and I suggested they implement a program like Raley’s with more free items and they had no idea what I was talking about. A little scary because these were VPs and stuff. Raley’s has a much larger share of the grocery market in Sacramento- you’d think they’d pay attention to their competition. They also kept talking about Walmart and I was trying to explain to them that couponers aren’t really that big on Walmart. From what I see, Target is more of a couponers store but they are set on Walmart.
Maybe I should reread my post. I wasn’t intending to make it sound like we are all lost at Safeway. I just want to be clear about where the pitfalls are so we can all keep getting the best deals.
Tiffany T says
Charlene – I agree with the in ad coupon limit issue. I really hope that is not the case. And I don’t care for the one time use coupon thing either. I think there still might be some hidden benefits to this program when the stars align like your ground beef deal! And a previous poster said exactly what I told my husband last night that I think this program is designed for the casual coupon shopper and not us extremists. I can see where people who don’t use coupons could really benefit from this program. I have been using coupons for a year solid now and I think back to when I didn’t and I might have actually thought this program was pretty cool! Oh and as far as the e-coupons, I shop at the Fair Oaks/Citrus Heights Safeway – I did the Mini Wheats deal and they came off along with my printed mfr coupons … so who knows!!! But for now I am going to go to bed and dream of a time when Target decides to open up a full blown grocery store! 🙂
Amanda S says
Hello ladies….
I love Charlene and her site- she does tremendous work. That being said, I wanted to let you know that I live in IL and check in on the MashupMom website (mashupmom.com). She does Dominick’s deals weekly and has had a TON of experience/frustration with all the Just for U stuff. Most of the commenters on her blog have more or less written off Dominick’s and the Just for U program. I don’t have a Dominick’s where I live, but thought I would pass the info along for those of you who might be interested.
alice says
Dear Charlene,
I realized I didn’t thank you for all your hard work in deciphering and decoding this new system. It will be interesting to read comments in the next coming weeks. I think it’s also interesting that Safeway is unrolling this during the busiest shopping seasons of the year – Thanksgiving and Christmas. Have a great Sunday!
alice says
Thank you for all you do for people like me that are now actively looking for the next coupon fix! 🙂
Michele says
I live the N. VA area and the Just 4 U program isn’t in full effect here. I did notice that they have it loaded on the website but I haven’t enrolled yet. I am actually avoiding it based on the comments from all of those that are using the program now. I love love love the e-coupon/paper coupon stacking benefits that Safeway offered. I am going to miss it tremendously and quite frankly if they get rid of it….I will no longer be shopping at Safeway. Plus we have doubles here so I am not happy about the no doubling loaded coupons. Safeway isn’t my main store and I will need to refocus my energy at Target, Harris Teeter and Wegmans. I was able to get the Mini-Wheats deal yesterday. I bought 4 boxes and used (2) $1/2 paper coupons AND (2) $1 off shortcuts e-coupons came off as well. Plus the milk catalina! I will say though because of area I live in I have never seen another shopper use a coupon at a Safeway store. They were probably trying to purge out the coupon shoppers like me who are making them no money. So long Safeway it was great while it lasted!
Danielle says
WOW…..my head is spinning! I have slowed my shopping at Safeway in the past few weeks, as they were really giving me a hard time (bordering on harassment, and I emailed corporate telling them as much! grrr!) and this makes me want to avoid it altogether… 🙁 A lot of work, and I have a Shop Rite near me that tends to be very competitive with Safeway deals…I am thinking Shop Rite will be seeing more of me. Thanks so much for the (detailed! 🙂 explanation. I’m sure it took a LOT of time to do all that, and it is very helpful, especially for those of us not in the test-market. 🙂 I guess we’ll have to wait and see???
sara says
I tried it at my regular safeway and it did not work well at all. My in-ad super coupons that I had loaded onto my card didn’t come off, and I ended up at customer service afterward. They were very helpful and refunded my money, but it took some time. I think it will be an ok service once they really get it going.
You are correct that there isn’t an app for it, but you do have the ability to email yourself the shopping list, complete with personalized prices and coupons, so if you can check your email from your phone, you can see what you worked up at home. They also did have netbooks and printers at my store, so customer service was able to look up my account and print out my deals easily to correct the errors.
Thanks for your hard work!
Jennifer says
Do you have to participate in this program. Can you just not sign up and use your regular coupons or are they going to require that you use this program to use coupons?
Chitra says
Charlene,
Thanks a lot for the great explanation. We will have to see what happens in the next month when they roll it out here.
I think they are already enforcing the limits on the In Ad Q based on the card. I had bought 4 of the lean pockets in the past 2 days and when I went today and used the In Ad Q, the price did not change to what was in the In Ad Q. I was baffled at that time and my cashier was nice enough to give back the balance amount , but this happened once before and I was not sure why, but now I know. So it looks like we cannot stock up on the great deals, unless you have multiple cards and afre willing to play the game 🙁
Kecia says
Thanks from me too Charlene, for figuring all this mess! I’m wonder too though, if I can continue to just use the regular program?
This is all so frustrating, but I sincerely hope it works out. For me, I live in the middle of nowhere, but I try to get to Safeway once a week, because I love their quality, selections, and deals so much. Since I’m on WIC, I’m much happier shopping there, because my small local store doesn’t even carry the brand of soy milk that I buy. And their produce is much better quality, and cheaper.
Last week, I only purchased the items on my WIC vouchers, then bought (2) of the Marie Dressings, and a bag of salad. I agree that this program is mostly set up for the casual couponer, like my mom. Or it might work for when my hubby takes it upon himself to do his OWN shopping. LOL
I have Save Mart near me, which is ok. And I really like Raley’s, but don’t have one near me, and I rarely get to one on the weekends, when you can use the free coupons. So, will have to figure this all out… grrr….
Charlene says
Well no 🙁 Once you have Just For U in your city- the web site will change and you won’t be able to load the e-coupons so that is gone no matter what. So it isn’t a benefit to skip the program altogether. Personally my strategy is to just watch the coupon center mainly for Safeway coupons. I probably will only load a few coupons to my card and mostly I will just print them like normal. Then I plan to watch the personal deals and see what comes up and if I have time I will look at the extra club card specials. So just extra layers of work really 🙁 But if you opt out and skip the program you still lose the benefits that we had before and you lose any benefits you may have with the new- like the ground beef deal I had.
Kim says
Charlene,
Well said in your last post! I agree, it just adds more layers of work and we lose out on some of our benefits we had before. I’m sure the bugs will work out over time and we’ll adjust. If not, we’ve got options!
Thanks again.
Michele says
Charlene – Can’t you just load the e-coupons through Shortcuts and Cellfire? Why do you have to go through Safeway’s website? I just go to http://www.shortcuts.com and http://www.cellfire.com? Or are they eliminating the use from our club cards completely? I think I’m confused….
Jenmom6 says
Ok, so I’m planning my first Safeway trip since JFU program (pray for me). Regarding the “personalize price”, can we use a coupon on top of that? Like on my Safeway Select party size meals….on my JFU I have $2.00 off one, I also have the Safeway supercoupon from the weekend paper AND I have the Safeway coupon from the $70 booklet. Trying to figure that out.
I did get the $1.99 ground beef personal price…sounds like I need to jump on the B1G1 free on that. I also have beef coupons…can I use those?
Lastly, my initial feeling about the program is to have 2 Safeway cards. One ultilizing the JFU program with everything loaded and the other not so that I can use all my printed coupons. Sounds like a pain in the tooshie regardless.
Funny, I hope we’re not going to start referring to this is Safeway’s new “Just F U program”. LOL Sorry Charlene, I just had to say it!!!!
Charlene says
Well two things on that. They will eventually take the ability away- like Dominick’s for example- you can’t select Dominick’s as a store to load coupons. Then there is an issue of so you loaded them but do they work? For me I had about 8 e-coupons that came off my transaction about a week ago. I was on UScan and watched them come off. Then I watched the cash register put a line through the coupons- void them off and I did not get credit. It seems the system is overriding the coupons so you will only get credit for the highest value. So if you have an e-coupon for .25 and a paper coupon for .50- the computer will only allow one to be applied and the second coupon you can’t use. Does that make sense?
Charlene says
Well that is really funny Jen! It does sum it up quite nicely! I think your party size thing should work but I don’t know- so you’ll have to just see and then tell us 🙂 The beef coupons might be wonky because I know they will beep and technically Safeway can refuse any IPs that beep. Regardless, I would buy beef for sure- you won’t see it for .99/lb again.
With 2 cards it won’t really work- you’d need two computers. If you save the coupons from your computer they will show up as print limit reached because it is tracked by your IP. So you can still do the program and stuff just don’t load the coupons unless you are certain you won’t use them elsewhere. The Safeway ones you can load for sure- but the others like the coupons.com ones- I would not load just print them and go about business as usual. make sense?
Michelle says
oh this just gives me one big headache!!! I loved the deals at Safeway and will give this new program a chance, I track my savings on an excel worksheet, so I will be able to tell right away if my savings are as good with this new program. THANK YOU Charlene for giving us the nitty gritty details on this, we all appreciate the time you put into this website leading us to some amazing deals. Reluctantly making my shopping list and going to head to Safeway later today.
christine says
i was leary of this when i first heard of it, and after reading all this i am not sure about it. i did get my free eggs, and i was hoping for some good meat prices (time to stock up again), but it seems like a big headache!
Kim says
Can I just say that I am sooo disappointed. I’m making my shopping list and my personal prices stink! I only have 1 1/2 pages and they are outrageously high. And I don’t mean that from a couponers perspective. It reminds me of when Safeway rolled out their lower prices throughout the store. My hubby is a vendor for one of their products and they renegotiated their contract right before that campaign rollout and marked their product up so much higher it was unbelievable. All so that when the campaign came around they could drop it down to still above what it had been. Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky. It all boils down to the bottom line.
I was hoping for a few good deals somewhere, somewhere to make this worth it, but I’m not finding them. And frankly a dozen eggs just didn’t cut it.
Amanda says
Thanks for all your hard work. You have helped to save my family tons of money! Ok so a thought, could you print one coupon from coupons.com and then add it to your J4U? Also I think you can do this, according to other comments but can I get 3 mini wheats and use one electric J4U coupon and one paper $1/2 coupon? Thanks!
suzanne says
I don’t know if anyone else does this, but I go on to the delivery website and browse at my store.. you can click on the left to see the club card specials. These are the ones they don’t always advertise in the ad. I go through them before I shop to make sure I take advantage of all the specials.
Michele says
Thanks, Charlene. I get what you are saying now. Eventually my e-coupons will not work with a matching paper coupon because the register will override. 🙁
Charlene says
Amanda if I understand the question, you can’t stack the coupons no matter what. The register knows if more than one coupon has been presented for an item and it will reject the second coupon regardless of how it is presented.
Lori says
From what everyone is saying, it sounds like the best time:cost effective strategy is to load the Safeway ecoupons but nothing else, eyeball the personal stuff, and print and clip coupons as normal.
That being said, I’m in a doubles area, and would hate to lose the ability to double. Print and clip, for sure.
I had already wondered why they didn’t track and limit the in-ad coupons according to club member, so from a business standpoint, that makes sense. I rarely purchase more than the in-ad limit anyhow, so that won’t affect me enough for me to care.
Ask me after the New Year as to what I REALLY think of the program.
Laura Williams says
I have read most of the other comments and I want to make sure I am understanding correctly, it sounds like they are going to eventually discontinue cell fire and shortcuts.
Do you know if they are planning to discontinue P&G E-saver… If they do it will hurt my TP supply (I usually use the 3.00 e coupon when they go on sale for 9.99)
Thanks again for all you do : )
Charlene says
Laura- All of those loadable coupons will no longer be available once this program rolls out in your city. It might be sooner because some other readers in cities that do not have Just 4 U are already having problems. Safeway claims all the P&G coupons will be available in their coupon center. I just logged into Just 4 U and there are no TP coupons available in my account at all.
Randi says
Thanks for all your hard work Charlene. This is going to be a very interesting transistion, but I hope it doesn’t take too long. I do most of the shopping for my family, my mom and my grandmother, (3 cards!)so I will have to print out their personailized prices so I don’t go insane trying to keep everyone straight, lol. I just checked my personailized prices and I got the ground beef for 1.99 too, so I’ll be making a trip to Safeway today. 🙂
Mellissa says
So, thank you for explaining everything with Safeway up to this point. It seems so complicated compared to the system before. I do agree with the other comment that they are trying to make this more difficult to discourage those who coupon. Maybe I missed or didn’t understand what I read in some parts, but I am wondering if we can still at least stack manufacturer coupons that we print out with the weekly safeway store super coupons (I know that these weekly coupons are now loadable on the internet but does that now make them an “ecoupon” like cellfire, etc. where we can’t stack a manufacturer coupon with it now?)
Charlene says
I am not sure on that point Melissa. I was able to stack with paper coupons last week but this week I didn’t see anything to test it on.
Rachel G says
don’t toss out the in ad coupons just yet. Today I went back for some more shredded wheat cereal (2nd time) the system did not adjust the price to $1.99 as advertised. I asked the just for you person and she said that it will only come off your card one time, but you can just have the in ad coupon and the cashier will adjust the price for you. so you can keep going back or doing separate transactions, but make sure you bring your in- ad coupon with you.
Charlene says
Rachel- that is what I was saying somewhere in that mess of information. That is a massive thumbs down from me because it seems the system is tracking how many you buy and not allowing you the discounted price if you purchase over the limit for the in ad coupon 🙁 Good to know you can do more than one transaction if you have the actual coupon.
Leah says
I just got back from my first trip after the Just For You program started with mixed feelings. I thought the system would not allow stacking any longer and I also thought my Cellfire and Shortcuts coupons wouldn’t come off. When I checked my receipt though, two Shortcuts coupons for Frosted Mini Wheats had come off, and I was also allowed to use my paper coupon. I wasn’t trying to work the system, but I didn’t think the Shortcuts coupons worked any longer. I do like that the new program automatically takes off the Super Coupons, but it is really difficult to check everything going through the register so I could have easily missed something if it hadn’t worked properly. I also don’t really like the push by the employees for the program. I know they are doing what they’re told to do, but getting asked three times if I had joined the program was ridiculous. The checker also told me that since I had signed up, I wouldn’t need the paper coupons anymore. I know she’s just spouting back what Safeway told her to, but I am not loading those coupons to my card and making them unable to be used at a different store. I will load Safeway’s coupons, but no manufacturer coupons. I tried to explain this, but she wasn’t really listening.