So I just went to a seminar with the folks at Safeway and got a whole bunch of information on Just for U. Now Just for U was launched in my area over a year ago.
They have done a lot of tweaking to the program and developed a free iPhone and Android app and are relaunching this program nationwide.
You should be able to register for this program at any store across the country now or you can also register online. (Note: Texas is the last market to launch and ya’ll can sign up starting next week.)
Here is a very quick overview of what this program is and then I have a lot more details for you listed below.
::OVERVIEW:
- Just for U is a program developed to offer customized deals to each and every shopper. Safeway tracks your purchases (via your club card) and they are using that information to provide coupons and deals targeted specifically to you.
- You can save coupons to your club card and you can save personal prices to your club card and when you are ready to checkout, just present your phone number or club card at checkout and it all comes off automatically!
- You can log into your personal account online at Safeway.com or get most of the information via the free app.
- The offers change weekly and should be based (somewhat) closely to items you have purchased within the past 6 months.
- When you register for the first time, you will receive an offer for a free dozen eggs. You should also see fairly regular free offers in your account from that point forward. The offers will vary based on your purchase habits. Currently my free offer is for a gourmet juice drink. The offer prior to that was for a free coconut milk. Another reader recently got a free offer for a 2L of Pepsi.
- The most important thing to note is that you must actually ADD the coupons or deals you want to your card. Just because they are listed in your account, does not mean they have been loaded on your card.
Once you are registered, here are the three main components to the program:
::THE COUPON CENTER.
These are all digital coupons. You simply save them to your card and they will come off at checkout when you scan your club card.
The coupon center has both manufacturer coupons AND Safeway store coupons. You should be able to see the in ad coupons they offer so there is no need to clip those from the weekly ad.
You can save as many coupons as you like to your card.*
Here is how to understand the coupons- note these are just sample coupons for the purpose of this post and you may not have the exact same offers in your account.
This is what a Safeway coupon looks like. These are store coupons so they can be stacked with a manufacturer coupon. If I wanted the Lipton tea, I could also print or clip a coupon from home to stack with this OR if I happen to have a coupon available in my Just for U account, I can save that to my card and it will also work.
I know this is a Safeway store coupon because at the top of the coupon there is a price listed ($3.99.) The only coupons that are Safeway store coupons are the ones that list a price specifically.
The other important note is at the bottom. The coupon shows when it expires and also reads “one time.” One time means one transaction it does not mean a limit of 1. I can see directly above that what the limit is- in this case it is 4.
So that means I can buy up to (4) of these items in the same transaction and get each one for $3.99. If I did (4) transactions of one package each, I would get the first one at $3.99 and that is it. The other ones I bought after that trip would all be at the regular price.
If no limit is listed, you can buy as many as you want providing it is in the same transaction.
This is what a manufacturer coupon looks like.
I know this is a manufacturer coupon because it is a cents off coupon. (So it says $1.00 off). It does not list a specific price for the Gevalia coffee, instead it tells me how much I can save off one bag.
I can not stack this coupon with another manufacturer coupon. If there happened to be an offer in my account to get Gevalia coffee for a specific price, I could stack this with that offer. If I have a coupon I cut out of the newspaper for another $1 off Gevalia, I could not use that in conjunction with this coupon to save $2.00.
You might also note it says “one time” at the bottom. That means one time for one bag. If you happened to buy 3 bags of this product, you would be able to save a total of $1.00 unless you find (2) other coupons from another source.
*If you are using the Safeway.com Just for U center, all the coupons you save will show up on the shopping list you create. You can delete the items you do not want but just note if you are saving every single coupon available to you, your shopping list will be massive. If you are using the app instead you can save all the coupons you want and only the ones you specifically select to be on your list will show up.
::PERSONAL DEALS.
The personalized deals is another fantastic perk to this program.
These are literally personal deals. Again these tie back to what you have purchased for the last 6 months. Your personal deals will not be the same as my personal deals simply because no two people will buy exactly the same items.
A personal deal is usually going to be a great price on a specific item just for you. You need to save the personal deal to your account because these are not automatically added to your club card.
Here are two examples of personal deals- again these may or may not be available to you.
The first is a free energy shot. I can click that red add button and go ahead into the store and get one of those items for free. Usually the free offers are going to be a limit of one.
The second type of personal deal is unlimited in the case of the bananas.
I can buy as many pounds of bananas for $.45/lb as I want until the expiration of 8/14. I must push the add button to get that price and if the price in store is higher then $.45/lb, my personal price will be adjusted right at checkout when I scan my Safeway card.
If the price happens to be lower then $.45/lb, the best possible deal is the one that I will be charged.
Now since the bananas are a specific price, they are Safeway deals and I can stack them with another coupon.
There are not many banana coupons out there but maybe I have a free box of Kellogg’s coupon when you buy 2 lbs of bananas. I could save that personal price to my card at $.45, buy 2 lbs of bananas and still get the cereal for free.
Another situation is the one below:
I also have a $3 off a $10 purchase produce coupon. So I could get a few lbs of bananas and whatever other produce I want valued at $10.00 altogether and I would not only get the $.45/lb price but I get $3 off $10.
Your personal deals are only available in your home region. You can see your home region by clicking the “see details” listed right on the personal deals (it is in the image above to the left of the Add button. )
If I live in Sacramento, my personal deals should be available basically in Northern California. Should I decide to travel to Seattle or Chicago or Tampa, most likely those personal deals will not be available.
If you have a personal deal on a specific item and it is not available or out of stock at your store, it is up to the store manager if they want to give you a raincheck or substitute a different product. You just need to ask and see what they say.
::CLUB SPECIALS.
The last feature is currently only available from Safeway.com and not on the mobile app. It is Your Club Specials. Essentially these are unadvertised deals that are also available in your area.
Safeway can’t possibly put every single item on sale in the weekly ad, so this is a TON of pages of extra stuff on sale. These deals are available in your region and are not necessarily nationwide.
These are currently not syncing up from the Safeway.com site to the mobile app. This should be corrected sometime in August and anything you save from home will also show up on the app.
That’s It!
A few other notes on this program:
- It should take approximately 5 minutes for an offer to save. So if I am in the car and save 5 coupons and personal deals to my account on the mobile app, I can pop into Safeway and within about 5 minutes the offers will be available and working fine.
- What happens if I save a digital coupon to my card (i.e. $1.00 off Starbucks coffee) and I have a paper coupon for $2.00 off Starbucks coffee? Since those are both manufacturer coupons you can only use one or the other. If the digital coupon happens to be higher in value, when you hand over your paper coupon, it will beep and the cashier will give it back to you. The digital coupon will be the one that is applied to your coffee. If the paper coupon you have is higher in value, the paper coupon should scan and be applied to the purchase. That digital coupon you saved will just stay on your account for next time. So if you have two coupons, the register should recognize the better of the two in value and give you that deal.
- You can create a shopping list in Just for U with the items you select (coupons and personal deals and club specials), and you can also add other items you might want manually.
- If you have multiple people in your home, they can all access the shopping list as long as everyone uses the same log in. (So you can type a list out as your husband is driving to the store and you can even be adding items into the list as he is shopping.)
- You can also email your list once you are done.
So all in all this is significantly better then when the program rolled out the first time. There are a bunch more really cool features they are working on and I will do my best to keep you posted.
PS: I nearly forgot! The store that I was in had these swanky new tags that I LOVE.
It looks like these will just be for the Safeway store coupons. How nice for the store to remind you to grab the Just for U coupon right on the price tag!
Charlene – do manufacturers coupons that you load onto your card double? Or do only paper coupons double up to $0.99?
Maria,
I will double check but I am 99.9% sure they are face value only.
I liked the way you explained and showed examples here. 🙂 I wanted to share that I use the app on my iPod Touch. Conveniently, my Safeway has free wi-fi so I sign-on instore and refer to my list.
EC,
The one thing they were really stressing is that if you happen to use it in store, make sure the wi-fi is really working. It can be spotty in certain areas and then people are grumpy because they haven’t really added coupons. The store we went to all the employees had ipads to get people registered on the spot- so they are really embracing technology.
OK, thanks for that tip about wi-fi! I’m happy you are sharing what you learned at the seminar w/us. I feel more positive about J4U now, as compared to its first launch in NorCA.
what if the personalized price deal doesn’t show up on the receipt? For example if I added a honey nut cheerios cereal box $1.49 personalized price to my card but instead it rang for $3.00? Is there any way to prove that I should of gotten the personalized price? I don’t have a smartphone so I don’t have the app. I also don’t have to the time and wouldn’t want to waste my ink to print out what coupons and offers that I added to my card every time before I go to SW.
Charlene, did they say anything about adding the DealMatch program/part of their website to the mobile app? And is that a national program or only being introduced in certain markets? I live in Chicago and having been using Just4U since it came out here and I love. Your explanations of all the features is dead on. Thanks for all you do!
Jill,
I was under the impression that Deal match was only in Hawaii? Do you have that in Chicago? Just for U only started in Hawaii and then went to Nor CA and Chicago so maybe they will spread it out. I will shoot an email out right now and ask.
Michelle,
A lot of the stores have a computer and printer available at the front specifically for this program. You can log in and print your stuff there. If the offer doesn’t take most likely you grabbed the wrong item :). Maybe your personal price was for the 10oz box and you grabbed the 15oz box or something. If you are 100% sure you got the right item and it didn’t work, customer service will refund the difference. You can also try calling Safeway at the # on your receipt and sometimes they will credit you the difference on your club card and the next time you shop it comes off. Seems like they are not doing that as much now- they want you to go to customer service.
For this week, the program gives me a free Glori-Ann mini corn 4ct but I couldn’t find this brand in any of our stores here. They only have Safeway brand and Green Giant brand and only in 6ct. Should I enquire at customer service as well ?
Leng,
Why don’t you click on the details section under personal deals as mentioned in the post to just make certain you are registered in the area that you currently shop. If you are for sure in the right region, yes I would just ask them about it.
“As your husband is driving to the store.” ; ) I could really mess with him too by adding more stuff to the list as he is shopping. He panicks the way it is now if I hand over a very short, specific list with coupons. LOL!
Any mention of Alaska getting JustForU deals? We can load the coupons on our safeway card, but no personalized deals (says not available in our area)…wondering if you heard anything at the meeting! Thanks!
Beth,
I was told the program was nationwide except for Texas which rolls out next week. Can you check again next week and if you don’t have them I will ask specifically about Alaska.
Will do-I watch it all the time just waiting for us to be included! 🙂 Glad you have a direct line to ask for us!!!
Thank you for all the info! I live in Chicago & have been using JFU since they introduced it here. What drew me in was the deal match….and now, between that & the personalized deals on JFU, I am shopping here more & more. At the beginning, there were a lot of issues w/ prices not ringing up correctly…this was frustrating….and not only for us, but for the Customer Service desk…but things have really improved the past couple months….my only issue w/ Dominick’s is you really have to watch when you shop….they have a tendancy to leave expired products on the shelf.
I’ve been using this program since they launched it here in Northem CA, what really work for me, is print at home the list of the items I want to buy then be4 leave the store, check that the prices I got are the ones I’am supposed to get from the just 4 u program, so, if something wrong, just go to customer service with the list and they always give me a refund for the difference.
Another thing, most produce items on just 4 u personalized prices comes with al PLU # like on the bananas PLU is 4011, some times there are different PLU for the same items, so u gotta make sure that the checker use the PLU listed on your Just 4 U list or u wont get the personalised price… 😉
Jill,
I checked in and they said they are considering expanding it nationwide but they are not sure how to implement deal match right now. They currently only have it in Hawaii and in Dominick’s stores. So I guess that is why you get it in Chicago :).
Charlene,
Thanks so much for checking into Deal Match for me. Yes, we have Dominick’s here in Chicago, so I’m lucky! As a matter of fact, when I was in the store last night, I saw a sign that said Desl Match was available on the app now – by popular demand. Sure enough, there was an update for the app that I had never noticed.
Thanks again for keeping us updated on this program and for all that you do!
Hi Charlene! Thanks for your help and being a link to Safeway’s Just for U program for us! I still get the “personalized deals are not currently available in your area” response on their site (for Alaska!)…would you be able to ask them? Our zip code is 99577 if that helps at all, and we are a Carr’s Safeway. Thanks SO much!!!
Beth,
I literally just bumped into a Safeway rep at a conference and basically the answer is they don’t know. The expression on her face was more like don’t hold your breath though. I didn’t get any reasoning but she just said there was some red tape with Alaska and they really didn’t know how long it would be or if ya’ll will get it.
I would encourage people to send emails to them though asking to have it come your way. If they get enough of them they might put it more front of mind.
Ahh..thanks for asking for me! Guess we’re just behind the times, as usual! We’ll write them though!
I am having a difficult time getting #403 error messages FORBIDDEN, and unable to open page error messages. I used to be able to sign just fine, and had done so for several weeks, but not now? I just want to add my deals and shop. I have a MAC is this a new problem?
Barb,
It works fine for me on my PC. Can you try switching your browser? You should have Safari or FF on the mac and that might help.
I have Safari but am getting the #403 error message also.
I have Safari but am getting the #403 error message also. Anyway, I signed up for the program and when I went to the Coupon Center to add an item (Golden Grain Pasta) that is in this week’s ad of Digital Coupons, the item is not on in the coupon center. In fact, most or all of the digital coupon items in the ad is not in there. Why is that? How can I add it if it’s not there?
Helen,
You mean you wanted to add the coupons for the ad that starts tomorrow? They probably are not live until the ad is technically live, which is 9/19.
I understand that the manufacture coupons will only work once but the Safeway ones should work on multiple items if bought in the same transaction. Above you stated that the Safeway coupons always have a specific price on them but I don’t think this is true for example right now there is a lays digital coupon for $1.11 and the same was true when the oscar mayer lunch meat ran and these came off more than once. My delima is how do I tell which is a manufacture coupon and which is a store??? All look the same on the print out. I thought it manufacture ones always said “see details” but this does not seem to be the case. The potential for great deals is great but I am STRESSED out trying to figure it out and am afraid I am making a name for myself as being difficult at the store – no one seems to know whats going on. Thoughts?? Answers???
Hobespal,
All the information provided to me is detailed above. I am afraid I don’t have any additional information. It kind of sounds like you are yelling at me so maybe just relax a little when you go to your store. It is only groceries, there is no need to be stressed out ;).
I tried to explain the manufacturer coupons vs. store coupons above. I don’t have an explanation as to why the manufacturer coupons work multiple times. I thought it was a nice perk and I didn’t think to push an answer when I was in an all day seminar with the developers at Safeway.
If the coupon says “one time” that means you may use it on as many items as you care to purchase in the same transaction. If there is a specific limit stated, you can only purchase up to the limit they have listed. The Oscar Mayer coupon was a one time coupon- so it worked for multiple items in the same transaction. I actually posted about that a few times since it was in conjunction with a catalina.
So sorry if it seemed as if I was yelling at you, I am not. You seem to be the only one who has actually had some training with the Just 4 you program. The managers at my safeway have no idea nor did the lady at the Just 4 you hot line. I am sorry if I was unclear. The manufacture coupons do only come off for one item and say on my receipts “J4U MFR ECoupon” there are other safeway cents off coupons (not with a specific price) that say “J4U Store eCpn” that come off on multiple items in the same transaction. The problem is that I and my store managers can not figure out how to tell the two apart on the website or on the print out making planning very difficult. I was hoping you knew something we didn’t. I have a good relationship with my Safeway- no yelling:).
Thank you so much for this explanation! It was very helpful. I just got back from my worst safeway trip ever because I thought, even after reading the cooupn policies 3 times that all card coupons were safeway coupons. What a rude awakening! Totally blew my budget 🙁 I really wish there policies were more clear on this subject! I hope they change them to be more specific.
Thank you so much. I was so confused regarding this program. Your article answered all of my questions.
I use J4U clipper app in android to add all my coupons. Its great.. I dont have to add each coupon manually.
I think the way one tells between SF ecoupon and a MF ecoupon is when u open it, there is no address that says where it should be sent. most MFC have the dress it goes to and the limittaions like a reg cpn
Does Safeway not realize what an inconvenience it is to run through all the coupons (Just for U, personalized, etc) and then load them to your card??
I also hope they are more descriptive with the coupon items. I don’t know how many times i had to hunt to find the exact size item that they were referring to or it wasn’t discounted at the register… GEEZ! who has all this extra time!!
I wonder why when there’s an ad for JUST 4 U in my local paper as there is this week (Haagen-Daz or Nestle) 3.99 and $1 off with digital coupon, I check the JUST 4 U offers on my account so I can add it to my card, that deal isn’t listed for me. 🙁
The free items are extremely hard to get. Safeway offers it up as free to thousands of their customers but then only stocks about a dozen on the shelf each day. Good luck actually getting your free item! I don’t even bother adding free items to my card anymore…just too aggravating.