Jill Cataldo

Looks like they are working hard on writing this coupon policy since they are taking SO long....

There is one cashier at my Doms that also uses coupons and she told me that the policy is in the process of changing from 12 to 6 months for expired coupons. They also said the new policy will be to not take any IP with FREE and so they did not want to take my BOGO IP for jones sausage. I said their currrent policy clearly acccepts it and they responded they have no current policy! I didn't argue further but my cashier did take the coupon "since it scanned". The other night I was in there and a manager said he would not take a $2 jewel cat. i informed him that they have been accepting them for weeks now and he took it.

I'm just curious what manufacturers would say about Dominicks' coupon policy giving consumers only 50% of the value of a printable coupon. After all, the manufacturers are reimbursing Dominick's the full value of the coupon, plus the handling fee.

From a manufacturer and consumer standpoint, it doesn't feel like Dominick's is operating within the parameters of fair business practice. It feels like Dominick's is stealing half the value of the coupon from the consumer who is using the coupon.

I went to Jewel four times in one day to do the current YB and Cat Deals - what a blast! Oh yeah, I did go to Dominicks twice in one day, second time was to return the THREE WEEK OLD expired yogurt that I just purchased. Thank God I noticed before I gave it to my children. Just another reason I prefer Jewel.

if a Dom's store coupon is drawing you in that Jewel will also take competitor's store brand coupons and match them. Haven't looked at this week's Dom's ad yet, but say Dominick's has it's Lucerne milk on sale but you have to use the Dom's ad coupon, just take it to Jewel and you get it matched with the Jewel brand milk.

Even with a Super Coupon where you struggle at Dom's to meet the price requirement to qualify since you're only in there for one item at Jewel you're usually doing a Cat deal so that's no longer a problem.

Been so busy scooping up free stuff at Jewel, I almost forgot! I just had to share these "highlights" from the earnings call today.

Total sales declined 8.1% in the fourth quarter of 2009. This decline includes a 4.1% decline in identical-store sales, excluding fuel, for the quarter. (4% of shoppers are no longer shopping at their “usual” Dominick’s).

Safeway fourth quarter profit sank 38%!

The biggest indication they just don’t and never will get it? This quote:

In the conference call, CEO Steve Burd said that the supermarket chain had closed the price gap with its traditional competitors. "I think for several months now, people have been saying, 'Well, where are you in this baseball game.' And I am now telling you the game is over in the U.S and we won," he said in the call.

You won? Your sales are down over 8%!! That’s not winning. And the game is not over! Look around… there aren’t enough hours in the day for us to get all the great deals Jewel is giving us!!

I feel like we as shoppers are totally getting the brush off. I bet Dominick's corporate HQ has no idea the reach of Jill's site and how many thousands of people read it daily.

Try this Dominick's. Go into any one of your stores and try to find a Swiffer sweeper right now.

Guess what, you can't. I went to four yesterday and NO ONE HAD SWIFFERS. Why is that? Because of Jill's site telling people where to shop and what is a good deal.

First of all, if you were smart you'd be restocking Swiffers like there's no tomorrow. Instead I went to the fourth store to ask about them and the MANAGER TOLD ME HE WOULD NOT ORDER ANY MORE SWIFFERS because "too many people are buying them."

Okay Really. Isn't that the goal of the store? Sell lots of products and make money?

After four stores I gave up and got it at Target where they had plenty in stock.

If one "little bitty website" can clear out your stores' stock of Swiffers imagine what that site could do if it told everyone to STOP SHOPPPING AT YOUR STORE!

I never was told by a Jewel manager that they would not order more of a product because "too many people were buying them."

You seriously have zero idea how strong this is and how far this site reaches. We can clear out your store......or we can stop shopping there completely. You're either with your shoppers or against us. And based on how you just messed up the super coupons policy to be less shopper friendly it is clear on which side you sit.

I bought Yoplait Delights today, had a $1 e-coupon loaded on my card and $1 IP. She didn't want to accept the IP since I had already got a $1 off with the e-coupon. My total was pretty low since that was the only thing I bought and I think that's why she noticed. She had to ask the bagger (who I'm guessing was another cashier/CS lady) if she could accept it and the response was a droned "yes she can" and a sigh. I wasn't doing anything wrong, so why the attitude?

I keep saying I'm done with Dom's, but I keep giving them more chances. Once in awhile I may have a good experience but then I get let down again. This type of relationship isn't healthy so I'm cutting the ties today, deals or no deals.

Just in case Dominick's is still reading and taking input from this thread (ha ha), here's "My Dominick's Story."

Since moving to the Chicago area three years ago, I can count on one hand the number of times I've been shopping at Dominick's.

1) First week in town, visited the store in Elk Grove looking to stock an empty fridge. As I stood in the freezer section slack-jawed from utter shock at the high prices (granted, part of that was being unaware of the cost-of-living in Chicago) a kind older woman asked if I she could help. I mentioned my surprise at the prices, being new to town and all, and she agreed -- which was significant seeing as how she was an (off-duty) employee there and yet told me that she only shopped the store for their meat sales. I then got a good earful about how the corporate office was in the middle of a massive dispute with the workers' unions, and how the stores were going all to heck, etc. Between the empty store, high prices, and the "inside" information, I left without buying anything and didn't return for months. Did my stock-up at Meijers and Wal-Mart instead.

2) Family visiting for Thanksgiving. We needed another turkey, and wanted to get a smoked turkey for some variety. Jewel and Meijers didn't have the smoked ones. So, I ventured into Dom's for a look. They had them, but again at an obscenely high price. Left empty handed. Ended up finding the turkey at Aldi's for just over half the price Dominick's was asking. Between the high prices and the mediocre "sales" that I saw in the weekly adverts, didn't bother to set foot in the store again for the next two years.

3) Two years (and a newborn) later and now every dollar in our budget counts. Borrowed Jill's DVD from a friend and became a quick Super-Couponing convert. Not long thereafter, there's a really good Catalina deal at Dom's so, we decide to give them a try one more time. This time at the Bartlett store. Employees in the aisles were extremely friendly and helpful in finding items. Checking out wasn't a nightmare, but not perfect either. Only hiccup was that the cashier (I'm assuming a new employee since she gladly took the coupons yet didn't know what to do with them) thought that the "do not double" wording on the coupon meant you couldn't use more than one of the same coupon in a transaction.

4) and 5) Two more trips, first to Bartlett and then to Elk Grove looking for PureVia deal. Again, employees in the aisles were very helpful and not too much trouble checking out, but that's probably just because I only had a couple items and a couple coupons.

Bottom line -- the only reason we have actually bought anything at Dominick's in the past three years is due to the deals learned about in this blog.

However, given the horror stories people have shared here (I'll be double-checking expiration dates on any future trips) and the generally flippant brushing-off that corporate appears to have given Jill ("we have enough to work with, thank you") even those really good deals are quickly losing what little grip they may have had on our grocery dollars. Like this week, a $25/$10 catalina deal... oh wait, that $10 is a STORE coupon that I can't take to Jewel!? Thanks, but no thanks. Better luck next time.

My husband was a bagger at Dominicks when he was a teenager and when I moved to the Chicago area after we were engaged we shopped at the Hoffman Estates store. I also rarely used coupons but the store was cleaner and the employees were more courteous than at Jewel. After we moved, we noticed that the Dominicks in LITH was small, dirty, and empty! I also got tired of feeling like I was unwelcome there by the employees on several occasions. It was during this time that I became a stay at home mom and needed to actually pay attention to a budget. The first thing I did was stop shopping Domincks, ever! They were too expensive, not coupon friendly (I was using a lot more now!) and still dirty, rude and empty. With so many other shopping options within .25 miles, why should I support this store?

IF some extensive training happens for the employees, I MIGHT change my mind and go back there some day. Until they learn some basic customer service skills (maybe even a smile once and a while) and get ALL employees on board the same coupon policy I will continue to give my money to Jewel, Meijer and SuperTarget.

There is no deal good enough to be treated poorly, in my mind!

I am new to the site & fairly new to couponing. I have read several posts about Dominick's & what happened with people during a specific transaction. I honestly stopped reading after page 1, because no one was offering any solutions. I would have loved to see some people put what happened & what could have been done to fix it. All in all, it seems more time needs to be spent on their policies and teaching their employees their policies. Since I did not read all the posts, I hope Dominick's does continue to read all of the posts & make some changes to their current procedures.

On February 16, 2010, I went shopping at your Dominick's location at 560 S. Schmale Road, Carol Stream, IL at 5:30 p.m. My shopping experience was very pleasant until it became time for me to redeem the coupons that I had brought with me to the store.

I had some manufacturer coupons/Catalinas and the cashier, Chris, told me that he didn't think he would be able to accept them since he had previously “gotten into a lot of trouble” with management for accepting them. I have shopped at this Dominick's for the last 6 months and had redeemed multiple manufacturer coupons/Catalinas for a transaction and did not incur any problems. Some of the cashiers that I had accepting them were part of the management team. The cashier, Chris, asked his fellow cashier to his left if he could accept them. Her response was “as long as it's for a product that we carry in the store we can accept them, but you may want to call the manager to double check.”

The Assistant Manager, Theresa M, came over. She immediately looked to see what my total transaction cost was at the time on the register. The cashier asked if he could redeem more of my manufacturer coupons/Catalinas. He stated that he had already scanned one for $3 and it was accepted with no problems, but wanted to verify before he continued since he had “gotten into a lot of trouble with management for accepting them.” I had $18 of manufacturer coupons/Catalinas left to redeem.

Assistant Manager, Theresa M, said that I could not use more than one manufacturer coupons/Catalina at a time. I stated that according to my understanding of the corporate coupon policy that Dominick's accepts all manufacturer/Catalina coupons even up to a year past the expiration date and the ones in question were current. Then Theresa M. said rather loudly, “You mean you want me to take off an additional $18 from your?! No! No. You already have saved enough and cannot expect me to take off more. Have a good one,” and began to walk away. I asked her for a business card with her name on it because I would be contacting corporate to see why there is such a change in how this particular store was handling coupons today as it has in the past, as well as to clarify why all the other Dominick's I visit have no problems with me redeeming the same types of coupons when I shop there. She said that “no such thing exists” and I should “have a good one” and continued to walk away from me at the register back to the management booth. I could not believe that a representative of the corporation had talked to me in that manner in front of her employees and other shoppers. She made me feel like I was trying to steal from the store when I was only trying to understand the coupon policy.

2/19
I've never had a problem with the cashiers, customer service or the store itself at the Lake Zurich Dominick's. It's fairly recently remodeled store. Nice and clean. Good variety of items. Fresh produce. Sushi chef in store.

The cashiers have always been nice and friendly. When I do bring in more than a few coupons, I can see they're less nice and friendly, but still very courteous and respectful.

Tonight when I went, there was a visible aurora of fear/panic with the cashiers and customer service folks. There was a visiting Manager tonight. I know this, because he was circling C.S. and the registers the whole time. I asked at C.S. desk about some coupons I wanted to use before I went to use them (I didn't want to get the P&G offer combined with e-coupons and insert coupons to not work the way I thought they would). I often do this, because I don't want to hold up the line. I've often been told, "don't worry, if it doesn't work, we'll fix it at the register."

So, the cashiers were so nervous. All of my coupons worked fine. One of the usuals was apologizing to me for giving me my change back slowly! I didn't notice it was slowly, but then the visiting manager came over and asked me if everything was alright. The cashier looked panicked. And, I reassured them all was well.

Anyone else have these experiences with LZ Dom being pretty darn good and the other experience of "something is afoot" at the store this week!

2/20 Went to same Dominick's. Cashiers nice and friendly today again. But, found lots of outdated pudding snack packs on the shelf!

I went to Dominicks in Bartlett yesterday to do the Nature valley granola bar deal. 2 for $3.00, limit 6. I loaded all my cellfire, shortcuts, etc.. and with coupons in hand... went into the store. As I stood in line, I got palpitations anticipating my transaction. Is that what I'm supposed to be feeling in line at the grocery store?? I have legitimate coupons in hand and still feeling sick to my stomach like I am committing a felony. I made it thru the transaction with a small disgruntled look from the cashier but I'll take that rather than an argument. I made it home with my 6 boxes for $5.36 and felt good... that is... once I left the store :)

I don't often shop at Dom's but when the deals are good enough, I go out of my way to go to the Dom's on Rt 59 in Shorewood. They are the most coupon friendly.
I do not go to the Dom's on Essington Rd in Joliet. They treat me as if I am doing something I should not be, epsecially the CS ladies, and act as if I am bothering them. I am one of 5 customers in the store. They have plenty of time for EXCELLENT customer service. It is sad, the good thing about being one of about 5 customers is I always get a parking spot in the front! To the management of those 2 stores I purchase for multiple households, my church, and food pantry. I purchase 95% of it at the VERY friendly Jewel in Shorewood and I don't usually get a good parking space!

Ughh...I went this am and was informed of a new rule at my dominicks. Here it is:

You can only use 1 internet coupon per item per day. So, if I wanted to buy 4 rightguard deodorants and use two of the $2/2 internet coupons that coupons.com allowed me to print from my computer, I CAN NOT! I have to come back the next day. Is this crazy? The customer service lady informed me that there is so much coupon fraud out there that this is the only way the Dominick's can protect themselves from loosing money. How about loosing business and customers? The customer service rep. said that I can come back tomorrow and use the coupon??? what's the difference if it's today or tomorrow...the coupon is legitimate and did not beep.

I try not to be negative but I really dislike shopping at Dominicks. Really, it's just a hassle and I get a headache each time I go in there. I think that I give up. They won....they lost me as a customer.

Why waste anymore breath or brain cells or aggravation as they have everything they need to work with.

Let's see what proof they put into the pudding.

Why don't we all just boycott for a week or so? Do you think they'd get the message then?

I'd like to comment on the statement made by corporate " We have enough to work with for now. Please thank your audience for us."
Excuse me - since when are we an audience? I thought we were customers. They have enough to work with. In other words I intrepret that to mean - we've let you blow off steam now let us big great executives go back to doing important stuff while you fuss over a few coupons. I still read there response as - we don't care. I've taken my six million dollar bonus home so if the company folds tomorrow, I'll have enough to pay my bills until I get my next job earning a six million dollar bonus.
Unfortunately, if Dominicks does have good deals, I will still shop there. The only difference is, when I go in, I walk out strictly with whatever items the coupons in my pocket is for. If I'm going to do impulse buys (which the average couponer still does), I will head over to Jewel with my bigger stack of coupons and spend more time browsing the store seeing what they have of interest.
I do have to thank Dominicks for one thing tho - I love parking. It's very rare that I have to park more than a few feet from the door.

I thought about this some more today and think Dom's is not only doing doing a disservice to their customers but their employees as well. By not educating their cashiers about their own policy, which seems to be the case, they are making things harder for everyone. They can revamp the policy all they want, but if that's all they are going to focus on things will not get better.

They cannot ignore the customer servcice issues they have, which is the crux of the problem. Yes their policy needs to be stated more cleary and some changes made, but I don't feel that's their biggest problem.

I've never been a cashier but it has to be hard not knowing what coupons to accept/not accept. Some of the comments here have eluded to the fact that cashiers have said they'll be fired if they accept certain coupons. If that's the case, I can understand why they are reluctant to accept them. Does it excuse their attitude regarding coupon use? No, but it might explain it a bit. Knowing that you might lose your job over a coupon would do that to anyone.

It's a vicious cycle - cashiers not knowing what to accept/not to accept and couponers getting angry when their coupons aren't accepted. It ends with frustration on both sides. I really hope they are addressing the CS issues and not brushing them aside as it sound like they are from the quote above. I think they need to dig deeper and look at this as a whole, not just a coupon issue.

I feel like Dominick's just said "Yeah, So? What's Your Point?". It is abundantly clear to me that this will be a never ending saga. Frankly it is not worth it. Dominick's is not interested in making changes, retaining their few remaining customers, reclaiming those of us who have taken our shopping dollars elsewhere or even attracting new customers.

All they really wanted was for us to be quiet. They responded to Jill's letter because Jill gets major print and television media coverage. In addition, 10,000's (correct me if I am overestimating Jill) of people have taken her classes. What they wanted was for Jill to be a merry Dominick's shopper in one of her segments. What they DIDN'T want was for her to tell her class attendees NOT to shop at Dominick's because they are beyond not being coupon friendly. Their employees will humiliate you and accuse you of theft, fraud and myriad of other untrue offenses in front of a line full of strangers (or worse yet your neighbor, your child's teacher, your clergyman anyone you know who MIGHT be in line behind you).

Well I say good riddance to you Dominick's in the same way in which you have said good riddance to us as your customers. Your total sales in 2009 Q3 declined 7% versus Q3 in 2008. How many 7% declines per quarter do you have until you have no sales left at all? I'll let you do the math. Issues with coupons ARE a customer service issue. That is why we leave empty handed and angry (leading to a major part of that 7% decline). The very idea that we as the consumer have to explain that to you makes it obvious that no turnaround will ever materialize.

Thanks for the memories Dominick's. Someday soon we will be reflecting on that store that "used" to be in the Chicagoland area. You will become the A&P of our generation.

If you wish to further discuss my experiences at your store you can find me at Jewel, most evenings between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. spending my shopping dollars!

I avoided the Geneva Dom's because of their horrendous service and attitude towards couponers. Unfortunately, I received just as RUDE a cashier at St. Charles.

I am calling out a specific cashier - Tom Stone. I went there to buy (5) Froot Loops @ 1.88 deal to get the $4 cat. I also bought (2) Minute Maid OJ & used their store q.

Total PRE-CARD: $23.xx
Total Post-Card: $14.40 but before coupons

I handed Tom the manufacturer coupons which he angrily scanned. Then it got worse. When I started handing him Jewel cats, he said snidely, "they're gonna do away with these soon." I ignored that comment. When I had handed him a couple of cats, he said "it's not right." Mind you there are at least 2 people in line behind me who clearly heard this. I said very calmly - "what's not right?" He answered "you didn't buy the product" and shook his head in disgust. I said "your corporate is ok with using these (cats)." He said, "yeah I know" and shook his head again. Clearly, I had bought the product. I was just paying for them with cats + cash. RUDE, offensive SERVICE to people who use coupons.

Obviously, there is no such thing as customer service at Dom's. The basics of be nice to your customers doesn't apply, and if you can't bring yourself to be NICE - at least BE POLITE. I'm appalled that their employees think it's ok to speak to anyone like that.

I AM DONE WITH DOMINICK'S.

I don't always shop there but two weeks ago on a Saturday evening I shopped. I was going to church to was in a rush. The lady rang my groceries. I had more than once internet coupon but was told I could not use them in the same purchase. Then I had some buy one thing get anther thing free. I asked her are you sure this is right (don't have cashiers name) and she says yes. I go home and find she just put numbers in. The products that were supposed to be free were NOT the cost. People saw me shopping coupons in the store and several store employees asked if they could help but when it gets to checking out you really need to have time to slow them down or you loose......I am not in a hurry to go back.

I spoke with Dominick's public relations again today, and these are the high points from that call:

Corporate is still reading everything posted here.

Quotes from PR:

"First, thanks for gathering all of the comments on our coupon policy. This feedback is helpful and in good timing as we have a team reviewing and revising our company wide policies. We have enough to work with for now. Please thank your audience for us."

"I know somehow the topic on your blog expanded to include service issues and I’d really like to focus on coupons only. The best and speediest way to give us feedback on any customer service issues, compliments or suggestions is through our website. We have a very thorough system in place to respond to and track customer comments."

Other notes from the call -- the 50% restriction on printable coupons is STAYING in their policy. I asked that they clarify which price the 50% refers to then - original or Fresh Values price? And, if it's in an instant-savings deal, is it the post-instant-savings price? I did stress that this is hurting them in comparison to competitors, but it sounds like it is a Safeway policy that will not change.

They are trying to get the new policy written up in as timely a manner as possible, at which point new training, etc will take place among stores.

That's it...