Earlier this week, I found a Catalina in a shopping cart at Jewel. It reads:
Buy One (1) or more MorningStar Farms Veggie Foods Products in this store using your frequent shopper card now through 6/30/12 and get a $2.00 reward that can be used on your next shopping trip.
I thought, cool! MorningStar products were on sale at Jewel for $3.50, and I had a $1 printable from Coupons.com… I thought, I’ll pay $2.50, get $2 back, and I could enjoy some veggie goodness for a cool fifty cents. Right?
Wrong. This Catalina isn’t for just anyone…
Last year, I spoke at a Catalina Marketing event, and right around that time, I had also received a Catalina alert at Dominick’s for Snuggle fabric softener. It had a similar wording to this MorningStar alert, in which it seemed to indicate that only the recipient of the alert will receive the reward. At the event, I asked some Catalina reps about the Snuggle alert I had, and they affirmed that the then-current Snuggle offer was only for “selected” recipients based on marketing data and other factors.
That was back in January of 2011. I can’t recall seeing any alerts like this, which are specific to a particular shopper, in over a year. Finding this Catalina this week (and also finding that it didn’t work for me) makes me wonder how many more promotions like this will be offered only to a selected group of shoppers.
While it’s always nice to receive special offers and high-value Catalina payouts… it does make these deals more difficult to blog when they’re only offered to specific people. I wonder too if there will be an increase in these offers simply because they will be difficult to spread and share info about online when they don’t work for everybody.
Anyway, I took one for the team this week because I wanted to see what would happen! But it’s something to keep in mind too — if you find a Catalina alert with similar wording, it may not work for you.
rswehrle says
I too received a special catalina offer for Post Coco Pebbles at my local Vons store. (aka:Dominick’s). I double checked the catalina website and it was not listed, so I wasn’t sure if it was valid. I ended up not buying any cereal in the specified time frame, (end of last April) because it wasn’t on sale, so the deal would not have been good. I am guessing that it printed out for me because when it is on sale I buy a lot of it. My son lives on the stuff, so stock up when it’s cheap. It is good to know that some catalinas are just for me, but yes, there is a down side when not everyone gets to participate. Maybe it would have nudged someone to buy the product for the first time and then become a life time buyer.
dancingwolves says
had a specific Jewel card number indicated on it? Or was it when it beeped at the registered it was determined you didn’t qualify?
ttschabes says
About a week ago at Dominick’s I received a Cat with the heading “You have been specially selected to participate in California Pizza Kitchen Rewards”. It clearly states that I have to use the same retailer card. But the offer is to earn $3 for every 6 CPK pizzas I purchase and they can be made over multiple trips through 11/15/12. So, it it a little more proof that targeted deals are on the rise.
crazy4coupons says
I did receive the Morningstar alert at Dominick’s like the one Jill saw in the shopping cart. They were on sale for $2.99 – $1 printable coupon…so that was going to be a great deal. Free veggie burgers for me. I planned to do several different trips. The problem is, is that the $2 cat only printed the first time I purchased the veggie burgers. Not on subsequent trips. So, customer service gave me the $2 in cash but I’m wondering if that’s just a one shot deal for the cat alerts that are customer specific? Has anyone else tried this?
dtanton says
I’ve been out of town for almost a month and done almost no couponing — when I got home, I cleaned out my coupon binder and I found the same catalina you showed in your post, Jill. I thought it was odd that none of the Chicagoland couponers had mentioned this Catalina in any of their posts over the last week or so but decided I probably just missed it because I’m so behind on blog reading.
Since we’re very low on vegetarian meat replacement products, because I’ve been gone for a month, I decided I’d buy a box at Jewel this weekend but now you’ve got me second guessing…
Did I really receive that Cat or did one of my helpful family members find it and toss it into my Jewel coupon folder? Did I receive that Cat at the Jewel I shop at 99% of the time or was it a Jewel I hit on my way home from Drama or from the Nursing Home or from some other wandering around.
Gah! Complicated Catalina — I like the idea of these personalized deals but I’d like more obvious info on them. Name of card owner and store name/address would be really helpful.