So, as I mentioned on Monday, this past Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending the relaunch event for Safeway’s Just For U program. Myself and 16 other bloggers were given the opportunity to learn about the improvements to this awesome money saving program, as well as the in’s and out’s of utilizing it to maximize our savings. And I have to tell you, I was pretty impressed!
Many of you in Northern California have already been using this program, as we were a test market. So you know about loading the coupons to your card, the personalized deals and all that good stuff. For those of you that don’t know, the Just For U program is a digital savings center that allows you to load deals and coupons directly to you Safeway Club Card. It is broken down in to three components:
Safeway has partnered with several of the largest coupon aggregates (Coupons.com, P&G, Cellfire, etc.) to bring you the best in digital coupons which you can load directly on to your Club Card. Simply log in to your Just For U savings center and click on the coupon center icon. You’ll then be presented with pages and pages of savings! Click the red “Add” button beneath each coupon to load it to your card. Note the box to the left of each “Add” button where you will see the limitations of your savings i.e. how many times it can be used (one-time means one transaction, not one item) and the expiration date. Once you’ve added all of your offers to your card you can then choose to e-mail or print your savings list; you can access this same list via the Safeway Just For U mobile app, which I will talk more about below (I LOVE it!).
***One question I got asked the most when I announced I was attending this event was: how do we know which coupons can be stacked? As well all know manufacturer coupons can not be stacked with other manufacturer coupons. So stacking a paper coupon with a digital coupon is a no-no if the two are both cents off coupons issued from a manufacturer. Safeway’s system will only give you the benefit of one or the other, depending on which is higher in value. However, there are a few digital coupons that can be identified as “stackable” and these are the coupons that have a price point rather than a cents off savings:
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The personalized deals section of the Just For U program really sets Safeway far and above the competitor. It’s like automatic price matching! How this works is Safeway takes note of your past purchases and shopping behaviors and uses that information to target relevant offers to you. You’ll see special deals on between 35 and 40 different products each week, including a completely FREE offer (sometimes more than one!). For example, Coach D and I are big fans of Safeway’s deli sandwiches which is reflected in our shopping history. Safeway has taken note of that and personalized a deal for us which we can load to our card and we will only have to pay $3.99 per sandwich versus the regular price. Cool, huh?!
***If you think your deals are not targeted to your needs enough, you may want to check and see if somebody else has been using your Club Card number. This can skew your shopping behavior data which can throw off your offers. To sort out your shopping history and clean-it up if need be, call Safeway customer service at (877)SAFEWAY.
This section is dedicated to laying out all of the items on sale inside the store, whether they are showcased in the weekly ad or not. This is a great way to get an overview of the store before you shop, which can help you narrow down your needs and deals.
One of the best new features of this program is the mobile app! I have to say, one of the most frustrating aspect of the old program was the need to sit at your computer to snag your savings. Even though you still have the option to do this, I find using the mobile app much more convenient. Not only can you select your savings and personalized deals on the fly, you can build your shopping list too! The only section you can’t see on the mobile app at the moment is the Club Special section, but they are fixing that in a future release. This app is available on iTunes and the Android Marketplace.
***Safeay gave us a chance to shop one of their stores with this app and I managed to save 51% without using a single paper coupon! I built my entire list and clicked all of my savings on the bus ride over and all of my deals were deducted automatically at checkout – it was a serious time saver and SUPER convenient:
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| At a little over $20 I saved 51% on this shopping trip! |
If you haven’t yet signed up for the Just For U program, be sure you head this way to register yourself with either your Club Card number or the phone number associated with your Club Card account.
Coupons procured by Savings.com
***Safeway provided me with gift cards and a swag bag for attending this event, but all opinions about this program are 110% my own. Always have been, always will be.