[icruise]

This is such an unusually good deal that I thought I would post it here. Meijer (a chain of superstores kind of like Walmart with many stores in the midwest) has a coupon that is only good on Friday the 10th of November that will give you 30% off on a 30GB Video iPod, making it only $175. The coupons were in an advertising supplement in last Sunday's paper, but my store had some of them in store as well. They also have 15% off all iPod accessories and are doing a promotion where if you buy $50 of P&G products you will get a register coupon for $20 off any iPod or accessory $79 or above (this would be great for the new shuffle, but unfortunately my store doesn't have them). It's not clear if this is stackable with the 30% off deal.

Anyway, my mom plans to finally upgrade her original 5GB model using this deal so I thought I would give a heads-up to anyone who has a Meijer in their area.

[Tuoder]

Meijer is marginally less evil than Wal-Mart. This makes the margin even larger.

[ghporter]

I saw Meijer long before Wally World, and I think they do the big-box thing much better than the folks from Arkansas. But I agree that this iPod deal is a very nice step in the right direction.

[d7473]

It's too bad this great deal is a lie. None of the meijers in my area (Grand Rapids MI, Meijers home town) had more than one or two in stock at 12:01 AM the day of the sale.
I don't believe they had any intention of selling more than a few of them at this price.
Oh, by the way, NO rainchecks.
This is blatant consumer fraud and I would encourage everyone to report this to your respective states consumer affairs division and to local tv and print media

[icruise]

Well, my Mom got one and her store had about 10 of them (which were gone shortly after midnight). Some stores were obviously not prepared to meet the demand though.

[jsmith9090]

We were at the one in Northville at 11:30 last night. We were given some lame excuse that they were not going on sale until 6:00am even though it said no time on the coupon. We drove a few miles to the one in Commerce and were told they didn't have any. We then heard that the people that showed up at 4:00am to get them were told at 6am that they didn't have any. Why didn't they just say that at Midnight. We tried to go to Best Buy today and get them to match and were told that they are not honoring Meijers coupon because they never had any intention in stocking there stores. Also was told that the coupon was wrong and that it should have been $30 off instead of 30%. I did think this deal was strange. $75 off making it cheaper then the Nano. So instead of just placing a sign that says there was a mistake in the ad, Meijers pulls all the Ipods from there shelves. This is wrong. We will be writing or calling Meijers with our displeasure.

[icruise]

From what I heard, technically these deals are indeed supposed to start at 6:00AM and not midnight, but each store seems to interpret this differently. I thought the 30% was a mistake myself when I first heard about it, but certainly some people did get them at that price.

[d7473]

Why are you defending this company? Either it was an intentional fraud or they are too incompetent to proofread their ads and fixed their mistake by screwing their customers.

[icruise]

Uh, I'm not defending anyone. I'm merely saying that in some cases they did indeed honor the deal.

[ghporter]

Intentional fraud is a very serious charge. Marketing is what this is about. Most ads tell you "at least five in each store" or some such, because they know they'll get people in the door, which is the whole point of the exercise. You seem to be taking it personally, and that's not a very positive way to deal with anything involving big business.

I'll bet that in MOST cases, there were a fair number of iPods in the stores, and that the MANAGEMENT intended to make good on the offer. That says nothing about Joe Meijer Worker, though. Instead of being upset with the company, talk to the store manager about how THAT store didn't honor a chain offer, and that you're upset about it. It's amazing what a store manager can do when a customer complains DIRECTLY AND POLITELY to him or her. Really.

[Tuoder]

The Meijer by my house had no iPods for months. They had a sign over the case where they usually kept them. I know this because my friends and I would thumb through the magazines nearby, occasionally buying one. They did have a bunch n the case the lst time I was there. There are probably some supply line issues here. I don't think anyone is intentionally getting scammed. Scamming customer is VERY expensive in the US. When you get caught, you pay lawyers a lot of money. If it makes news, you lose your reputation and buisiness. It is not that important. It is just an iPod.

[delusion]

I registered an account here just to give you my experience with the Meijer fiasco.

I live in Oakland County, Michigan, so there are many Meijer locations within a reasonable drive. After voting on Tuesday, me and my roommate went to the Oxford location on other business, just happened to check out some iPod accessories (I have the 5g 30GB, had a 4g 20G before that, and before that, a Creative Zen 20, and my roommate was interested in one, but not at the retail price). We noticed that there were three white and one black in the cabinet.

A day or two later, we got the ad with the 30% coupon, and between that and the Proctor & Gamble coupon (spend $30, get $10 off an iPod or iPod accessory valued at or over $75, or spend $50 and get $20 off, and even further, the P&G coupons can be "stacked", meaning that if you wanted a truckload of diapers and kleenex and what have you, you could essentially get the ipod for free). My roommate decided that that was enough of a price cut to warrant it, and after management at Meijer stated the deals were not exclusive to one another, bought $50 of P&G products we'd eventually buy anyway.

Knowing that Meijer's sales sometimes begin at midnight, and sometimes at 6:00am, and that very often stores don't enforce the 6:00am time unless it's stated specifically in the text of the ad copy, he was going to be sure to be in Oxford before midnight. I work nights, but my girlfriend graciously agreed to be my proxy.

The obvious problem with this already is that the 30% off deal was only for Friday, but the P&G coupon was good before (and after) the Friday sale. So while the best deal was the 30% stacked with some P&G discounts, for some, the P&G discounts alone were good enough, and it contributed to there being less iPods available on Friday.

Of course, since Apple enforces MSRP, I really don't know how this will affect Meijer's relationship with Apple. The only time I've ever seen an iPod discount is on minis and the ipod photo shortly after they were discontinued in favor of the nano and video. My guess is either Meijer inadvertantly breeched the sales contract with Apple, or that it didn't count because the deal was specifically a coupon and not a lower advertised price (which means that ANY store which honored the Meijer price, as I've heard a few people managed to do, did so because of inexperienced staff - price matching isn't as strictly regulated by state law, but commonly it doesn't apply to items that the store running the sale has sold out of, and doesn't apply to coupons but only to advertised price, which in this case was still $249.99). Another possibility is that Apple is loosening the sales contract with its retailers as a second pre-emptive strike against the Zune for this holiday season, but I haven't seen any other evidence of that.

Speaking of state law, Michigan state law is very clear on when a retailer is required to honor sales with a raincheck, and in this case, Meijer was legally required to do so because the advertising said nothing about actually limiting quantities per store or per chain. Knowing that this could result in fiasco, my roommate brought in a printout of the pertinant state law with him. He's practically an amateur consumer advocate.

Off I went to work for the night. When my girlfriend and my roommate got to the Oxford location, they were among the first people waiting, and they already had their "no raincheck" sign up. Midnight rolled around, and the drama began. Doing most of the talking for the group, my roommate squeezed rainchecks out of them for the original group, using the pertinant state law. This was treated as a goodwill gesture by the store, and not necessarily a blank check for everyone else that day, but the original group there at midnight did get rainchecks. Moreover, they did their rainchecks the "right" way - which is to say they took contact information. More on this, later.

My girlfriend came back, but my roommate went up to Lapeer to see if the situation was any different there. Again with state law on his side, he convinced management there to issue him for a rain check, but told him to call to check stock, and did not take his contact information. This is NOT how a rain check is supposed to work - legally they're supposed to contact YOU when the item is in stock, and agree to hold the item for up to 7 days (Meijer store policy is 10 days), and they have 90 days to manage this. After 90 days if no further items are delivered, I believe they're off the hook.

When I got home from work at 6:00am, my roommate agreed to go out with me to see what the situation was like in Auburn Hills and Rochester. Part of this was to get more rain checks with the hope that eventually one of them would amount to an iPod, and part was for the spectacle.

At Auburn Hills, the management would not budge, and gave us a Customer Contact Center phone number (1-800-543-3704), but I called that later that night at about 8:00pm, and they said I'd need to talk to someone higher up the food chain, who would be available at 7:30am). At Auburn Hills, they were legally in the wrong, firm about the store policy, and fairly polite about it. I can't imagine how much a nightmare this was for staff, especially from about midnight to noon.

We went on to Rochester Hills, and first dealt with a woman in the electronics department, who smiled and talked down to us. I felt she did, anyway. She: "Sir, as you well know, the iPod is a very popular item and tends to sell out."

Right, but then again, I'M not the one running a 30% discount on iPods, Meijer is. With this and the P&G promotion, they should have damn well known to get larger supplies of iPods specfically for the promotion, and held them in storage off the shelves until midnight (or 6:00am, depending on when local management divined the intent of the sale). As it was, some stores did NOT have ANY iPods even before midnight! (Oxford, for instance, and probably the other three stores we visited too.) If you're running a sale on a product you're already out of before the sale begins, that's definitely bait and switch. Maybe this wasn't the intent, it could have been simple neglect to specify a limited quantity in the ad copy, which would have legally absolved them of having to issue rain checks. But again, it's THEIR sale, and they should have their ducks in a row before the sale begins. A hot seller item that I personally have NEVER seen (aside from discontinued models) go on sale ANYWHERE (including CompUSA's Telegraph Road location's store closing blowout), combined with the P&G promotion should have made anyone at Meijer's chain management realize they'd be able to sell pretty much as many as they could have expected to get ahold of.

Back to Rochester Hills. The manager there eventually agreed to give us a rain check, noting that it was "just a piece of paper, we might not even get any in before the holidays". Nice, but by my calendar, 90 days (the period of time which the rain check covers) puts us into February. Again, the intent was not necessarily to get five iPods total (Lapeer, Oxford x 2, Rochester Hills x 2), but to cover the ground well enough to ensure that maybe, possibly, at least ONE of them would come through.

The Oxford location did call my girlfriend and my roommate, later that afternoon. They followed their rain check to the letter. Apparently THEIR stock was on a truck somewhere that got lost, and they were, I believe, able to satisfy at least all of the original group. The end result is that me and my roommate both have the ipod in hand for the advertised price, which after all the fiasco of the midnight and morning action, I found genuinely surprising.

Now, I'm a fan of Meijer. Their prices are excellent, and they move enough product that if you're patient, you can often get it discounted further on sales and clearance. Their business practices are more morally upstanding than Wal-Mart, and even if they were exactly the same level of evil, I'd rather my money go to the more local of the two, which would be Meijer. I'm treated well in their stores, and since the Auburn Hills location is literally right on the way back home from work, I don't have to make special trips out for groceries or gas, I can go in and just get what I'm out of and not waste a lot of time (at 6:30 am, there's never any crowds, though sometimes a floor buffer or two).

Having said that, this sale ran afoul of state law. Or rather, the failure to issue rain checks did, and even where rain checks were eventually issued, one should not have to quote state law, nor argue with management. Also, the way in which the rain checks were issued ran afoul of official store policy in the Lapeer and Rochester locations. If I were Meijer staff (particularly store management), I'd be pretty hot at the chain management for putting the stores in this situation - they could have either purchased more stock and/or specified a limited quantity available in the ad, and then the irate customers involved would still be irate, but the store would be legally in the right.

Since my roommate and I actually have the units in hand for the sale price, my personal motivation to wrangle further with the Customer Contact Center or with state officials is lukewarm at best. Others absolutely will be contacting one or both. Police were called at at least one location, I have heard, and Meijer probably needlessly ended up squandering a good amount of community good will.

It's been fun.

[ghporter]

Would it be safe to say, delusion, that Meijer management goofed on this? I would personally say that it doesn't look like an overall corporate plan to defraud customers, but a complete lack of coordination on Meijer's part-which is unsurprising, as most corporations never really bother with getting their poo together, particularly at the retail/customer interface.

It sounds like "letter to the editor" time in Southeastern Michigan to me. Wouldn't the Free Press and the News love to jump on this? They used to be like that, but I haven't read either one for a long time...

[delusion]

Though I don't say this with any authority, based on what I saw, this is what I think happened, in order:

Corporate approved the P&G discount.

Management ordered an insufficient supply of iPods for the P&G discount.

Corporate authorized the two week sale, and sent it to the printer.

The printer neglected to put "limited to 1000 chain wide" on the advertising - this may have been the fault of the printer or the ad copy writer.

Ad was distributed to the newpapers and put in store.

At many locations, the P&G sale left less than 5 units per store on average (0 in many cases).

Some time before midnight, corporate contacted the store and faxed them a "no rain check" sign (all three I saw were the same) and had them put it up, probably due to a lot of customer questions being forwarded by management to corporate by people who wanted the details of what would and wouldn't be allowed and available.

Midnight - most stores are out of product, the rest sell out within minutes. Dissatisfied customers mark the start one of Meijer's worst days since the last "Day after Thanksgiving" sales, typically the nuttiest morning in retail. Many have checked multiple locations from an hour before the sale to a few hours after.

6:00am - the few stores (if any) which stuck to the 6:00am sales date repeat the process above. More customers who expect a 6:00am start time turned away.


The bottom line is, in my opinion, that Meijer corporate made several distinct mistakes:

Misjudging the popularity of the P&G sale.
Combining the P&G sale with the one day 30% off sale, and not advertising it as "1000 while supplies last chain-wide".
Ordering insufficient quantity for either sale, and grossly insufficient quantity for both together.
Contacting the stores to give them guidance on the rain check issue that was not in compliance with state law.
Not complying with state law after the problem was identified, and leaving store managers to choose to violate either store policy or state law. Most chose poorly.

I still like Meijer, but this was a perfect storm of incompetance.

[Tuoder]

Originally Posted by delusion 

Though I don't say this with any authority, based on what I saw, this is what I think happened, in order:

Corporate approved the P&G discount.

Management ordered an insufficient supply of iPods for the P&G discount.

Corporate authorized the two week sale, and sent it to the printer.

The printer neglected to put "limited to 1000 chain wide" on the advertising - this may have been the fault of the printer or the ad copy writer.

Ad was distributed to the newpapers and put in store.

At many locations, the P&G sale left less than 5 units per store on average (0 in many cases).

Some time before midnight, corporate contacted the store and faxed them a "no rain check" sign (all three I saw were the same) and had them put it up, probably due to a lot of customer questions being forwarded by management to corporate by people who wanted the details of what would and wouldn't be allowed and available.

Midnight - most stores are out of product, the rest sell out within minutes. Dissatisfied customers mark the start one of Meijer's worst days since the last "Day after Thanksgiving" sales, typically the nuttiest morning in retail. Many have checked multiple locations from an hour before the sale to a few hours after.

6:00am - the few stores (if any) which stuck to the 6:00am sales date repeat the process above. More customers who expect a 6:00am start time turned away.


The bottom line is, in my opinion, that Meijer corporate made several distinct mistakes:

Misjudging the popularity of the P&G sale.
Combining the P&G sale with the one day 30% off sale, and not advertising it as "1000 while supplies last chain-wide".
Ordering insufficient quantity for either sale, and grossly insufficient quantity for both together.
Contacting the stores to give them guidance on the rain check issue that was not in compliance with state law.
Not complying with state law after the problem was identified, and leaving store managers to choose to violate either store policy or state law. Most chose poorly.

I still like Meijer, but this was a perfect storm of incompetance.

It is good to hear about educated consumers, although I would not have picked this battle. I agree with the last line wholeheartedly.

[icruise]

Clearly, this involved incompetence on several levels. First, the idea of having a 30% off sale on brand new iPods is pretty questionable to begin with. Then not having any mention of limited stock (Best Buy et al always say something like "minimum 5 per store" for hot items), not guaranteeing that stores actually had iPods, and not having a uniform time to start the sale, etc. But my mom certainly seems to be enjoying her new iPod.

And I recently bought a second PS2 for $99 with a similar coupon from Meijer (plus there was a "buy one game for $29.99 get a second half off" coupon and a "$20 off of a $50+ game" coupon), so this sale has been good to us. I do feel for the people who didn't get in on it though.

[delusion]

Originally Posted by Tuoder 

It is good to hear about educated consumers, although I would not have picked this battle. I agree with the last line wholeheartedly.

Ultimately, I did it for practical personal reasons.

When my 20 gig 4gen iPod started displaying hard drive problems, I had about a month left on the CompUSA replacement plan, so I wasn't disappointed in the least. All I they had in stock was white - I wanted black, but I didn't want to risk them selling out and me being high and dry in a month, so I happily took the white one for an upgrade.

Now, I've had the white 5gen for a year, with a year left on the AppleCare plan (CompUSA just started pushing the AC instead of their own for Apple products). At $175 at Meijer, this leaves me with one very good option: Sell the old one on ebay. The resale value on these things is weird. Plus, I get it black like I wanted, and I get the admittedly minor upgrade from 5gen to 5.5gen (brighter screen, battery life).

I just took the white one, packaged it with a few accessories that I had been given as gifts or that I've upgraded from (don't need an AC unit I was given, since I still have the original one from the old firewire era iPod, etc.), and put it on ebay. Right now, with three days left on the bidding, I'm $1 over my break even point (the cost of the new unit, a new AppleCare plan, and tax), so thanks to Meijer's sale price, I'm being paid to upgrade. Generally most ebay bidding takes place the last day, so I may even come out further ahead.

I figured changing the color, getting the new features, and peeling a year off the life of my iPod, with the distinct possibility of profit, was worth being a pain in Meijer's butt. My roommate wanted one, too, but couldn't justify the MSR price - since he also did the P&G deal, his total cost for the unit itself was about $170, which was easier to justify.

[d7473]

I recieved email from meijer customer service today. It said that the 30% off deal would return on DEC. 3 and since I complained about lack of availability. they would hold one for me until DEC.10 provided that I still had the original coupon. They also said that I could stack P&G deal if I had original reciept. WOW I am blown away and a customer for life.

Text copy follows



Thank you for your email regarding the electronic item you wanted to purchase for 30% off on 11/10. The item will be available the week of December 3, for 30% off, at the store you indicated in your email. We will hold the item for you until December 10.



If you have a Proctor and Gamble coupon or the receipt for your $30 or $50 purchase of Proctor and Gamble items, please bring that in to the store for your additional discount.



Please print this email and present it at the store when you go in to pick up your item. The store will have your email address on a list to fulfill your order.



Thank you for your patience and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.





Sincerely,



Meijer Customer Contact Center

[Hi I'm Ben]

I can't believe people get this worked up about a $75 discount on the iPod. It would have been much easier to just buy it from the Apple refurb store. When they were in stock, the 5G 30GB was selling for $179 and the 60GB for $229.

This should not turned into some kind of epic saga for anyone.