Win $1000 from Safeway; walkers, bikers not eligible

Parking

Win $1000 from Safeway; walkers, bikers not eligible

by David Alpert • September 15, 2009 11:23 am

Safeway and a local radio station are giving away $1000 to 14 people. All you have to do is put a sticker in your car's windshield; they'll randomly pick out cars parked in the parking lots of Safeway stores to be the winners.

But wait! My local Safeway has no parking lot. A number of Safeways in DC have no parking lots. Those people are out of luck. Same if you walk to the store. I wonder what will happen if I put the sticker on my folding cart? What if someone puts the sticker on their bicycle and parks it at the store's rack? Somehow I doubt anyone will win that way.

Safeway is a national chain, and has run this promotion elsewhere, like San Jose, California. As with the free gas promotion, commenters will surely point out that, as a private corporation, they're entitled to give away items to whatever group of customers they want. Still, it would be really nice if their corporate marketing department recognized that their customers don't all drive, and their stores aren't all auto-oriented.

If the central office has these blinders when designing promotions, what other opportunities to improve the customer experience (and make more money) are they missing at urban stores?

12 comments

Tags: parking, promotions, retail

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David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

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It's a joint promotion by Safeway and a radio station. Not only are the vast majority of Safeway's sales in the market area to driving customers, but the radio station is probably almost exclusively interested in reaching drivers, as the primary place where people listen to the radio is in the car. Not every marketing initiative needs to affirm the wonderfulness of walking to the store.

by Josh B on Sep 15, 2009 11:55 am • link • report

This was a pretty poorly designed marketing campaign. I presume that I got this email because I have a Safeway club card... you know, the card that has your address and shopping history attached? I don't know why Safeway thought I would be interested in this promotion when they know that my local Safeway stores doesn't even have parking.

If anything, Safeway should specifically market to people who walk to the store. As it is, it's much more convenient for me to shop at the Harris Teeter... Safeway's pricing is also a deterrent to walkers, especially when they require you to purchase X number of units to get the sale price. Cases of soda is a perfect example. They're large, relatively heavy, and nobody is going to carry 4 or 5 cases home. It definitely deters shoppers from making a purchase.

by Adam L on Sep 15, 2009 12:20 pm • link • report

Devil's advocate here...

1. You can haul much more of their merchandise away in a minivan than a bike, so maybe the thinking (if there is any) is that you want to encourage people to bring large hauling devices like cars to their stores instead of bike baskets.

2. Cars are simply bigger advertising spaces seen by more people than bikes or human pedestrian bodies. You would have to wear a sandwich board and walk around all day to have the same advertising impact as a car. On a bike, nobody can read the pins on your backpack as you whiz by on city streets.

Ok, I don't really believe those two lame rationales, but I'm trying to see the other side of it.

by Ward 1 Guy on Sep 15, 2009 12:35 pm • link • report

The biggest one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rllayman/2617818165/ or
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rllayman/1530961437/

Which if we had transportation demand management planning requirements in place within DC, it could happen.

by Richard Layman on Sep 15, 2009 12:54 pm • link • report

my bicycle has enough cargo capacity to carry home 6 cases of 24 bottles of beer

8 full bags of groceries.

by w on Sep 15, 2009 1:10 pm • link • report

my bicycle has enough cargo capacity to carry home 6 cases of 24 bottles of beer

And remember, w's an inveterate sidewalk cyclist, so keep your eyes open. I'd hate to be walking along enjoying the weather, only to have that beer-wagon come careering around the corner.

by oboe on Sep 15, 2009 1:23 pm • link • report

Heh, I remember getting a card for the free gas promotion at the Southwest Safeway. I asked the manager, "do you really think anyone in a position to drive to a supermarket would drive to this one?"

by cminus on Sep 15, 2009 2:04 pm • link • report

cminus: What did he/she say in response?

by David Alpert on Sep 15, 2009 2:06 pm • link • report

David: That promotions are decided above the level of the individual store. (He chose to ignore my knock on the store's lack of quality, which might have been a mistake on his part -- some improvements might have put the store in better odor with ANC 6D when it came to the store's proposed new liquor license).

by cminus on Sep 15, 2009 3:15 pm • link • report

Do you deliver?

by Hiya on Sep 15, 2009 4:37 pm • link • report

Hiya -- touchÃ©. Thank you for the laugh.

by Richard Layman on Sep 15, 2009 10:21 pm • link • report

Heh - it seems to me the biggest things they are missing out on are the basics--stuff the marketing department has nothing to do with. I was at Safeway last night. A rotten cantaloupe with a huge moldy patch was sitting out on the sales floor. I guess they are hoping someone will buy it? At least the line was a reasonable length. Often the lines start to snake down the aisles. Safeway just is not well run.

by Omari on Sep 16, 2009 7:49 am • link • report