Kroger Stores Including Smiths New Lower Everyday Prices and Other Exciting Changes

We were recently invited to check out some of the new features at our local Kroger family store – Smith’s.  Why?  Well, they are rolling out with a few awesome new things for customers to make shopping more pleasant, easier, more rewarding and even better…. CHEAPER!!

As you may have noticed, we do a good portion of our shopping in a hodge-podge of ways to help save us time and money while at the same time buying more natural (or even organic when it fits in our budget) products:

• Much of our grocery shopping online on Amazon, Vitacost and Tropical Traditions
• We purchase some items in bulk at Costco
• We get our produce from Bountiful Baskets co-op or at the local farmer’s market
• We buy our beef and chicken in bulk from local farmers
• We have our milk delivered from a local dairy.

So you may think that we really have no need to go to the grocery store. The short answer is, yes, much of the time we don’t really have to go to the grocery store.  We would love to see our readers start making this transition too, because we hardly ever use coupons, only buy simple ingredient foods, organic and natural and whole foods….. so what it means is simpler, healthier living on the same budget!

So then why are we talking about Smiths (our local Kroger store)?  Well we still have to make a grocery store runs for specialty items and for the last nearly year, it has almost exclusively been Smiths!  We usually shop the perimeter of the store and pick up extra produce that we need and: cottage cheese, yogurt, cheese, sour cream, butter, sometimes bread (they have a brand of bread that fits in my healthy ingredient requirements that is only $2 a loaf!).  Then we will hit some of the middle isles and buy the Simple Truth or other natural and organic brands that are on sale for that week.

This is pretty much the only place I use coupons now.  I will use an occasional manufacturer’s coupon, but most of those items do not fit my “healthy requirement.”  But I do use a lot of in-store coupons.  Why?  Well, they send coupon packets to your mailbox that are savings off things you have frequently bought in the past! So now we get coupons for many fresh and healthy options since that is our buying habit.  In addition, we love the digital coupons as we don’t have to clip a single one…and you can even print a list of the coupons you have or use the app to help you shop!

The digital coupons are where I get any Simple Truth product coupons.  Last fall I committed to shopping at Smiths for the extras because they came out with a new line of foods called Simple Truth.  Some of the items are organic and some are just natural.  But the main point of these products is that they are made with very simple ingredients.

In my journey to health for my family, one thing that I determined was “the simpler the ingredients the better for health”.  I LOVE this line of products… they have a bit of everything from cereals, pastas, quinoa, canned veggies and beans, chip alternatives that are tortilla and veggie chips. They also have the fresh stuff: butter, yogurt, eggs, milk, etc.

So that is my short story…. but what I am excited about was that the everyday prices all throughout the store have dropped to a LOWER PRICE!!  That even means that some of our favorite, simple, natural and organic foods have too!

Let’s talk about the cheaper aspect.  I actually noticed this before we went to the event as I was shopping there the day before.  That day I saw the awesome everyday lower prices I bought Simple Truth Organic Butter; it is now $1 LOWER!  WOW!! Organic canned beans and veggies are now a new lower price of $1 (in our store) and both of these are cheaper than the equivalent at Walmart! These are just two examples with foods that I buy….. but there are thousands of items in the store that I noticed were much cheaper than Walmart’s everyday low price.  I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am about this.

In a struggling economy and food prices increasing worldwide, this is such a blessing for any family.  Whether you are a coupon shopper, a natural/organic shopper… or a run in real quick and get what I can shopper…. your grocery bill will now be less!

But that’s not all!

There are a few more really cool things.  Now please note, although these changes have been released to Smith’s they are coming (if they are not already there) to the other Kroger affiliated stores.  In fact, we asked just that question because we know that all of you shop at different family stores of Kroger.  They did confirm that many Kroger stores have already made these changes and some are still in the process.  If you don’t see these things at your Kroger or Kroger affiliate store yet…. just wait, it’s coming!

1. They have this new technology (QueVision) so that your time in line is greatly reduced! How? Well, they explained it like this.  Scanners in the store gauges how many people there are, and how many checkers they will need at one time. Kroger is the only grocery chain in the US to utilize this technology and Smith’s customers now experiencing wait time at the check stands well under one minute (about 28 seconds).  It is so slick and awesome and this alone makes me want to shop there as a very busy mom of 5 littles that have usually had it by the time we get to checkout!
2. Smith’s (Kroger store) has rolled out a new commitment to make any situation right with our customers. If a product is not satisfactory, customers can now return the item with no questions asked and no receipt necessary.
3. They are increasing their social media outreach so that you can better communicate with them.  If you have any questions about a product or your local store, feel free to reach out to them on Twitter for a quick response. You can also reach out to them on their Facebook wall or email for any other inquiries. They now have a dedicated team available that are ready to answer your questions or respond to any feedback via these outlets.  For Facebook, I would recommend liking both Kroger and your local affiliate for the most current information!
4. Also, don’t forget about their great fuel rewards.  You can earn .10 off per gallon of gas for every 100 points you accumulate.  You can even get up to $1 off per gallon by accumulating 1,000 points! We filled up the other day and gas was normally $3.49 and we paid only $2.49 each gallon, saving nearly $19 on our fill-up! Their gas prices are already some of the lowest in the area, so these extra .10 – $1 discount per gallon is huge!! You can redeem these rewards at Kroger and Kroger Affiliate stores that have a gas station as well as Loaf N Jug, Quik Stop or participating Shell.  Your receipt will tell you the closest station from the store you shopped at!

So if you can’ tell, we were excited about all of the changes and new things that they are incorporating (especially the thousands of lower prices throughout the store) that we just wanted to let you know.  When we can combine savings (especially on natural products) with a better shopping experience you have a great combination! 🙂  Like I said above, we had already decided that this was our “go-to” store a while ago before these new changes came, but we are definitely going to stay and enjoy the extra savings!

Have you seen any of these changes at local Kroger-affiliated store?  And either way – what change are you most excited about?!