Albertsons Ends Double Coupons - And Nothing Changes.

As a follow up to the story that we at Reality Couponing and Retail broke first here regarding Albertsons elimination of double coupons , we decided to give them about a month to see if their promises of "new and exciting manufacturer's coupon deals" to replace the double and triple coupon elimination would actually come to fruition. 

And well, clearly it has not. 

The ads since are full of the same (literally) products over and over again, and with their prices not lowered, but consistent where they were at prior to the elimination of double and triple coupons with actually some being higher.

A message sent to their Facebook page on April 30, 2014 received no response questioning where these new savings are.

Their lack of response speaks volumes.

This is right in line with both the Kroger policy to end double coupons in most areas and the bold and shameless Safeway announcement they are raising prices instead of lowering them as promised

articles linked above.

And since Albertsons acquired Safeway, we can safely assume that this is part of a larger price jump for all Albertsons stores and their subsidiaries now including Safeway and United Supermarkets.

It appears the dark days for not only extreme couponers, but all consumers are rapidly casting their shadow over the landscape.  

This all makes CVS Extrabucks, Walgreens Balance Reward Cards and of all things Wal Mart and Target price-matching basically the only luxuries that people looking to get good deals on groceries can utilize anymore.

That is where we are at. And to consider those items "luxuries" is a scary proposition in and of itself considering the past and present practices of those retailers in regards to honoring prices and having sale items in stock.

Combine all of the above with the lack of quality tear pads being posted in the stores and the complete dearth of usable decent-expiration-date coupons in your Sunday paper - and what you have here is a war being waged by the retailers and the manufacturers.

And the victim is the consumer.