Big Y Foods Pilots A First For Groupon
- by Sarah Mahoney @mahoney_sarah, June 7, 2011
"For us, it's just a way to test another medium," Harry Kimball, director of database marketing for the Springfield, Mass.-based grocery chain, tells Marketing Daily. "It's a way for us to get the message out, and tie it to our loyalty program. We want to know if our customers will respond, and we want to give them another way to buy groceries and shop in our stores."
The first test is for a newly introduced Shellfish Grill Pack, including lobster tails, mussels, and clams, which sells for $39.99 and is being offered at a 40% discount for $24. After the shopper buys the Groupon, they enter their Big Y Express Saving Club membership number, so the Shellfish deal is electronically loaded onto her loyalty card. The deal is automatically credited when she checks out at the supermarket.
I'm not sure about this particular grocery store approach, but I think the daily deal market is shaping up nicely... Groupon and LivingSocial are expanding into instant deals and travel offers, smaller players are starting to consolidate, and consumers continue to show their interest in saving money. I'm excited to see what Facebook and Google can bring to the table,but I think their impact is still a ways off since they are a bit late to the game.
I started LocalDealSites.com as a directory of daily deal sites. I have over 159 local deal sites and you can filter the list by city. http://www.localdealsites.com/