Potential Chocolate Promo Problems (renamed)

[renegado]

There is a post on SDM FB page by a woman who had the bars taken out of her hands this morning and told the promotion was suspended. I think it's just a matter of time until they contact all the stores and suspend it nationally.

WHo knows? But the response on FB was not Yes, that's correct, the promotion is suspended. The response was Please give me more information about the location where this happened so that we can investigate.

On the same SDM FB page there are links to people selling Cadbury bars on Kijiji. How sad is that. No doubt why they suspended the promotion.

Again, the promotion has not been suspended -- as far as we know. It seems, here and there, a few local managers are telling stories to get potential hoarders to leave their stores.

[firstimer1969]

+1

This is very strategic on their part. Pumping up interest in their Optimum program and getting tons of Kraft products out to people. I'm sure they were just clearing huge stock piles of bars and crackers which Kraft was subsidising.

However, if I (we) are wrong and the points are clawed back then there will be some serious trouble and most of us would probably drop our Optimum cards. I just donated 90 bars to the food bank today, there's no way going to be able to return those bars.

Dont panic, l was there yesterday and promo is still on. Kraft is paying them the value of the points. Why would they stop it. Shoppers is not losing out because of this promo

[Elle Lady Sadie]

Just out of curiousity, were you buying the Cadbury Dairy Milk bars, Cadbury Caramilk, Cadbury Burnt Almond bars?

yeah, and the shelf price was 2.99 but they scanned in at $2.00. so the sale price is still in effect here ( 2/$4.00), just not the 8000 points.

[Safyre]

Sorry Elle, i was asking which type you were buying, all of the above or specifically dairy milk?

[RonBC]

This promotion has certainly brought out the nut bars - the ones with no chocolate!

[tccl21]

Everything in my area is fine still. Something to note though is that there seems to be no returns on food items. I bought a large number of chocolate bars on the weekend and the manager wrote across the whole receipt "NO RETURNS ON FOOD ITEMS". So returning them because of any points issues may not be possible.

[Elle Lady Sadie]

Sorry Elle, i was asking which type you were buying, all of the above or specifically dairy milk?

actually i had all 12 of the cadbury Dairy Milk - Milk chocolate ones, 100 g. but no bonus points.

[Safyre]

actually i had all 12 of the cadbury Dairy Milk - Milk chocolate ones, 100 g. but no bonus points.

Just wanted to confirm as there was details on another thread that people were no longer getting points for Caramilk and Burnt Almond

[momgoneawol]

I just came back from town and promo was still valid. I was pleasantly suprised to find a few bars and bought Ritz crackers as well for the points.

[FallenPixels]

great to hear

[The__Rock]

As i mentioned before, unless the entire marketing department at shoppers do not understand their program and erroneously came up with this promo, in which case, they should all be fired, I see this as marketing by Kraft and Shoppers. It is a "Kraft promotion" The 8000 bonus points are on "Kraft" products. Shoppers has no loyalty to Kraft in which they just decided for fun they would promote Kraft products. Kraft and Shoppers have worked something out.

Now regarding the promotion and the bonus redemption on the weekend, even without this bonus redemption, on $170 of regular redemption, one is still receiving 168,000 points on a 95,000 redemption. Again, people at Shoppers MUST surely know the value of their point system. The most value the points have ever had on any super or mega redemption promos has been about $2.50 per 1000 points at maximum redemption. Surely the people in the marketing, pricing, and sales departments must be aware of this and factor this in when marking up their products. There is a reason why most products are marked up at least 10-30% than a Walmart or No Frills, its because it needs to take into account the value of the points. There is NO WAY Shoppers would hold a promotion where you were getting 8000 points by spending $8 on chocolate. Even at a full price of $2.99, that still comes out to $12 for 8000 points. At $2.50 per 1000 points, you are still getting $20 of points for $12. Now regarding setting limits or people buying a lot - regardless of who buys how many, with a promo like this, the bars are going to be flying off the shelf. Whether 10 people buy 4 bars each, or 1 person buys 40 bars, the bars are going to get bought out, and again, at 8000 points per 4 bars, 1 person is going to get 80,000 points or 10 people are going to get 8,000 points each. The only difference is who is buying the chocolate, but it does not impact how much money shoppers receives nor the points they are giving out.

[flyingdutch]

everyone (both those "panicing" and those telling others not to panic) needs to relax.

being critical of others for stating their confusion/upset over what has happened to them isn't fair or right, it's what causes people to get defensive (because really who are strangers to tell them how to act/feel) and then that's when arguments happen and things get out of control, threads get crazy, threads get locked and people get banned. I'm not saying that's happening here (yet) but it's a possibility if we don't all just take a deep breath, think about the information provided (in the whole thread not just reading the first post and immediately replying!) and be critical/logical/reasonable about how you respond- or if you respond at all

remember we are all a community here people- we are here to support one another, if you can't do that then maybe replying to a thread or comment isn't the best decision. Things will sort themselves out, they always do, but sometimes we have to be patient and wait to see how things unfold- before we get caught up in the situation.

*gets down off soapbox*

[Tida]

My mom when to Shopper today to buy the Cadbury and she didn't get any points. I spoke to the cashier and she said it a glitch and the promotion is longer available. Anyone in Alberta having this problem?

[peachies]

sorry if i have offended anyone with my post. Was just sharing something that had happened with me at my shoppers and what the store told me, and what the head office has told me, and what a second shoppers store has told me this morning.

If it sounds like i was panicing over losing points, well yeah i guess i sorta am. I mean, sounds like there is a "possibility" of losing all the points i thought i had profitted, thats not a big deal. But to lose 75,000 points i redeemed is a big deal for me because i try to use most my points for Christmas gifts. Clearly this promo is still going strong in other areas, thats is awesome.

suppose i should have kept this info to myself. But for those in my area ( of 21 shoppers ) maybe just ask before you buy 40 bars, you might be redeeming alot of points but get very little few back in return.

Cheers ^_^

I'm glad you told us what happened. I want to be aware if something is going to happen to my points. If it wasn't you it would have been someone else. Please keep me I formed as to what happens in your case. Thanks

[glenglen]

wow a lot to take in thanks for all the different info!