Safeway’s Summer Savings Marathon Promo

NOTE: Safeway deals are also applicable to their partner stores: Dominicks, Genuardis, Vons, Pavilions, Tom Thumb, Randalls, and Carrs.

What we’ve been waiting for: a new promo! The Summer Savings Marathon runs 7/9-7/29 and includes over 2,300 participating products. Each week, the ad will only highlight those products “on sale,” and you’ll see that the prices are quite high. You’re better off searching one of these lists to help you with your coupon matchups and making sure that the shelf shows the yellow tag “Summer Savings.” Here are the searchable lists of participating products: PDF file or Excel file. Details of the promotion:

• $20 reward coupon when you buy 25 or more items
• $10 reward coupon when you buy 15 to 24 items
• $5 reward coupon when you buy 9 to 14 items
• Limit one reward coupon issued per transaction per day.
• Limit one reward coupon use per transaction per day.

These “rewards” are Catalina coupons that print out at the register after you pay. If your coupon does not print out–say something right away. Go to Customer Service if you have to. I always shop with my list of products written out, so I know when I have the correct number of items and can pull anything out of my bags if I have to (to show the CS rep). In my experience, the managers often do not know how these promos work; explain it to them if you have to, show them the shelf tags, and get your money. A couple of things to keep in mind:

• Buy products you would buy anyway, if the price is good. Remember that for each of the 25 products you get, you’re getting .80 off (by dividing the $20 by 25 items). For example, I buy Barilla Plus pasta. I prefer it to wheat; it tastes better and cooks faster. Over the next few months, I would buy it anyway, hoping for a sale price. With this promo, it’s on sale for $1.49; by buying 25 and getting $20 back, I’m paying .69 for each box, much less than I would spend anytime I need to buy pasta.
• Use as many coupons as you can to lower your out-of-pocket cost. This may be a time to purchase coupons on Ebay, if it’s for an item you want to stock up on. Using the above Barilla example, I found these these coupons on Ebay. Most stores will double these, so now you’re paying .21 for each box. See how I can donate so much food?
• Look for deals for products taking you under $1. For example, I glanced at the list and saw JollyTime Popcorn for $1.99 (got the price off Safeway.com). If you go to JollyTime’s website, you can print coupons for $1.50 off. Buy a few of these because you’re making .31 overage with each one. Remember–when you buy 25 items you’re getting .80 off each one.
• Free items count toward the item total. In previous promos, the free part of BOGO or B2G3 free items still counted, which helps reduce your out-of-pocket cost. Look for those deals in the weekly ads, and I will certainly point them out to you as I catch them.
• The participating items will not change between now and 7/29. However, the prices may change as some items go on sale and others go higher. If you need time to pull your coupons together, take your time. As you’ll see in tomorrow’s ad, the “sale” prices are pretty awful. Better to wait and see if the price drops or get the coupons to reduce your cost.

I will post more as soon as I wade through this huge list. The prices are higher overall than they were for the Savings Rally back in February (I’m still eating cereal and canned tomatoes from that promo!), but I’m sure the deals are there. I’ll also do the weekly deals when I get my ad in the morning. I’m up too late tonight as it is!

**UPDATE 7/9: Here are my scenarios for the week of 7/9 plus a Mr. Linky where you can share your own and get ideas from others. Thanks for reading!