Have you heard about the partnership between Safeway and Cuisinart during the holidays? Well, now through January 5, 2016, Safeway shoppers can earn stamps that would enable them to earn free or reduced price cutlery (of their choosing) at any participating Eastern Division Safeway location.
I love easy “no brainer” promotions like this because EVERYONE has to buy groceries so there’s nothing to change – all you do is shop at Safeway (like so many of us do anyway especially with the Just for U savings program) and you’ll get the stamps at the check out register with your receipt.
Shoppers earn one bonus stamp for every $10 in spending within the same order. They can collect their stamps with a Stamp Saver card and can earn free cutlery ranging from a free paring knife to a complete 20-piece flatware set. Customers also have the option of purchasing any of the 11 possible items at discounted prices in conjunction with their stamps, or at the regular posted price without stamp redemption.
My daughter LOVES these kind of promotions! I must have taught her well because she’s all into collecting the stamps and getting freebies! Lol! I love it! (Oh, by the way, when you open up the booklet, seen in image above, you’ll place your stamps inside the booklet until you fill it up earning tons of cutlery!)
So…. idea! You could collect the stamps and get your own cutlery or, mark your mother in law off your holiday shopping list and give them to her! Ding, ding, ding! Great idea huh!
I have been collecting the Cuisinart cutlery offered at my Safeway store in Denver. The empty Block set does not match the knives that are being ordered. There is only one slot for a large knife, but the promotion offers two large knives, i.e., the Chef’s Knife and the Santoku knife. This is very misleading. If you are collecting stamps for this promotion, please be aware that there use in getting the Block to hold the knives. I am not happy about this promotion and plan on telling all my friends and neighbors about this misleading advertisement.
I guess if you need a $7 paring knife and you’re buying $300 in groceries at Safeway anyway, it’s nice.
However, wouldn’t it be more frugal to shop around? If you can save just 2.3% by buying groceries at whichever retailer is least expensive, you’ll save $7 that you can spend on a paring knife (or anything else you need.) These gimmicks are carefully designed so that they seldom work out to a consumer’s advantage, but they make you think that they do.
The booklet you get makes you think that if you earn 160 stamps you can get the whole set. WRONG! You need to fill up at least 4 and half booklets. That is 710 stamps total. Meaning you need to spend $7,010 to get the whole set. Keep in mind you only have from Sept 16th to Jan 5th. If you are spending that much in groceries, I hope you have a VERY large family or else you are throwing your money away on a gimmick. Not worth the effort or the money.
First of all, I think it is unrealistic to expect to get the whole set in the three and a half months the promotion runs.
Secondly, I think there are better values available in stainless steel flatware, so to be honest, I’d skip saving for that choice since purchasing a set required 160 Safeway stamps for a small set serving only 4 people.
That said, I think it is absurd to look a gift horse in the mouth: I do shop at Safeway (along with another local grocery retailer) and using their sale items paired with Safeway’s on-line “Just For U” program (free to join and easy to use from your computer) plus weekly printed coupons (free in my Sunday newspaper) I regularly save 30-45% on my weekly shopping order. And I get Safeway Gas Points in addition to the Cuisinart stamps I collected. Whatever Safeway stamps I turn in for Cuisinart cutlery equal a free added bonus in addition to all the grocery savings and gas points I already accrued.
So far we got a new (extra) Cuisinart bread knife (which came inside its own sheath) and which works very nicely, and I will redeem my remaining points for either a new Cuisinart slicing knife or a Santoku. And since I know I will have points remaining that won’t equal a “free” knife, I will probably purchase an extra knife at half-price. (At $7.50 a new bread knife or chef’s knife will make a nice “Secret Santa” present in the office’s 2016 “Gift Lottery.”)
If you are one of those people who “pooh-poohed” this promotion, think again: Would your spending have equaled even one bread knife, slicing knife, or Santoku knife valued at 50 Safeway stamps? Or a Chef’s knife or a set of steak knives valued at 70 Safeway stamps? You may not need it for yourself, but please don’t tell me that you don’t know anyone who could use an extra Christmas gift next year, don’t have children or other family members just starting out in their own apartments, don’t know a church or synagogue that helps resettle new immigrants (who will need all the kitchen basics like new knives) or don’t know of a food kitchen or women’s shelter that works towards re-homing members of our community who are currently homeless. If something is free and you don’t want it for yourself, ask yourself: “Who can I help? Who can use this?”
You’ll feel good and help someone else in the process!
Absolutely right, Janet. Somebody needs a new knife somewhere. I don’t need a new knife but my kid’s will benefit from this promotion. I’ve had fun collecting my “green stamps” and dreaming about which FREE knife I will select at my only grocery store, Safeway. It’s a promotion and certainly not mandatory! For me, frugal means not chasing after the discount and by staying steady with convenience, location and products you know.
Randall’s is my 10minute walk neighborhood grocery, and a really nice store. It’s the perfect size, has a very friendly helpful staff, and always has useful specials for meat&seafood. I shop there weekly anyway so these ‘knife stamps’ are a fun little bonus plus even convenient because I need better knives- I cook a lot but don’t like shopping enough to bother buying equipment I can possibly get along without. Thus I have 3 knives total and 1 is very dull. Rarely eating out means buying a lot of food so it’s been easy collecting the stamps. I agree 160 stamps for a 20pc set of flatware is steep unless it’s really nice flatware but I already have forks and spoons and so on anyway.
We have been saving the stamps since September with the intention of redeeming them all at once. The Asst. Mgr. of the Safeway we go to told me that I cannot redeem more than one book at a time. I replied: “Okay, I will come back tomorrow.” This is simple idiocy. He told me to read the book. I re-read it, but never found where it said you could only redeem one book at a time.
I am becoming frustrated with Safeway. As it is, there is no place to use our gas points anyway. Giant has a gas station within 5 miles. Safeway is more than 20. Yet, this cutlery offer is the only benefit to all the money we spend there.
Yes, I will be changing grocers. I would prefer not to, but it’s clear they don’t want to redeem the stamps we earned and we get nothing for our gas points. What’s the point to dealing with this?
On Jan 30 i almost cut off my middle finger using a box cutter to open the Cusinart Plastic packaging on a knife. Had to get 7 stiches at urgent care. Use scissors and be careful particularly of the little tie that wraps around the knife. There has to be a better way than these impossible to open Chinese plastic packages.