SUPERMARKETS 2-for-1 deals, known as 'bogos,' cause a stir, irk some shoppers

The newest grocery promotion irritates some shoppers.
WASHINGTON POST
Many shoppers have small enough kitchens that they must employ a just-in-time-inventory approach to shopping: Buy crackers when there's nothing left in the box but crumbs.
That approach, however, can be a problem with a buy-one-get-one-free supermarket promotion. Doesn't this discriminate against smaller households? Why isn't it as effective just to put something on sale for half price?
There is some controversy about buy-one-get-one promotions, or, as the industry calls them, "bogos."
"Like most promotional ploys -- and they are promotional ploys -- they irritate some shoppers a great deal," said Mona Doyle, editor of the Shopper Report, a Philadelphia market research newsletter for the supermarket industry.
Very competitive
The rapid implementation of bogos was another sign of just how competitive the grocery industry has become as Wal-Mart ramps up its grocery business.
Many supermarket chains operate on a traditional high-low pricing model, in which regular prices are occasionally lowered by deep price cuts that rotate around the store. One week, for example, a 10-ounce box of Cheerios might be $3.89; the next week it might be on sale for $2.49.
Other retailers approach pricing the way Wal-Mart does, with lower prices across the board and few extra discounts on top of that.
Both styles of store continue to thrive, but as Wal-Mart presses further into the mainstream grocery business, the high-low operators are seeking to protect themselves. Their regular retail prices can send shoppers to lower-priced alternatives.
Frenzy of promotion
The result is a frenzy of promotion, with marketing executives hunting for ways to get shoppers excited about their stores. "There's hoopla, and the hoopla is fun," Doyle said.
The bogo is the most recent fascination of the high-low supermarket world because it has so many potential benefits: It's exciting for shoppers who love a bargain, it's a discount that Wal-Mart won't match, and it moves more merchandise and helps keep shoppers from going elsewhere.
The last reason is probably the industry's most compelling. With so many types of stores selling groceries now, it's critical for a chain to keep the shoppers it has, so it wants shoppers to buy as much as possible at each visit. Enter the bogo.
"In some respects it locks people into your stores a little bit more because you're filling their basket a little bit quicker," said Tom Gandolfi, senior vice president for center store merchandise for Giant supermarkets. "If someone [else] were to run a half-price special the following week, you don't need it because you've already got two. ... It keeps people from going someplace else."
Why it works
Moving merchandise is a preoccupation of the supermarket industry. In most cases, deeply discounted items are still providing some kind of profit to the retailer because some of the discount is usually covered by the manufacturer. So even if it's a small profit, the store does better if a shopper buys two -- one at full price and one free -- rather than just one that's half price.
Manufacturers also like promotions that push more product out the door because it means people are filling their pantries with that particular brand, which is what's behind all those register tape coupons that offer a dollar off if you buy five or six of one thing or another.
Retailers also accomplish volume sales with promotional signs that encourage multiple purchases, such as offering two cantaloupes for $4. In those cases shoppers don't have to buy more than one to get the discounted price; they can buy one melon for $2, for example.
But the wording of the signs subtly encourages shoppers to buy the full complement. "It's definitely what they call suggestive selling," Safeway spokesman Greg TenEyck said.
What's good about those promotions is that they give shoppers a choice. With bogos, you either buy two or you get nothing, and that might be their undoing.
Works sometimes
The bogo still works well for smaller items, such as blueberries, and other products that shoppers buy in bulk, such as tissues or toilet paper. But for everything else, irritation from shoppers may lead bogos to slowly disappear.