Unfortunately, A&P and Dominion are changing their Fresh or Free policy. Thanks to rkinkley for the following detailed explanation of their new policy 🙂
I don’t really know much about this new policy so if you have further enquiries please contact rkinkley at [email protected]
I was looking at your website and laughed when I read your story on Fresh or Free. Most of what you said was correct. But… not all. Items that have the date best before june 10th, are considered expired on midnight june 9th. So if you see best before june 10th and its june 10th, then that item is considered expired and you would be able to get a fresh replacement on it.
The fresh or free policy is about to change. The new rules which take effact Monday April 24, 2006 will be the following. This is a reply from the forum discussion that I started on the website that I list below!
“The old program ends April 23th, and the new one begins April 24th.
Purchases must exceed free stuff, and are not returnable, and can only be exchanged. FREE stuff is not returnable OR exchangable.
Receipt needed for everything now EVEn house brands.
Berries(straw,blue, rasp, ETC) are now NOT part of the F or F promotion, they can turn bad in hours.
Organic UNDATED product in now not covered by the ForF promotion due to a complete lack of use of pesticides ETC, but dated organic is ForF, based on date only.
Rainchecks are NOT offered for ForF stuff if we don’t have a EXACT replacement, we will offer a comparable product instead.
Rainchecks are issued for products, but are not unlimited, we “reserve the right to limit quantitiesâ€.
just some dude!
I just heard about this at 7pm tonite while I was in Dominion and found 4 things expired in less than 10 minutes. My question was – what about all the rainchecks I have which is easily $150 worth of food – will these be an exception – can’t really wait til Monday to find out or it could be too late. Guess I’m spending a chunck of my wknd redeeming rainchecks unless anyone knows anymore.
I cannot afford the high prices they charge for the products, so overall, it will be cheaper for me to shop elsewhere. A friend raised an interesting point this evening. This program has been in place to promote their freshness but on any given day at any given store, I can always find $50 worth of expired stuff in an hr, so they really never did become fresh obsessed despite their ads!
Also noteworthy is some stores will always write rainchecks if you can’t find a fresh exact replacement. However many stores, will allow a substition of a different flavour, etc. This variance of policy is why I have over 20 rainchecks active and about 50 that expired and never did find the exact product in the exact store within the 30 days.
Hi Cathy! Great question.. I dont know the answer to that, and I too have a great deal of rainchecks from many different a&ps/dominions/ultra foodmarts. I have some items which I know the store will not get in, and some of my rainchecks have expired as a result of the item not being readily available. On Freshobsessed.com; the website of A&p/dominion/ultrafoodmarts, in the FAQ section… it asks what if a product is unavailable, and the answer it gives is a raincheck or an alternative product will be offered. I think that it always seems to depend on which clerk you get, when you go to the store. This is consistent with what some of the employees who responded to my forum questions. If I were you, I would try to get as many of the items with your rainchecks before MONDAY.. Print out the question and answer from http://www.freshobsessed.com under Q&A, bring it with you and keep your fingers crossed. I agree with you, even half the cost of the items that I normally find as fresh or free would not warrant me in buying them. You might very well be better off getting them somewhere else, at another discount food store. The one positive thing is that most of these stores are carrying clothing,patio furnature,games etc. Under the changing policy, (should it be correct and the changes do occur on monday)If you can find fresh or free items that are practical, then buy them along with other sale items. Another idea would be buying things such as a lawnchair and trying your luck at selling them. Maybe you could get the money back on these items or come close to it.
The fresh or free is really fresh or rotten!
It only happened to me once, but I found that policy when it was supposed to be in force was not honoured by the Dominion that is located at front and church in Toronto. I bought a box of hotrod snacks, with a long expiry (not expired yet), but it was not in edible state when I opened it so I brought it back and pointed that out to them. They said I could exchange it for another box, or cash refund. They never heard of any policy that would involve giving stuff out for free. (not that I started out looking for free stuff). But their customer service made me decide never to go back to that store. Their food was not fresher than my local No FRILLS or Loblaws.
Last week when I went to Metro, I found at least 10 boxes of Post Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal with the Best Before date: June 3, 2009, they are still on the shelves selling at the regular price. The Dominion I used to know would never have the expired products on shelf.