Groceries for Free
Budgeting August 24th, 2007Want to get groceries for free? HEB has a spectacular policy called “Fresh or Free”. This is not a joke or hype or any kind of sales pitch. This grocery store actually provides an opportunity for anyone to get groceries for free. If you do not know of the HEB grocery chain, it’s probably because the chain is only located in Texas. My wife and I shop there almost exclusively, especially because of the Fresh or Free program. Here is a basic rundown of how to take advantage of this great policy:
- Hunt for items that have expired.
This is the first and foremost rule. So when you arrive at the store, carefully look through the stock of particular items you are interested in, and hunt for the expired one(s). Try to utilize some stealth, as the staff is trained to seek out “fresh or free-ers” like us. The staff cannot stop you from looking, but they may start going through the stock along side of you and weed out expired items. - Once you have found an expired item, put it in your basket, along with an identical, fresh item.
- You are only allowed to fresh or free one item per SKU, per person.
This doesn’t mean you can’t walk away with hundreds of dollars or more in groceries for free, it just means if you find 10 expired Tombstone Pepperoni Pizzas, you can only take one fresh one, per person. But if you find one Tombstone Pepperoni Pizza, and one Red Baron Pepperoni Pizza that have expired, then you get one of each for free. - Go to the cash register and place your items in pairs (one expired, one fresh) on the conveyor belt.
- Tell the cashier “I have some expired items here.”
We have had times where the staff is not friendly, and sometimes downright mean about us getting groceries for free. Don’t let this dissuade you, they are obligated by the policy to give you the groceries for free. We’ve heard every excuse in the book, and you will too, if you participate in the program. If they get too mean, just have a manager come over and take care of it.
My personal opinion of why they offer groceries for free:
- I believe that the program makes an incredible amount of sense from a business perspective. HEB is basically hiring the general public to wade through their current stock, and eliminate expired items. Now I know this is a job that should be handled by the night stockers, but think about the average night stocker, why would they care about checking dates? That would be far more time and effort to complete the stocking for the night. And with the small wage that HEB is paying their stockers, it makes sense to offer groceries for free under this program.
- Also, this program allows HEB upper management to identify weakness in their lower management, especially night stocking crew management. So in effect, we are helping them to root out bad management, and provide the best quality food. It is a win-win situation for the company, and for us as customers (or should I say, previous customers,
).
In closing, the HEB fresh or free program is a fantastically easy way to obtain quality, free groceries. The only groceries that are exempt from the policy are ones that have no expiration. Other than that, it is open season. So take advantage of it, and leave me a few comments on your experiences if you get the chance. Check back here tomorrow, as I will be talking about our strategy for taking full advantage of the program, and getting baskets of groceries for free:
Free Groceries Coupons? Nah…Master the “Fresh or Free” Program
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August 24th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Jeffry,
1. Isnt the chance of finding an expired item too less ? I mean, if u scan 100 packets of let s say frozen peas, you may or may not find an expired stuff.
2. You need to have time. So a weekend will help
3. Any such grocery saving offers elsewhere ? Walmarts or Krogers or other retailers
4. HEB anytime has really good products. I shop for fresh vegetables, ice creams, cereals, choclates, buns and tortillas. But if this activity helps, I can shop for more.
Nevertheless, the activity should be fun and fun will double, when you get so many items free.
No membership or pre - registration required right ?
August 24th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Shri, I think you will be very surprised to see just how many items are expired. We have literally gotten hundreds of dollars worth of groceries for free, all in one trip. I will post tomorrow about our specific strategy. Yes, you do need to have time to do it, although we typically find nights to be the best, versus weekends (we are usually very busy on the weekends, however). Currently, we haven’t looked at other stores since HEB started doing this, which has only been a couple of months ago. They had done this in the past, then stopped for an unknown reason. And yes, they do have very good produce, especially at the HEB Central Markets.
And yes, there are absolutely no memberships, pre-registration or anything that you have to do. Just walk in as a normal customer, and you can participate.
August 25th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
[...] Forget free groceries coupons, instead master the art of the “Fresh or Free” program provided by our friends, HEB. In this post I am going to detail the method we use to get the most out of the program. The basic overview of the program is provided in my Groceries for Free post. [...]
September 1st, 2007 at 8:12 am
The “Fresh or Free” policy is also offered by a chain of stores in Ontario, Canada - the chain is A&P and Dominion. I find it quite easy to find expired items. Usually, if you find it expired in one store, then you will find it expired at almost every other store in the chain. And sometimes, the store’s don’t remove the expired products, so I can go back a few days later, and get the same things for free (plus, it’s a very quick and easy trip to run in, and go straight to the expired stuff - it’s almost too easy).
September 1st, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Fantastic that another chain is doing this same thing. Thanks for the input Carolee!!
March 25th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
[...] is on items sold by the pound, like meat, where this just give you one pound for free. Check out my Groceries for Free post for more details on this [...]
May 1st, 2008 at 12:26 pm
[...] have decided to grow some of our own food, to get the grocery costs down. Now, we are still getting groceries for free, but it doesn’t take care of our entire need. But if you are skeptical about getting your own [...]
June 12th, 2008 at 9:59 am
My Aunt and I go out and save literally $800 bucks a month EACH and every month doing Fresh or Free. We love it and love the great food as well. Keep up the great work Dominion.
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:07 pm
I think this guy is full of baloney and i think you need to get you facts straight before you post nonsense.
FIRST
the employees get paid well.. actually paid better than most .. HA!
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:10 pm
SECOND
its sad that you dont see what your really doing.. the more you get for free.. CAUSES the prices to go up.. eventually.
Your cause the store to lose money .. yeah your getting stuff for free.. but in the end.. your paying more for milk!
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:55 am
GET it right:
You obviously don’t know much about economics or the grocery industry. Items such as milk, eggs, bread, etc. are often referred to as “price taker” items. That means that there is plenty of supply, and no differentiation between the products offered and the stores selling them, to the point that stores don’t determine the price, the market does. So if they increase their price over their competitors, they just won’t sell any. Think about it, if Randall’s was selling 2% milk for $4.30, and HEB was selling 2% milk for $3.99, where would you buy milk? You see what I mean. There is no difference in these products, therefore the low price wins.
Further, these stores are very likely saving money in not having to hire additional employees to police the expiration dates. So what I am suggesting here is that HEB is paying customers to police their expiration dates, instead of employees. So no real difference in the money spent on the part of HEB, just a different philosophy.
When you are looking at informational articles, you need to be sure to think it all the way through, so that you don’t end up looking bad, such as the case is here.
July 29th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I wish I could say that you are ll wonderful people, but I work for a smiliar company and know how this policy has helped to keep my pay rate low and slow in it’s rate of increase. I work very hard every day and know many fellow employees that do as well at many stores. Not that any of you care about the people who attempt to take care of your needs. How many of you work in the retail world? Customers have this practice we call treating the employee like a “nothing”. Come up to our department or our register and you immediately talk down to us (that is if you have enough respect to talk to us at all!) and think we are all just pushing buttons blindly like monkies all day. Then you come up and take advantage of this fresh or free and already have a big chip on your shoulders, reminding us how high above us you are (at least you think!) But no hard feelings . . . just remember, it only leads to low pay rates, higher prices and bad attitudes.
Remember the phrase;
“You don’t know what it’s like until you walked in the shoes of another!”
August 11th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Dominion & A&P in Canada are discontinuing their Fresh or Free policy as of September 4th. IT will be a sad day for all of us that love this policy. My husband & I have gotten $1000′s of groceries through fresh or free since the beginning of the year. Within the last week i think we have gotten about $900. Vitamins, olive oil, coffess, etc. The policy should help the stores clear the old merchandise from the shelves, but it is rare that they actually do this just like Carolee noted you can often go back in a few days or the following week and same expired item is still there on the shelf.