Regular shoppers at Dunnes Stores could be at risk of being caught out and left with worthless vouchers in the run-up to Christmas after the retailer dramatically shortened the time frame its popular €10 off €50 vouchers can be used.
Many consumers, who will be familiar with the long-running scheme, will have grown accustomed to the 14 day period in which the vouchers can be used to buy groceries.
However, over the weekend, Dunnes Stores started issuing vouchers that expire just 10 days after they have been given to shoppers who spend at least €50 with the retailer.
The voucher scheme has been key to the success of Dunnes Stores in recent years with the most recent figures from the retail analysts Kantar suggesting that it has been the most popular grocery retailer in the country for a significant period.
According to the most recent data from Kantar, Dunnes held a 23.7 per cent market share with growth of 10.8 per cent compared with Tesco which was on 22.5 per cent and SuperValu on 20.6 per cent, as the stores head into the crucial Christmas period.
There is even a Facebook group with over 100,000 members dedicated entirely to the exchange of unused Dunnes Stores grocery vouchers that attract hundreds of posts every day.
Many of those people are unlikely to be happy with the changes.
Staff working in the grocery department of one outlet said they had been caught unaware by the change and there was no prominent notification on the retailer’s website outlining the move.
The Irish Times contacted Dunnes Stores to ascertain why the change had been implemented, what it had done to communicate it to its customers and if it was concerned many people would loose out on vouchers as a result of the change.
At the time of writing no response was forthcoming.
