Comments on: Would You Like Some Life Insurance With Those Cheetos?

By: The Banana Roundup : Week 13 : Just Personal Finance @ TheLocoMono Website

The Banana Roundup : Week 13 : Just Personal Finance @ TheLocoMono Website — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:47:09 +0000

[...] Life he found out that one could get life insurance in the checkout line and explored this topic, Would You Like Some Life Insurance With Those Cheetos? I have to admit, terrific title, it was a riot to find out that a major grocery chain would do [...]

By: deepali

deepali — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:11:57 +0000

It’s not a bad idea. If you think about it, most people have a “trusted” grocery store - some place they shop at every week. If someone with little knowledge is looking for financial products, then who to turn to but someone they trust?

By: Dividend growth investor

Dividend growth investor — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:13:38 +0000

Wow its called one stop shopping

I used to work at a retail store where one of my responsibilities was to presell the store credit card to customers. I was told that the redit card business accounted for 20% of the store chains profits.
Businesses also like to have multiple streams of income, and who are we to blame them ?

By: Term Life Pro

Term Life Pro — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:43:37 +0000

Having worked in the life insurance industry now for a few years, I would not purchase life insurance from my grocery store. (I probably never would’ve done it even if I hadn’t worked in this industry). However, I think that the store is very clever to sell the products. People nowadays are looking for ease and a stressfree way to purchase products they need, especially products that are stereotyped as being stressful to purchase (as life insurance often is). Creating an easy way to access and purchase these types of products, with the right kind of marketing, could be quite profitable.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:38:44 +0000

Hello Looby,

I still have a couple shirts from Marks & Spensers! (I lived near Cambridge from 2000-2003. I loved it!).

Store owned credit cards are common in the US, but grocery stores and department stores offering other financial services is not very common. I guess if they already offer credit cards, why not expand into mortgages?

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:23:31 +0000

I’d have to see the rates and how well established they were. I wouldn’t want a random start-up…but if they had merged with a respectable company or something, sure.

By: Looby

Looby — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:43:51 +0000

This has been around in the UK for a few years now, at least 3 major chains, Tescos, Sainsburys and Marks & Spencers offer savings, insurance and credit cards. They are actually pretty popular although I never used them. I know that Tesco’s insurance is through Aviva, so if the prices are good I wouldn’t have any problem using the services if I needed to.

By: Ron@TheWisdomJournal

Ron@TheWisdomJournal — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:38:29 +0000

I used to joke about someone with a business called “Joe’s Insurance and Pizza Delivery,” mostly because that’s what a lot of insurance guys need to do at night during the early years to get by. I guess it isn’t a joke anymore.

I gotta say, it would make me feel kinda weird, getting my salad, meat, mortgage, milk, eggs, butter, life insurance, and bread from the same place.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:14:20 +0000

I don’t know the answer. I only just became aware of it, and was more amused than anything else. I have no idea if the stock is a worthy investment or not…

By: Mark @ TheLocoMono

Mark @ TheLocoMono — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:12:45 +0000

It sounds a lot like another way to make pennies off the dollar using the brand. For example, a store-branded VISA card in this case, a store-branded insurance.

Now I am curious about this, how much revenue does Kroger get from these products since it will be reported on their financial statement. I been learning how to read financial statement and where the revenue comes from. If Kroger makes 10 percent of their revenue from selling these OTC insurance, does that mean Kroger is a good investment?

It’s just like Ford and their Ford Credit division. Same game, different image.