Trials of a Couponer

I started shopping at Randall's/Safeway more religiously in the past six months when HEB started having weird coupon policies with printable coupons plus the fact that they do not double or triple and all of my local Randall's locations do.

I used to hate shopping with a grocery list or menu plan or coupons because it always seemed to take a lot of time with 'no cheese down that tunnel'. I seemed to never feel rewarded after I was done shopping, i just felt spent - both monetarily and time wise. I always felt like couponing and lists made me buy more things that I didn't need or would never use before the expiration date.

Fast forward to the premier or first season of extreme couponing, I was shocked at what people were buying and storing in their homes. I do not have a full basement to hoard my goods or an extra bedroom to keep a tower of toilet paper but I did realize that by not using coupons and not shopping with a list I was wasting a lot of money each week on my grocery bill. If I planned according to sale ads and bought only items that I knew I would use I could be successful. So I planned, cut coupons and filed them in my binder and watched sale circulars for the week's specials and printed coupons from every computer I could access. This process allowed me to get my % savings from a minimum of 30% at the beginning of this venture to above 50% on every day shopping.

I used to curse coupons at check out time, I hated using them and hated other people using them in front of me in line. Just seemed like it took forever and made the process more painful but when you can save so much money its worth it in the end. If coupons are used properly the checkout person does not have to be 'profiled' to be successful with your coupons. Yes a good high value coupon will give the dreaded beep every once and a while but as long as the cashier is willing to get a managers approval and look for the item in your basket than there shouldn't be any issues.

This past Friday, I had planned for and clipped and pre-ordered specific coupons for my shopping trip so that I could stock up on certain items that were on sale and to get my Thanksgiving Turkey for a discounted price with all the contingencies met for the special discounted per pound rate. After gathering my groceries I headed to checkout.

This is when the coupon report - cashiers behaving badly/improperly/not understanding english on a coupon and frankly stealing, begins.

I had 14 coupons for 14 4-packs of Seattle's Best Coffee Drinks ready to use. A lady helping to bag all my groceries stepped up to the cash register after I handed the cashier lady my stack of coupons and she was telling her to read all the individual coupons closely for the words, 'one coupon per purchase'. If it said that then they could only accept one coupon. The cashier had already scanned 4 of my coupons for coffee and the 'bagger' lady said "we'll honor those four ONLY even though we're only supposed to honor ONE". The line had built up behind me and I was that dreaded woman using coupons on a Friday evening. They continued to go through all the coupons and pulled out any coupon that I had more than one of, handing them back to me. At this point I was thinking 'WTF happened since yesterday when I used multiple coupons for items in one transaction, as long as it doesn't state 'limit of one coupon per transaction' you should be golden'. I kept my mouth shut and awaited my receipt and my hard earned/calculated $10.00 off your next purchase for spending $75.00 or more coupon. The cashier handed me a new coupon for cereal that was printed from the register and my receipt but there was no $10 coupon. I looked at her and said 'I'm supposed to get a $10 off coupon from this transaction."  She looked at me and then looked under the register (no where near the coupon printer) and reached under the desk and handed me my $10 off coupon. SCAM ARTIST. First she is misinformed about the coupons and hands me back over $21.00 worth of coupons that she said I can't use in this purchase and then she tried stealing my free $10.

I wasn't willing to fight the coupons standing there in line, ask for a manager and hold up all the impatient people in line behind me, so I slowly pushed my cart over to the customer service desk with my unused coupons and my receipt. I asked the lady working that desk if the coupon policy changed in the past day, she reviewed what I had and what I had purchased and even checked with her manager as to the wording on the coupons. Randall's ended up giving me $21.84 cash back for my coupons 3 minutes after I walked away from the cashier that told me they couldn't accept them. I didn't mention the $10 coupon scam while I was standing there because I was shocked and pissed off at that moment. I was very relieved about knowing the coupon policy better than the cashier and the bagger and thanked the customer service woman profusely for refunding me for the coupons.

When I got to the car I called Dustin and ranted about the cashier. He told me I needed to tell the store what had happened and report it to the supervisor so they could do something. I didn't want any unsuspecting grocery shopper to not receive their hard earned/spent $10 off coupon because a thief was among us so I called the store back on my way home and told the same lady that refunded me what had happened at checkout with my freebie coupon. She apologized again for all the trouble and said she'd report it to her front of the store manager so that it could be addressed. I told her I wasn't entirely sure what happened but that I had to ask for the coupon and she pulled it out from somewhere other than the printer it came off of. I didn't want it to happen to someone else and them not knowing well enough to ask for it.

Moral of the story: Ask someone else if it doesn't seem right. Watch your back out there, there are many forces working against well-meaning coupon shoppers just trying to save a buck!