Friday, August 7, 2009

Publix

Today I ventured into new territory, hoping to be able to expand my shopping horizons.
The Publix I visited, for the first time, was GREAT! I stopped to ask at the CS desk their coupon policy, and they were so nice. They take pretty much all the competitor coupons...except not the $5/$XX drug store coupons. But coupons for specific items are okay, which is great considering the coupon pamphlet I just found at Walgreens this week.

Only bad thing about my visit was...they don't carry Matchlight in the 13.5lb bag!! Argh! That's pretty much the only thing(s) I drove an hour there for.

I wanted to check out the store anyway, see how a checkout went, and I figure, I have 30 charcoal coupons, I'll never be able to spend them all this week anyway, so I went ahead and did the deal with two of the regular charcoal bags at $9.49.
I got the pork, beef, and kc masterpiece to go with them, and there was no problem.

No problem at all with any of my coupons, as far as accepting them
Getting them entered correctly was another story.

The Crest coupon from the Living Well booklet beeped, as always. So he entered it manually, only it added a dollar instead of subtracted. When he went to take it back off, and take another dollar off for the coupon, it took .01 (doubled, lol). Then he entered another .99 off.

Still, at the end, my total came up to over $12.00! I nearly fainted. I was figuring on a negative amount, until my Covergirl deal went wrong, and then it was supposed to be like $1.50 plus tax.

I sat out in my car for a long time, attempting to figure out what went wrong, but I couldn't come up with nothing! I checked my totals over and over, and checked the coupons, over and over. They added up, but they didn't!

So I left there and went to the Food Lion and did a small shop there. Still aggrivated about the way too much total, I sat in the car and tried to figure some more.
Finally it dawned on me, there was no minus sign in front of the $4/$40 Food Lion catalina I had used.

Not only had he not given me $4.00 off, he added $4.00 to my total, so I was $8.00 off!
I drove back over to the Publix, explained what happened, and the Manager gave me back $8.00 plus tax without any problem at all.

After this charcoal deal is over, I may make the longer drive to start shopping at this Publix more often, because they were great! And the store is the biggest one I've ever seen, with gorgeous decor...I almost felt like I was on a French or New York City street or something in the produce/bakery section. It was gorgeous.

First Transaction:
$1.97 Hefty Fresh Extend Ziplock Bags x 6
-1.00 6/07 RP
-1.00 wyb Bags and Produce Target Q (exp Today)
= +.03 overage x 6

.95 (1) (Yes ONE) Grannie Smith Apple (no coupon)
.36 (1) Peach (no coupon)
.52 (2) Bananas (no coupon)
.00 (1) Lemon (Rang up wrong price, I got free) (no coupon)
.86 (.58lb) Red Grapes (no coupon)
.34 (2) Jalapeno peppers (no coupon)

=3.03

$1.99 Fresh Express Shreds
-1.00 Fresh Express FLip
=.99

$9.49 Charcoal x 2
-4.00 6/28 RP
-3.00 FLip
=2.49

$2.69 Ground Beef x 2
-2.00 Tearpad found at Food Lion x 2
-$1/$5 FLip
=.38

$3.46 Pork Roast
$3.29 Pork Roast

-6.00 IP Q x 2
= +5.25 overage

$1.69 KC Masterpiece x 2
-1.69 Free KC coupon (don't know where it came from)
-1.00/2 FLip
= +1.00 overage

$6.49 Crisco Olive Oil BOGO
-1.00 5/17 RP x 2
=4.49

$1.89 Crest Toothpaste x 2
-1.00 Publix Living Well booklet (out several months ago)
- .50 (doubled) 8/02 P&G
= +.11 overage x 2

$2.99 Sundown Vitamins
$3.29 Sundown Vitamins

-6.00 Publix Advantage Flyer Q
-1.00 6/28 or 7/12 RP x 2
= +1.72 overage

-4.00/$40.00 Food Lion Catalina

Total Before Coupons: $67.88
Total After Coupons: $1.49 + 2.49 tax = $3.98


*I had tried to get a couple of Covergirl blushers for overage...most of the makeup wasn't priced, and what was was just yellow stickers around, not saying what it was. I avoided anything not priced, and really thought the price sticker stuck to the tab above the blushers was the correct price. But the Manager went and looked and came back and said it was for the concealors above the price sticker. So I didn't argue it, and just didn't get them.


Transaction 2: (I went back to my 2nd favorite Publix; my 1st favorite doesn't accept Food Lion coupons anymore, boohoohoo!)
I got into the line of a cashier who I was pretty sure I had remembered as being coupon friendly before, telling me she coupon shopped, etc. But today, first thing, she pulls the old "I can only take one manufacturer's coupon per item" line, referring to the Pork coupon.
Once I explained to her it was on the pork, when I buy charcoal - I was buying charcoal - and the beef was the same way - she said "Oh ok, that'll work". But then she called a CS Staff person over for her to verify it. The CS person was fine with it also.

$7.99 Matchlite charcoal x 4
-4.00 6/28 RP
-3.00 FLip
= .99 x 4

$1.69 KC Masterpiece x 4
-1.69 Free KC coupon (don't know where it came from)x 4
-1.00/2 FLip x 2
= +2.00 overage

$1.50 Pork Roast
$2.58 Pork Roast
$1.56 Pork Roast
$1.90 Ground Pork

-6.00 IP Q x 4
= +16.46 overage

$1.75 Cube Steak
$1.88 Cube Steak
$1.15 Top Round Steak
$1.72 Top Round Steak

-2.00 Tearpad Q found at Food Lion x 4
-$1/$5 FLip
= +2.50 overage

$6.49 Crisco Olive Oil BOGO x 3
-1.00 5/17 RP x 6
=13.47

$3.39 Grated Parmesan/Romano Cheese (Full Plate Rebate?)
(No Coupon)

Total Before Coupons: $75.62
Total After Coupons: $-.14 + 2.62 tax = $2.48



Transaction 3: When I finished the previous transaction, I very nicely asked the CS person if it was okay if I did another transaction like this one while I was there, because I drive a long ways to come there and it would save me another trip later. She said "Sure, it would be fine."
I took my groceries out and put them in the car, and when I came back in, the cashier and two of the CS people were grouped up together at the CS desk, with my coupons I had just used spread out in front of them. I thought well, maybe it's something to do with a mistake entry the cashier had entered as a coupon amount on my previous order, but they had got it corrected, so I didn't know.
They looked at me but didn't stop me, so I went on. Maybe they were wanting to make a charcoal deal themselves and looking at my Q's to figure out what they needed. Yeah, right, and America's economy is doing fine!
I had already gotten my charcoal and meat and was in the BBQ sauce row when the CS girl found me and was holding my Beef coupons and said the Manager said they couldn't accept those because they don't sell Butcher's Brand beef. (I thought butcher's brand was whatever store brand of beef it was.) And then she tells me, oh and He said there was a limit on the charcoal so I could only get 2 more.
So I went and put half the charcol and pork, and all the beef back.

And you all think I'm just paranoid when I say these people are always out to get me. I guarantee you no one else would have had the same trouble. I just don't get it.

The line I ended up getting in to checkout, before I realized it, I looked at the cashier and was like "Oh Sh.....", because it seemed like I remembered I'd had trouble with this one before.
But she was just as nice as anything, didn't give me any trouble, and - bad, bad, bad! - I ran my total in the negative...I asked her did I need to buy candy or something else and she said Nope, and gave me .65 from her drawer. Not at all bothered about it. I apologized and said that I try to not do that, and she was like, don't worry about it, I'm going to do the same deal this afternoon, I have the same coupons as you.

Either my memory is as bad as I think, or those two ladies changed personalities on me. I think it's the latter. I specifically remember the first one because she has a really different name I've never heard before.

$7.99 Matchlite charcoal x 2
-4.00 6/28 RP
-3.00 FLip
= .99 x 2

$1.69 KC Masterpiece x 2
-1.69 Free KC coupon (don't know where it came from)x 2
-1.00/2 FLip
= +1.00 overage

$2.43 Ground Pork
$2.11 Ground Pork

-6.00 IP Q x 2
= +7.46 overage

$6.49 Crisco Olive Oil BOGO
-1.00 5/17 RP x 2
=4.49

Total Before Coupons: $30.39
Total After Coupons: $-1.99 + 1.34 tax = -.65


Total Value of Items Purchased: $173.89
Total Spent: $5.81

1 comment:

Earthy Mama said...

Those cashiers can be so tricky. Great job!!! You did a lot better than I did today. LOL.