FAQs

Here are the top 5 questions I get asked pretty regularly by customers:

Question 1: Are you coupons really worth it?

Answer: The short answer is yes, absolutely!

The slightly more detailed (and probably obvious) answer is that shoppers who use coupons save money and if you can combine that with any in-store sales that might be going on in the store you can get some great deals!  I have personally seen customers save $40-$60 dollars with coupons.  I had customers whose original bill was $390.27.  Then they gave me their store card and with those savings it took the total down to $384.81.  Then they handed me a stack of coupons.  The final total for their bill was $323.47.  Doing the math--they had $61.34 worth of coupons.  So to me to save all that money is well worth taking the time to clip the coupons.  So if you have a little extra time before you go shopping to to flip through coupons on the weekend paper or by going online, you could find that it will pay off.

But just a quick word of caution--don't fall for the "coupon trap".  If you let a coupon "trap" you into buying an item that you normally would not have bought anyway then you're not really saving any money.  Or often there's a coupon for a $1.00 of of 2 of something.  Ask yourself, "Do I really need 2 of these?"  and if the answer is no, you'll save yourself money by not using the coupon and just buying one.

Question 2: Can I return this?

Answer:  Sure!  Ok, here's the deal...buying food at the grocery store is not buying a shirt at Target.  You take a shirt home, you  try it on, it doesn't fit and you can bring it back.  A grocery store is always happy to return/refund/exchange any item if there is something wrong with the item.  Or when someone buys batteries or lightbulbs that are the wrong size.  But what about returning food jut because you decided you didn't want it?  The other night a woman came up to the courtesy desk with 4 bags of potato chips and soda.  She said she wanted to return them because she bought them for a party but didn't use them.  Now, I personally think we shouldn't have to take something back simply because she misjudged the amount of food she needed for her party but she was refunded her money.  Just as a note to keep in mind--anything perishable that leaves the store  (no matter for how long) can not be put back on the shelf so if you return it (even if there's nothing wrong with it) we have to throw it away.  There was a woman who bought a pack of chicken.  She was out in the parking lot and as she was loading her groceries into the back of her car she realized she bought the wrong size package.  She immediately came right back into the store and we exchanged the chicken for her--but we had to throw away the package of chicken she had just returned.  There is a part of me that understands the logic in this.  Once a perishable item leaves the store, if it's returned it can't be put back on the shelves because there is no way of knowing how long it has been left out and improperly stored items can make people sick.  On the hand it is unfortunate to have a policy where so much perfectly good food is not able to be put back on the shelf to be sold.  It is so wasteful that this food just gets thrown away.