Coupon Cringing

I have written about this issue in the past, but since I continue to have issues with redeeming coupons I feel compelled to write about them again.

My most recent incidents involve two of my favorite stores—Target and Acme.

A couple weeks ago, Target had a coupon in their circular offering $5.00 off the purchase of $20.00 or more of selected cleaning supplies.  Since I was running low on Clean Shower I decided to take them up on their offer. I went to Target and stocked up on Clean Shower, Clorox Wipes and a few other products. I added it up with the calculator on my phone, saw I was $1.87 shy of $20.00 and went back and bought a bottle of their private label Up & Up shower cleaner too.

Since I save an additional 5-percent by using my Target Red Card I decided to go on a mini shopping spree. I went through my stack of coupons and bought other items for which I had coupons and that I also knew would be cheaper at Target than ShopRite.

I had a $2.00 coupon for Mitchum deodorant. After debating between the stick that was $2.87, and the $5.69 roll-on I opted for the stick, figuring it would be only 87-cents. Heck, you can’t beat that price! I also bought Rachel Ray dog treats as an Easter present for my brother’s dogs ($1.50 coupon), contact lens solution ($2.00), Barbasol shaving cream (50-cents) and Chock full O’Nuts Midtown Blend Coffee Pods that were on an in-store $5.99 special (plus my $1.00 off coupon), plus many more coupon items too numerous to mention in the space allotted here.

Everything was fine until I got to the register. As the customer before me pulled away with her cart, Target did a cashier shift. I had to wait until they switched draws and the new cashier got settled. I handed him my coupons and said, “Here are my coupons.” He put them on the little shelf where the card reader is located. He then scanned all of my purchases and cheerfully said, “That will be $126.87.”

“You didn’t take off my coupons,” I replied.

I got an “oh” in return and he picked up the stack of coupons and began scanning them. Unfortunately for both of us, because he apparently already tallied out the order when he scanned the coupons the register kept beeping “Item not found.” He had to call the head cashier and I had to search through my bulls-eye bags to find the box of Chock full O’Nuts Midtown Blend Coffee Pods to show I actually purchased that item.

When it came to the Mitchum deodorant, I got a snippy, “This coupon’s expired!” and they handed it back to me. It truly was expired, but the expiration date print on the coupon was literally so small I could not see it without a magnifying glass. Not wanting to appear cheap, I kept the deodorant but was glad I did not spring for that pricey roll-on.  

My suggestion is that maybe politicians should do some real work for the people and pass legislation requiring that coupon expiration dates be printed in bold black ink and highlighted in fluorescent yellow or orange so that consumers can actually see the expiration date!

My other issue with Target was I was told by the head cashier that the $5.00 off of $20.00 coupon had already been scanned. That was news to me since it was the first time the cashier had scanned it, but apparently the register immediately applied the discount once I reached my $20.00 household cleaner purchase total.

After an unnecessary additional 15 minutes in the store, I got my total down to under $100. Although I saved more than $25.00 with coupons I left Target feeling very stressed and disgusted.

Now all of you might be saying, “Richard, you should be like those hip Millennials and use digital coupons.”

Well, last week I used digital coupons at Acme and had even more troubles.

Acme has a program called My Mixx, where they send digital online coupons that you have to click on to add to your cart. Personally, I don’t like doing this because how am I supposed to remember for which items I clicked a coupon when I go to the store two weeks later?

But last Friday Acme sent me an e-mail featuring two free My Mixx offers. One was a digital coupon for a free can of Pepsi 1893 cola and the other was for a frozen item called Aunt Jemima Pancake Poppers. Because of these two items I decided to run to Acme for my milk and other necessities instead of ShopRite.

I found a display of Pepsi 1893 in the soda aisle, so that was no problem. However, after walking up and down the frozen food aisle five times I still did not see any Aunt Jemima Pancake Poppers. I checked the end caps and then went and asked the clerk on the ice cream aisle. He did not know what I was talking about and walked me over to the frozen breakfast set to help me look. We could not find it.

Luckily another customer was there looking for her free Aunt Jemima Pancake Poppers too. She was able to call the item up on her phone. We still did not see it, but an Acme employee shopping on her lunch hour happened to be walking by and told us that this particular store did not stock Aunt Jemima Pancake Poppers but was substituting any Aunt Jemima frozen breakfast item in its place “because at Acme we like to keep our customers happy.”

I said that they should have a sign on the freezer door stating this and she replied, “We just found out.”

Both the other shopper and I opted for the Aunt Jemima Cinnamon French Toast because it sounded like something a little bit different.

I went to the register, paid for my order and then checked my receipt. Sure enough, the Pepsi 1893 was taken off as a My Mixx item, but there was no discount for the Aunt Jemima French Toast. I had to go wait on line at the courtesy desk and show them my receipt. They did give me my $3.10 back, but seemed a little miffed when I complained about this not being the first time this has happened to me at Acme.

I can tell you that the next time Acme sends me a digital coupon for a free My Mixx item I will definitely think twice before deciding if I should do my weekly shopping there just to get that free-be. I may just go to ShopRite instead.