Are you ready to start saving on your family’s shopping budget? Now that you know where the best paper and digital coupons can be found, make sure you are also aware of the store policies for each place you shop. Some of the common store practices can really contribute to some serious savings once you know how to take advantage of them! In the coming weeks, we’ll be breaking down some shopping tips for each of the most popular stores in our area so we can all become better savvy shoppers! Here’s a list of the top 7 metro Atlanta store policies you’re going to want to be sure you know about.
- Doubling: This is when a store doubles the value of a manufacturer coupon. The additional consumer savings is provided from the store itself. This is usually for certain grocery stores only.
- Stacking: Stacking is a great way to get an amazing deal (often FREE products)! It means you are able to use BOTH a store and a manufacturer coupon on a single item. This is standard policy for almost every grocery and drug store in our area!
- BOGO: Buy One, Get One (or BOGO) sales are intended to mean that you can buy one product and get the second one free. However, most grocery stores in our area actually ring up both items as being half price at the cash register rather than charging one at full price and the second for free. Either way, most store policies allow you to use a coupon on EACH of the two items, regardless of how they ring up at the cash register. What happens if you have a BOGO manufacturer coupon on an item that is on BOGO sale at the store? Well, if that store rings up one full priced item and the other free, you will walk out of the store with both items free after you hand them the coupon! One of the items is free due to the store’s sale, and the other item will be free because of the coupon. This means all you will owe is the sales tax on the two items! If the store rings up both items half price for their BOGO sales instead, you will walk out the door paying only half price for one of the items and the other free with coupon. In addition, if you have a $1 off coupon for example, you may still use that on the item you’re paying half price for to save even more!
- Price Matching: This practice is becoming more common with major retailers. Most of the time, this does not include doorbuster deals, only deals that are valid all day long. Price matching is particularly useful when you’re shopping for toy deals or holiday gifts. It isn’t very helpful when it comes to saving on groceries because the grocery stores’ coupon policies allow for additional discounts that the major retailers don’t offer.
- Competitor Coupons: Many stores actually accept their competitors’ coupons! In these cases, be sure to first check with customer service to find out which competitors’ coupons they will allow you to use.
- Pricing Errors: Some grocery stores will give you the item for FREE if you catch a pricing error. It is best to discuss pricing errors with customer service after you check out rather than with the cashier. This is because cashiers don’t have the time or the authority in most cases to properly
Rain Check Kroger Hadley Collage
address the error.
- Rain Checks: Getting to the store with a grocery list full of deals and finding out that some of the sale items you need to purchase are out of stock is frustrating! Most stores offer rain checks if you let customer service know that you were trying to purchase an item that is no longer in stock. Rain checks are great because they allow you to buy the items at a later time for the same sale price! (Think how awesome this is for produce items, for example!) Even if the store is only out of a certain variety or flavor of the sale item, they will give you a rain check for it. At grocery stores, it is generally best to do this after you check out with everything else. With drug stores, go ahead and ask for a rain check from the cashier.
I love to hear how using this information is saving your family money. Feel free to share your deals stories! Share with us when you take advantage of these store policies, and we’ll cheer each other on! Once you get your first great one, you’re hooked!
