Monday, October 6, 2008

Edition 7: Sunday Savings

What I really wanted to name this post was: Savings Shmavings... or Ticked Off Strategic Shopper, but that would mess up the whole Sunday Savings setup. Now, this has nothing to do with The Grocery Game itself, it has to do with the stores in our town.

Yesterday, Sal Gal and I got a little frustrated with them. Being from a small town that has only one grocery store and one 'chain' drugstore, we have come to expect the fact that the stores do not feel the need to keep their businesses running at a high efficiency level because there are no competitors nearby. You would think that the stores would want to keep their stores in tiptop shape just for the intrinsic reward it brings. The personal satisfation from knowing your store is running top speed and putting smiles on customers' faces. But no, this doesn't seem to be the case.

Our town's Rite-Aid didn't have their sales posted, were out of many of products, and simply didn't even carry some of the items on the list. When asked why they didn't carry some of the more common name brands, we were answered with, " We jus' don't carry that 'round here."
Great. Thanks for your help.
Rite-Aid's receipts also do not calculate your total amount of savings for you. And to be honest, at this point, I didn't feel like doing it myself. I really think I only saved about $10 bucks on a generous estimation, which isn't bad, but it could've been a lot better.

Now, W/D also got us a little heated. They too did not have their sales labeled accurately and were also out of several items.

What I wanted to say was, "Listen here Mr. Winn-Dixie, if I may speak with you on a personal level, you are in fact NOT 'getting better all the time' as your commercials state." And if I may be frank (not Hollie, but Frank), "I'm not impressed with the fact that your manager would rather check the status of the gel in his hair in the freezer section's glass reflections than help me find a particular item."

I did manage to cut my bill in half yesterday, in spite of all of the drama. I got $66.67 worth of groceries for $33.82, saving me $32.85.
Typing this out just now made me realize that it is indeed still a good amount of savings.
But not hurkey worthy. I really did have every intention of attempting a hurkey for ya'll.
Sorry. Tell hair gel boy at W/D that he blew it.


5 comments:

Naturally Caffeinated Family said...

Oh I hate when stores do that! I would so keep my store lookin' and runnin' in a type A way! What's with these people! Uh, I'm upset for you! Great job on the halfsies grocery bill though!

Puttin' On The GRITS said...

My parents live in outside of a very small town. There is a W/D closer to their house and a Publix further in town. Meat is always bought at Publix but other things, and last minute forgot items were bought at W/D because it was closer. Well, a few years ago my mom had it with W/D...the one by their house was just NASTY. You just felt dirty going in there. My mom decided to pick up a comment card on her way out thinking after she filled it out it would be sent to Michigan or some other far away state...not directly back to the store she just left....A few days later she got a message on her answering machine from the W/D manager, Wayne, to come pick up her gift cards and he apologized for her experience. Next time she was in the store she went over to the customer service desk and asked the, um, rather redneck (nothing but love..my Country vacuums the house in camo) lady at the counter, "Is Wayne in?" and she said "What'd you say?" "Is Wayne in?" She then proceeded to look out the front window and say "No, it ain't rainin'!"

Ahhh...only in a small town.

Lane said...

Oh girl, I totally hear ya on the stores not having their shelves stocked. We live about 5 miles outside of the town that WalMart's home office is. There just happens to be a WalMart across the street. That is the store we shop at religiously. Now you would think that it would be the best WalMart ever, ya know, being right across the street from the Home OFfice. It is in fact, the WORST one ever! Shelves are never stocked and it hasn't been updated like all the other ones in the area. I feel ya sister! However, one thing I love about WalMart is that they will price match the other stores sale prices. So I only have to go to one store, but get the prices of the other stores...it's great!! Got a jumbo pack of $8 Always pads for $1.50 after the price comparison and a coupon. Whoop whoop...go me! :)

sugar said...

I feel your pain and love this post. Love your blog, found you through Grits. I get very frustrated with the deli at my grocery store, every week. And the "Beef People" don't care if they have the sale items, they just use the sales to get you in the door, same with the drug stores. Its all a gimmick. I used to try and keep up with the sales at Walgreens and CVS and then they started putting such tight limits on everything that I gave up. I should proably try to get back into it.

Kristy said...

I am mad that I don't get to see the hurkey. Maybe next week.