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hollybrookeA couple of days ago, I was working the self-check registers. This one customer comes through with a regular-sized order and is ringing herself up. She then had a bunch of coupons, and a few of them went through fine, but some weren't ringing up. They were coming up as "invalid." I go over to check what was up with the coupons, and I was going to enter them manually, buuut...when I was checking her transaction list, I noticed one of the coupons was for $5 off a 16-oz. pack of Kraft cheese and the actual price she paid for the cheese was $4.85. Plus, it didn't have that thing up in the right hand corner for the Internet coupons that indicates we can take them.
I still wasn't sure, so I called Dana at the service desk to check into the coupons, and of course, they were counterfeit coupons from the Internet. We got a specific warning about these particular coupons because we can't get credit for them if we do redeem them. I explained to the customer why we couldn't take them because we can't give her money back for them. She explained that a friend sent her the link for the coupons through her email, and amazingly, the customer wasn't a total bitch about it. I told her that it sucks, because grocery prices are skyrocketing, and those of us who make the effort to save money by getting coupons from the Internet get taken advantage of because there's always going to be someone circulating fake ones that offer "too good to be true" savings. Like I said, at least she wasn't a total bitch about it (most customers would cop a 'tude in a situation like this) and understood what I meant. I told her not to totally distrust Internet coupons, and gave her a few links to where she COULD go to get some legit ones, but sometimes if the coupon offers savings that look too good to be true...chances are, it probably is, and you need to check the source.
Anyhoo....if you're like me and this customer, and want to make the effort to save money on your grocery bill, here are some links that offer good advice:
http://www.grocerysavingtips.com/ This is a really good site. It offers clues as to how to save money by aisle, a price log to compare prices per store, a money-saving tips E-Zine, and much more.
http://www.coupons.com
http://www.ppgazette.com
http://www.smartsource.com
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On a related note....America is broke. My opinion?....We got into bad times like this during the late 20s and 30s, and we got out of them then. We can get out of it again. It's just going to take some time and patience.
I still wasn't sure, so I called Dana at the service desk to check into the coupons, and of course, they were counterfeit coupons from the Internet. We got a specific warning about these particular coupons because we can't get credit for them if we do redeem them. I explained to the customer why we couldn't take them because we can't give her money back for them. She explained that a friend sent her the link for the coupons through her email, and amazingly, the customer wasn't a total bitch about it. I told her that it sucks, because grocery prices are skyrocketing, and those of us who make the effort to save money by getting coupons from the Internet get taken advantage of because there's always going to be someone circulating fake ones that offer "too good to be true" savings. Like I said, at least she wasn't a total bitch about it (most customers would cop a 'tude in a situation like this) and understood what I meant. I told her not to totally distrust Internet coupons, and gave her a few links to where she COULD go to get some legit ones, but sometimes if the coupon offers savings that look too good to be true...chances are, it probably is, and you need to check the source.
Anyhoo....if you're like me and this customer, and want to make the effort to save money on your grocery bill, here are some links that offer good advice:
http://www.grocerysavingtips.com/ This is a really good site. It offers clues as to how to save money by aisle, a price log to compare prices per store, a money-saving tips E-Zine, and much more.
http://www.coupons.com
http://www.ppgazette.com
http://www.smartsource.com
*****************
On a related note....America is broke. My opinion?....We got into bad times like this during the late 20s and 30s, and we got out of them then. We can get out of it again. It's just going to take some time and patience.
