I taught you about couponing basics in one of my very first blog posts and I turned you onto some of my favorite frugal bloggers who post coupon matchups for the stores I love. I am in awe of the work that these folks put in scouring weekly ads and matching them with available coupons, and I am so thankful to have this resource available at my fingertips. I think I may have taken for granted just how much work goes into doing matchups though, and I realized that fully this week.
I have a Shoppers Food on my way home from work and I’ve recently wanted to stop in to check out the deals. It turns out that they have some pretty great prices, but it’s hard to find someone doing consistent coupon matchups - and so, it is with trepidation that I launch into my first attempt at doing my own coupon matchups. I’m happy to share a bit about my frugal adventure with you.
I grabbed my local add from online and I started matching sale prices with coupons. It took quite a while, greatly increasing my respect for the bloggers who do this every week for multiple stores. It was also pretty fun. It felt like I was putting together a challenging puzzle, and as I found good deals I received a great sense of satisfaction. For a few evenings I was a coupon queen.
I took my coupon matchups on a little trip to Shoppers Food and scored some great savings on products I needed. In addition – I was able to get some fresh produce at a price that was very nice. All in all, the shopping trip was a positive one, but there was one hitch. I’ve heard coupon bloggers talk about the importance of carrying a store’s coupon policy with you on your shopping trips in case you should encounter an uninformed employee. The employee I encountered wasn’t just uninformed, he was also kind of rude. I had a $.75 off coupon for croutons that were priced at $1.25 each. Shoppers Food Warehouse doubles coupons up to $.99. The doubled coupon totaled $1.50 off, which obviously exceeded the price of the item. According to the Shoppers coupon policy the item should have been free with no overage given - pretty simple. My cashier was unfamiliar with the policy and the assistant manager she called told me that I was wrong and refused to double the coupon. Long story short I had them remove the croutons from my order and I left a little frustrated.
After spending a few hours doing coupon matchups I wasn’t just willing to let the coupon refusal rest. I’d like to keep going to Shoppers, and I don’t want to encounter another situation like this – so I called the corporate office and made a complaint. This is something I very rarely do, but I’m so glad I did. I ended up getting a call back from the store manager reassuring me that I was correct about the coupon policy and letting me know that he would retrain the staff member I encountered. He was so nice I almost thought I’d stumbled back into small town Ohio. Based on my encounter I highly recommend that you get to know your coupon policies and that you be willing to contact management if you have an issue. I found it to be very worth it.
Shoppers runs their sale cycle from Thursday –Wednesday. I’m going to try to bring you the deals moving forward. I won’t presume to have a complete list of matchups, but I will tell you about some of the best deals and how you can maximize them with coupons. As I’m just starting out, I don’t know if this will be something that I do every week, but I will try to bring you matchups as regularly as possible. I’m excited to join the coupon blogging club, especially since I can fill a clear niche.
To prep I’m going to share with you the Shoppers Food Warehouse Coupon policy so that you can familiarize yourself. I truly hope that this information will be helpful for you as you seek to save some money on your household groceries!
Shoppers Food Coupon Policy
- SHOPPERS will accept valid manufacturers’ coupons obtained from the Internet with a face value up to $7.00.
- Internet coupons with a face value of $7.01 or above or FREE offers will not be accepted (Buy One, Get One Free coupons ARE permitted).
- Coupons must contain valid redemption information and a valid bar code (UPC) to be honored.
- Photocopies of Internet coupons are not acceptable.
- SHOPPERS reserves the right to refuse any coupon deemed to be fraudulent and the right to change or terminate this policy at any time.
- SHOPPERS will double the value of valid manufacturers’ coupons with a face-value of up to 99¢ (example: 25¢ = 50¢, 50¢ = $1.00, 75¢ = $1.50.)
- Valid manufacturers’ coupons with a face-value of $1.00 or greater will be redeemed at face-value only (example: $1.00 = $1.00, $1.50 = $1.50, $2.00 = $2.00.)
- The value of the “doubled” manufacturer’s coupon may not exceed the retail price of the item. If the price of the item is less than the “doubled” value of the manufacturer’s coupon, the item will be free.
- Buy One, Get One Free coupons will NOT be doubled.
- Manufacturers’ coupons may be obtained from the newspaper, mailers or Internet.
- Coupons must contain valid redemption information and a valid bar code (UPC) to be honored.
- SHOPPERS reserve the right to limit manufacturers’ coupons eligible for “doubling” purposes to four (4) identical coupons.
- Manufacturers’ coupons that state “Do Not Double” or “Not subject to Doubling” will be redeemed at face value only.
- Photocopies of coupons are not acceptable.
- SHOPPERS reserves the right to refuse any coupon deemed to be fraudulent and the right to change or terminate this policy at any time.