Giving up coupons b/c I'm tired of being treated like a criminal

[golden1]

I never really use coupons unless I happen to see one for something I want to purchase normally.  Otherwise it just tempts me to buy stuff that is unhealthy or stuff I don't need. 

I knew a lady who was one of those extreme couponers.  She was very good at it, and she had an entire basement just FULL of detergents, toiletries and other dry goods.  She would proudly tell me how she got most of it for free and described the elaborate tricks she would use to do it.  It seems like there was a fair amount of confrontation involved in dealing with cashiers who either were reluctant to honor the loopholes or who honestly didn't know how to apply the discounts properly.  She did donate the vast majority of it though, so I guess it was a worthwhile thing to do.

[CommonCents]

I never really use coupons unless I happen to see one for something I want to purchase normally.  Otherwise it just tempts me to buy stuff that is unhealthy or stuff I don't need. 

I knew a lady who was one of those extreme couponers.  She was very good at it, and she had an entire basement just FULL of detergents, toiletries and other dry goods.  She would proudly tell me how she got most of it for free and described the elaborate tricks she would use to do it.  It seems like there was a fair amount of confrontation involved in dealing with cashiers who either were reluctant to honor the loopholes or who honestly didn't know how to apply the discounts properly.  She did donate the vast majority of it though, so I guess it was a worthwhile thing to do.

I try to look at it as education rather than confrontation.  It 1) makes me more likely to remember to be friendly even when I may be upset they aren't honoring the policy and 2) I can tell myself that it will help me the next time I go back, that the cashier will be easier to work with in the future being more knowledgeable.  Attitude helps tremendously!

[Cpa Cat]

I had a friend who was an "extreme couponer" - and I was trying to coupon more, but having trouble making it work every week. I had the most luck with newly introduced toiletries, since they would often have high-value coupons and frequent sales when they first came out.

So then my friend tells me that the "extreme couponer" she learned from taught her how to read the barcodes to figure out what coupons would scan with what items and that coupons will often work with items that they're not intended for if you know what to look for. The process relied on an inattentive cashier and unsophisticated scanning software. She pointed out the grocery stores in town that she knew had the unsophisticated software and gave me advice on how to pick the right cashier. At the time, one of the more popular couponing grocery stores had the trifecta: Young, inattentive cashiers + unsophisticated software + coupon doubling.

As you can imagine, they quit doubling coupons shortly thereafter.

I suspect they tightened up their scanning software too - The local "extreme couponers" are not particularly extreme anymore.

I basically quit with paper coupons (I use the Kroger ones that they send me or print out for me at the register and the E-coupons I can load to my card). I worked as a grocery store cashier for a long time as teenager. As a young woman, I experienced having scammers/thieves target my lane specifically because I looked like someone they could bully, fool and cheat.

When I told my friend that it put a bad taste in my mouth, she said, "Oh, just use the self-checkout." I noticed that this year, the self-checkout now requires coupons to be handed to a clerk for approval.

Sometimes Kroger sends me these "Save $2 if you spend $10 on Produce" type of coupons, and I never really know if I spent the $10. I always try to tell them, "I don't know if I spent enough, so it's ok if this doesn't scan" because if I don't, the cashier often just overrides it and puts it through. I don't like that. I don't want the cashier to think it's easier to cheat the system to avoid a confrontation over a $2 coupon.

[mm1970]

Holy crap! I just read through this thread and I am so tired...

I start my shopping trips at 99 Only Store, then Grocery Outlet and finally Costco. They're arranged in a loop, so I try to shop 2-3 times a month. GO takes coupons (I think), but their assortment is so random, it's hard to know what you're going to find there. 99 Only and Costco do not do paper coupons. I buy ingredients, not prepackaged convenience foods, as much as possible, so fewer couponing opportunities. When I am forced to shop at a regular grocery chain like Safeway, I am simply gobsmacked by the prices! Yeah, I'll take my cheapo-no-coupon-store choices any day. One of the perversely good things about living in a high COLA is that there are a ton of places to shop. I simply support the ones that suit my lifestyle. Coupons? Meh, don't need 'em.

This sounds like me.

I also don't use coupons generally (except occasionally 99c only!)  We shop at:
Albertson's
99c only (this store is relatively new to the area, terrible parking)
Costco
Trader Joe's
Smart and Final

We have two other grocery stores in the area (Ralph's and Vons) that occasionally have a sale worth going to, but are generally more expensive or worse quality.  There are certain items that are priced best at various stores.  Costco for cheese and butter and bread, S &F for dried beans and rice, etc.

My Albertson's is being replaced with a different store, so I'll have to see if the prices match or if I just need to hit the Albertson's near work instead.

Mostly though, I hit 99c store first on the weekend.  The savings are immense, even if I have to walk a ways from finding a spot on the street.  But you never know what they will have on a given day - I love their strawberries (organic this week!) and cauliflower, but they don't always have them.  So I get what I can there and then move on.

[MoneyCat]

I do the majority of my grocery shopping at BJs Wholesale Club, because they are the only wholesale club that takes coupons and they have a lot of good healthy food available (unlike Sam's Club).  The rest of my grocery shopping is done at Target grocery and they also take coupons.  I've never had any problems using coupons, because pretty much everybody who shops at both those places uses them.  BJs Wholesale will even let you stack store and manufacturers coupons, so you can double up the savings.  I usually save about $20-30 off my purchases each time I go.

[SpinGeek]

Not buying brand names saves me a lot of time at the grocery store. 95% of our food comes from Aldi, and the other 10% is usually for stuff that coupons don't cover, like the produce stand. We haven't bought the Sunday paper in years, so the only coupons we get are from the oil change place, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Joann's Fabric & Crafts.

I used to work the coupons, but once I realized that the store brand was nearly always cheaper than the brand name + coupon, it really didn't seem worth the effort. Most of the coupons were on highly processed crap that I don't want to have in our diet anyway, or health and beauty stuff that cost more than whatever we were using already. If they start giving out coupons on fruit, vegetables and meat at Aldi or Shop & Save (not Dierburg$) I might re-think it.

[prudence]

I have found this as well. The stores in my area wont take printed coupons. I use only coupons from the stores flyers, most of the sunday paper coupons are for junk i wont buy anyway. I find the real savings are not in coupon suing but in buying seasonal and bulk unprepared foods.

[Dicey]

Holy crap! I just read through this thread and I am so tired...

I start my shopping trips at 99 Only Store, then Grocery Outlet and finally Costco. They're arranged in a loop, so I try to shop 2-3 times a month. GO takes coupons (I think), but their assortment is so random, it's hard to know what you're going to find there. 99 Only and Costco do not do paper coupons. I buy ingredients, not prepackaged convenience foods, as much as possible, so fewer couponing opportunities. When I am forced to shop at a regular grocery chain like Safeway, I am simply gobsmacked by the prices! Yeah, I'll take my cheapo-no-coupon-store choices any day. One of the perversely good things about living in a high COLA is that there are a ton of places to shop. I simply support the ones that suit my lifestyle. Coupons? Meh, don't need 'em.

This sounds like me.

I also don't use coupons generally (except occasionally 99c only!)  We shop at:
Albertson's
99c only (this store is relatively new to the area, terrible parking)
Costco
Trader Joe's
Smart and Final

We have two other grocery stores in the area (Ralph's and Vons) that occasionally have a sale worth going to, but are generally more expensive or worse quality.  There are certain items that are priced best at various stores.  Costco for cheese and butter and bread, S &F for dried beans and rice, etc.

My Albertson's is being replaced with a different store, so I'll have to see if the prices match or if I just need to hit the Albertson's near work instead.

Mostly though, I hit 99c store first on the weekend.  The savings are immense, even if I have to walk a ways from finding a spot on the street.  But you never know what they will have on a given day - I love their strawberries (organic this week!) and cauliflower, but they don't always have them.  So I get what I can there and then move on.

Are we neighbors? Sisters separated at birth? We sure do shop alike. What about Winco? Any of those near you? They are another fave, but too far away to be much more than a quarterly pit stop on the way to or from somewhere else.

[nobodyspecial]

BJs Wholesale will even let you stack store and manufacturers coupons, so you can double up the savings. 

My local superstore had a bug in their tills for years, if you had a buy-one-get-one-free offer and the item was discounted it would knock off the full price.  They also had a moronic stock policy, they were in the cheap student area of a high COL city and so stocked high COL fancy items that nobody in that area ever bought, so they were always on the reduced to clear shelf.

All you had to do was pick up an out-of-date pack of "individually wrapped organic peeled grapes" for a few cents, with a BOGOF and get $10 knocked off the bill. I shopped there for years for almost free.

The only trick was that you had to load the stuff on the conveyor in the right order because if the total went negative the till stopped.
Nobody on the check out ever noticed (or cared) that I had just bought more food than I could carry for a few $ - because the computer is always right.

[squakbx]

DragonSlayer I would email the corporate office and let them know what your experience has been.
The corporate office may not be aware of this policy or to the fact that they have a paranoid manager.
I live in Florida and shop at Publix.  When you check out the cashiers ask if you have any coupons,
They let you use a store and manufacture's coupon on the same product and on their BOGO's you  can use 2 coupons for each deal.

[Tabaxus]

BJs Wholesale will even let you stack store and manufacturers coupons, so you can double up the savings. 

My local superstore had a bug in their tills for years, if you had a buy-one-get-one-free offer and the item was discounted it would knock off the full price.  They also had a moronic stock policy, they were in the cheap student area of a high COL city and so stocked high COL fancy items that nobody in that area ever bought, so they were always on the reduced to clear shelf.

All you had to do was pick up an out-of-date pack of "individually wrapped organic peeled grapes" for a few cents, with a BOGOF and get $10 knocked off the bill. I shopped there for years for almost free.

The only trick was that you had to load the stuff on the conveyor in the right order because if the total went negative the till stopped.
Nobody on the check out ever noticed (or cared) that I had just bought more food than I could carry for a few $ - because the computer is always right.

This is, to put it mildly, morally shaky.

[nobodyspecial]

This is, to put it mildly, morally shaky.

Since the chain with a few $Bn in turnover just got caught fiddling its accounts to overstate $500M in profit and then tried to make it back by imposing $100k "marketing fees" on its smaller suppliers I don't feel too bad.

[mm1970]

Holy crap! I just read through this thread and I am so tired...

I start my shopping trips at 99 Only Store, then Grocery Outlet and finally Costco. They're arranged in a loop, so I try to shop 2-3 times a month. GO takes coupons (I think), but their assortment is so random, it's hard to know what you're going to find there. 99 Only and Costco do not do paper coupons. I buy ingredients, not prepackaged convenience foods, as much as possible, so fewer couponing opportunities. When I am forced to shop at a regular grocery chain like Safeway, I am simply gobsmacked by the prices! Yeah, I'll take my cheapo-no-coupon-store choices any day. One of the perversely good things about living in a high COLA is that there are a ton of places to shop. I simply support the ones that suit my lifestyle. Coupons? Meh, don't need 'em.

This sounds like me.

I also don't use coupons generally (except occasionally 99c only!)  We shop at:
Albertson's
99c only (this store is relatively new to the area, terrible parking)
Costco
Trader Joe's
Smart and Final

We have two other grocery stores in the area (Ralph's and Vons) that occasionally have a sale worth going to, but are generally more expensive or worse quality.  There are certain items that are priced best at various stores.  Costco for cheese and butter and bread, S &F for dried beans and rice, etc.

My Albertson's is being replaced with a different store, so I'll have to see if the prices match or if I just need to hit the Albertson's near work instead.

Mostly though, I hit 99c store first on the weekend.  The savings are immense, even if I have to walk a ways from finding a spot on the street.  But you never know what they will have on a given day - I love their strawberries (organic this week!) and cauliflower, but they don't always have them.  So I get what I can there and then move on.

Are we neighbors? Sisters separated at birth? We sure do shop alike. What about Winco? Any of those near you? They are another fave, but too far away to be much more than a quarterly pit stop on the way to or from somewhere else.

Huh, I never knew about Winco (heard about it), so I googled it.  Turns out there is one right next to the nearest Target!  Which is sadly 35 miles away.  We only drive that way a few times a year.