Publix, Thursday 6/10/09

Jason and I went out and did a shop together last night at the Cool Springs store. We went there because they are a larger store and they are usually stocked up with what we need. We were also trying to spend our Register Rewards (will post on that deal later) that we received from Brandy and we knew that they would have more unusual items in stock.

We didn't have the best experience at checkout. I am providing the information below as a "learning experience" so that you can all learn along with me about what can happen at checkout.

Here's the story: I don't like to go to male cashiers as they are generally not as detailed as the female cashiers (remember, I said "generally)." We had a cashier named Drew (young male) and a bagger named Dana (older male). Drew gets "nervous" (his word) when couponers come through his line. He was definitely nervous. He called the customer service staff over to verify using a manufacturer's coupon and a store coupon together. He also wasn't too sure about those register rewards. Jason and I checked out separately and it took a really long time because he had the customer service staff stand there during the whole transaction and each time I would hand him a set of coupons he would turn to her and say, "is this ok?" The bagger kept making faces at the cashier and he was generally annoyed that we had so many coupons. Not a good experience. I will probably call the store manager on this transaction so that this doesn't happen to anyone else. I know that the store manager would want to know that his cashier doesn't want to "deal" with coupons (he kept asking the customer service staff to just take over the transaction because coupons made him "nervous)." Please understand that I expect difficult things to happen sometimes on these transactions. I go with the flow during the transaction and always act friendly, however, it is important to touch base with the store manager afterwards so that he can train his employees. Publix wants to provide the best customer service and they want to know if your experience wasn't good.

All that said, we got some great deals:

6 Sundown $2.99-3.29 ea ($6/2 Publix Q and $1/1 Q = FREE+)

4 Revlon $1.69-1.89 ea ($2/1 Publix Q = FREE+)

4 Beneful $2.75 raincheck ($3.50/1 = FREE+)

2 pork chops $1.97-$2.60 ea ($6/1 pork Q = FREE+)

12 filler $.99 ea (three .75 produce wyb butter spray Q = FREE+)

2 KC Masterpiece (FREE wyb charcoal = FREE)

6 butter sprays $1.15 ea (.50/1 Q = .15 ea)

13 ziplocs $1.99 ea ($.40/1 Q and $1/1 Target Q = .19 ea)

3 Driscol $2.00 ea ($1/1 Target Q & .75 prod. wyb butter = $.25 ea)

4 Playtex $2.14 ea ($2/2 Q = $1.14 ea)

5 Snuggle $2.99 ea (.50/1 = $1.99 ea)

2 Kingsford $9.79ea ($3/1 Q and $3/1 Food Lion Q = $3.79 ea)

3 chicken tenders $4.67-4.94 ea ($2/1 Food Lion Q = $2.67-2.94 ea)

Two $5/50 competitor coupons

TOTAL: $175.49

TOTAL AFTER COUPONS: $17.78
SAVINGS: 90%

NOTE: We had the butcher split up the pork chops into two separate packages so that our pork items were cheap; that allowed us overage for other items. The .75 produce WYB "I can't believe it's not butter" Q's were hangtags that were right on the butter. I have only found these at the Maryland Farms store. I looked at Nipper's and Moore's Lane and they did not have any.

NOTE2: I probably won't do anymore shops with Jason and the children at night. It was very difficult for me to do my coupon calculations with both Jason and the children there; they were very distracting. Jason wants me to go faster and he doesn't understand why I can't just hang out and relax as Savannah runs around the store like a banchee while I'm trying to focus and calculate. It just doesn't work. I have a much more pleasant shopping experience when we go shopping on Wednesdays without our children. Lesson learned.

NOTE3: I will sell the dog food and the charcoal and will make back $16.66 on these items which puts my final balance at $1.12