A quick Publix shop.....

Surprise!

I decided to sneak in and post a fun shop that I did this week. I am not "officially" back but I may post here every now and then as I have time. Our house is currently on the market and we are planning on moving soon but I am still shopping from time to time.

I found a few cool deals in the store today and am posting in case anyone has this combination of coupons. I purchased my favorite teas (Tazo) and my favorite cookies (Back to Nature Peanut Butter) today so I was pretty stoked walking out of the store. Just paid the tax on the following items:

MONEYMAKERS

6 Phazyme (12 ct.) $2.99 ea. (raincheck)

-$10/3 10/11/09 RP (exp. 12/31 but used with raincheck)

-$5/2 Publix Q from Green Advantage flyer

= FREE + $2.84 overage ea.

5 Back to Nature Crackers $2.49 ea. (regular price)
- $1/1 (purchased on ebay; exp. 2/28/10; not sure where they came from originally)
- FREE BTN crackers wyb a box of BTN cookies from Whole Foods newsletter Jan/Feb.

- FREE + $1.00 overage ea.

4 Benevia Juices $8.49 ea. (regular price)

-$5/1 printable

-$4/1 Publix Q from Green Advantage flyer

= FREE + $.51 overage ea.

4 Oikos Yogurt $1.79 ea. (regular price)
-$1/1 Q from Whole Foods newsletter Jan/Feb. issue

-$1/1 1/3/10 SS or printable

= FREE + $.21 overage ea.

2 Friendship Sour Cream 16 oz. $.85 ea. (B1G1 price "in-store special)"
-$1/2 11/22/09 SS

-$1/2 from Publix "All the Trimmings booklet" (exp. 1/31/10 but beeped at register)

= FREE + $.15 overage ea.

STOCKPILE

11 Tazo teas $2.99 (advertised sale)

-$1/1 Q from Whole Foods newsletter Jan/Feb. issue

-$1/1 Q from Kroger insert, or $1/1 from Dec. All You magazine or printable
= $1.00 ea.

5 Back to Nature Cookies $2.87 ea. (regular price)
- $1/1 (purchased on ebay; exp. 2/28/10; not sure where they came from originally)

- $1.87 ea.

4 Smuckers Uncrustables $2.79 ea (regular price)
- $1/1 printable

= $1.79 ea.

8 Contadina Tomato Sauce $.40 ea (regular price)
- $1/4 blinkie (found it right in the store)

= $.15 ea.

5 Stoneyfield 6oz. yogurt $.50 ea.
- $.50/3 printable
- FREE Stoneyfield 6oz. yogurt wyb 4 Stoneyfield yogurts

= $.20 ea. (purchased 5 total yogurts; this was final price for each)

TOTAL: $165.08

TOTAL AFTER COUPONS: $7.13

SAVINGS: 94.5%

NOTE: The sour cream is a great deal if you still have your "All the trimmings" booklets from Publix. It was fun to find this unadvertised in-store special.

Slotting Fees

Lately, I have been concerned by the thinking patterns of the local general couponing population. With the recent possible change in the competitor coupon policy I have been reading several blogs around town and have become distressed by the comments that people are leaving that display a lack of understanding regarding how the retail markets work. People have made the following remarks:

"Well we knew it (meaning the use of compeitor coupons) couldn’t last!"

"Publix is losing too much money on the use of these coupons."

"I am even more aggravated at the lady or ladies, who shall from here on out be referred to as "the trail mix hussies" (in reference to the fact that someone used too many competitor coupons in their opinion), because you my dears have made me one grouchy couponer today :-( "

I thought I would take some time to explain how things actually work at the national retail supermarket level. Before I get started let me just run-off some figures for you. Publix’s sales for the second quarter of 2009 were $6 billion, a 2.7 percent increase from last year’s $5.9 billion. Publix’s net earnings were $300.8 million dollars last quarter (up 1.7% from last year). Their stock earnings per share increased to $0.79 for the first half of 2009, up from $0.77 per share in 2008. Publix’s stock price increased from $15.55 per share to $16.05 per share.

Publix is doing just fine. Really.

I often talk to the employees and congratulate them on their earnings for the quarter; I like to tell them that I think that they are doing well in this economy because of couponers like me. Well, I really do think that this is true (even with our constant use of competitor, manufacturer and Publix Q’s).

Why do I think this way? Well, I’ll give you a view into what I have long suspected…….that the stores do not work the way that we think they work. I have had this nagging feeling that we really don’t understand the way everything works. Well, so far I have uncovered one segment of the puzzle that I think is worth mentioning.

This piece is called slotting.

- Slotting is a practice that dates back to the 1970’s.
- Slotting is very profitable for the grocery stores.
- Slotting obliterates any bad feeling that you might have had about your coupon usage and it’s affect on Publix.

So, what is slotting?

A slotting fee is a fee charged to manufacturers by supermarket distributors (retailers) in order to have their product placed on their shelves. The fee varies greatly depending on the product, manufacturer, and market conditions. For a new product, the initial slotting fee may be approximately $25,000 per item in a regional cluster of stores, but may be as high as $250,000 in high-demand markets.

That's right....I said $250,000

In addition to slotting fees, retailers may also charge promotional, advertising and stocking fees. According to an FTC study, the practice is "widespread" in the supermarket industry. Many grocers earn more profit from agreeing to carry a manufacturer's product than they do from actually selling the product to retail consumers. According to retailers, fees serve to efficiently allocate scarce retail shelf space, help balance the risk of new product failure between manufacturers and retailers, help manufacturers signal private information about potential success of new products, and serve to widen retail distribution for manufacturers by mitigating retail competition. Vendors charge that slotting fees are a move by the grocery industry to profit at their suppliers' expense.

Food historians believe that slotting fees have dramatically changed the American supermarket landscape by reducing the diversity of products available to consumers. The American food market is heavily dominated by a small group of major players which can afford slotting fees and complex distribution systems, leaving smaller companies out in the cold.

Hmmmm, very interesting right?

Well, I won’t reinvent the wheel so if you’d like to read more about this practice feel free to peruse this document entitled, "STATEMENT BEFORE THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION: SLOTTING FEES HEARING." It explains slotting in more detail.

Another interesting article from the Oligopoly Watch can be found here.

Rumor Mill

There have been rumors swirling around Nashville that Publix has changed their competitor coupon usage policy here. I have a call into Dave Fulmer (District Manager for my area of Nashville) to verify this change and to find out the reason for the change. When a change like this occurs I always go straight to the top of the local organization to get the facts. When I speak with him I will also find out if this is a citywide change or if the policy will be at the discretion of management. The changes were supposed to take effect the middle of September.

This change may affect the quantity of competitor coupons that we can use per item and per transaction. I'll keep you posted.

No lamenting please.

This is just a game. The rules may change but the person with the most smarts at the end of the day still wins. We'll get a chance to see how adaptable you can be.

Don't forget that many of us were paying full retail less than a year ago. Let's keep it in perspective.

NOTE: Please post a comment here if you have had problems lately with using competitor Q's in Nashville. Please also post which store you were shopping at and the situation that occurred. And please keep it positive. I will delete and/or edit any responses that I feel do not aid our goal of have a great community on this website. I'm not interested in rants about your bad experience nor am I interested in posts that smack of "well this is my right to be able to use these coupons." Publix is a business and as such they have the right to change their rules as they see fit. We should have the brains to respond to these changes intelligently by communicating with their management about the situation and it's effect on us.

Approaching the Register

Jason and I firmly believe that a successful shop starts at the register. We have spent countless hours in Publix stores and have come up with what we believe is a decent approach to ensuring a smooth transaction at the register. Although this is not a foolproof method it may help some of you that are feeling frustrated during your transactions.

ORGANIZE YOUR COUPONS BEFORE YOU GET IN LINE
We organize our coupons in the following manner:

$/$$ coupon first
competitor coupons
Publix coupons
Manufacturer coupons

Why do we do this? Well, it really helps the cashier and it makes your transaction go smoothly. The cashier doesn’t have to switch modes every time you hand him/her a different kind of coupon (i.e. the manufacturer coupons scan but the competitor and the Publix coupons have to be input manually). We always hand the competitor coupons first after the $/$$ because they take the most time to input. The Publix coupons can be input more easily. Then the cashier can just scan all of the manufacturer coupons at the end and you leave your transaction on a positive note.

NOTE: Please make sure that you fill in the price of the item on the coupons that are for FREE products (just look for the blank line on the coupon and write in the price). This really helps the cashier; they won’t have to scan through your entire order looking for the price of the item.

PICKING A FRIENDLY CASHIER
I know that many of you are trying to figure out who the friendly cashiers are in your local stores. This is a tough nut to crack. I shop at 6 different Publix stores in the Nashville area and I know most of the cashiers by name now (even the unfriendly ones). The Cool Springs Moore’s Lane store is the exception; that store is gigantic and I still feel as though I’m lost in a sea of faces when I am there.

As many of you know the women cashiers that are over 50 are not the best choice (this is a generalization). For some reason, they often do not exercise healthy skepticism when scanning your coupons but instead opt for hostility especially when they don’t understand your coupons. I have my own theory as to why they act this way. If you meet me in a store then you can ask me about it.

SMILE AND CHAT WITH THE CASHIER WHEN YOU ARE UNLOADING YOUR ITEMS AND WHILE SHE/HE IS SCANNING YOUR ITEMS
I always ask the cashiers how their day is going and I try to remember something about their lives so that they know that I care about them and am not just the "greedy lady that gets her food for free." Remember that your cashiers are people too. They have family problems and difficult days and they sometimes deal with impatient and angry people. Make sure that their transactions with you are always pleasant and friendly. Don’t worry about checking the price of the items while they are being scanned. You can check your receipt after the transaction is over.

STOP CHATTING WHEN YOUR ITEMS HAVE BEEN SCANNED AND FOCUS ON YOUR COUPONS
As soon as my items scan I switch modes and start working on my communication with the cashier as it relates to my coupons. First of all, I never (and I mean never) hand my coupons to the cashier. There are several reasons for this:

1. Some of the coupons will not be scanned.
2. I don’t want the cashier to lay my coupons down and try to match them.
3. I want to control the pace/speed of the transaction.
4. I want to explain things as I go.
5. I don’t want the cashier to take the time to scrutinize every little detail of the coupon once he/she sees that I am getting something for free (getting stuff for free freaks some cashiers out). I know that I am being ethical and I don’t want to prolong the transaction unnecessarily.

When you walk up to the cashier just have your coupons organized and begin communicating with him/her.

"Here is my $5/50 competitor coupon."

"Here are my $3.00 charcoal competitor coupons…..I bought 6 bags so there's 6 coupons. It's $18.00 total (I tell them this so that they don't have to add them up; some of the cashiers like to input just the $18.00 instead of inputting the coupon 6 times).
- cashier tries to scan charcoal coupon
- "oh, those have to be input as competitor coupons."

"Here are the 6 Publix coupons for the 6 Revlon that I bought."

Watch the screen to ensure that the correct amount comes off of your bill when your coupons are being input. If the cashier makes a mistake then politely point out the error. I encounter errors all the time. Sometimes they are in the form of an "incorrect amount" that was input and sometimes they are in the form of a "miscount" of the number of coupons that you had for that item. For example, if I hand the cashier 6 coupons for an item then I take the time to listen for 6 beeps. Then I hand the cashier the next set of coupons.

APPLY YOUR COUPONS TO TAX
You can calculate your balance in such a way that your last few coupons can be applied to tax. Keep in mind that the manager or customer service rep. will have to come over to approve those last few coupons as the register needs approval to apply coupons to tax.

TRY NOT TO GO INTO THE NEGATIVE
If you see that your balance is going to come up negative then hold back the coupons that would put you into the negative. Many cashiers don’t know what to do if your balance goes into the negative. They get very nervous. Better to avoid this scene altogether.

CHECK YOUR RECEIPT BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE STORE
If you encounter any problems with your receipt then just head to customer service after the transaction is over. If you have problems with your cashier not accepting certain coupons or you have an item ring up wrong then just go and talk to customer service. Their job is to help you solve your problem.

GET TO KNOW YOUR MANAGEMENT
Introduce yourself to your managers and tell them that you love shopping at Publix. Tell them that you are an extreme couponer and you love the savings that you receive at Publix. The more you know your management the better your transactions will go. Tell them that you reference them and their store by leaving comments on shopping blogs. This lets them know that you are an opinion leader and that others will be reading what you say about their store.

Selling Your Stockpile

Jason and I decided that it was time to sell all of the extra stockpile items that we have accumulated over the last quarter. We had a huge amount of BBQ Sauce, Glad snack bags, windex, vitamins, shampoo, makeup, revlon tools, etc.

Did I mention that we have alot of BBQ Sauce?

We put up signs this morning at 6:00am and by 10:30am we had sold everything. Yes, I said everything. I priced most items to sell since they were all FREE when I obtained them.

Why am I posting about this? So that you will realize that all of those extra items that you are obtaining for free are worth something to someone else. The money that we made will pay for our groceries for an entire year.

Total amount of time spent getting ready for the sale: 2 hours

Total # of people that came to the sale: Approximately 200

Total money made in 4.5 hours: $695

Look on my face afterwards: Priceless

I won't be posting but that doesn't mean that I don't have anything to say. LOL.

Hiatus

I won't be posting any of my shops for at least a month. Jason and I have some personal business to attend to.

In the meantime, I will put a blank post out every week in case you want to cross talk with each other about sharing coupons and sharing deals that you found.

See you soon.

Practically Perfect in Every Way

My three year-old has been watching Mary Poppins almost continually since my friend loaned us the movie about 3 months ago. Since that time I have also been watching/hearing about Mary Poppins almost daily. I can hear my sweet girl humming and singing all of the songs from the movie:

- "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down"

- "Chim-chiminey, chim-chiminey, chim-chim-charoo"

- "Steppin' time, steppin' time"
- "Feed the birds, tuppence a bag"

- "Let's go fly a kite"

So, I guess I shouldn't have been confused when my daughter pulled out a tape measure the other day and started measuring me and then began mumbling something to herself. Still, I was flummoxed. Sometimes when she speaks I can't understand a word that she is saying; I swear she's speaking in tongues. Then it dawned on me what she was doing. She was measuring me to see what kind of person I was. Upon further investigation I realized that she was saying, "practically perfect in every way."

Yep, that about sums it up (smiling great big).

Seriously though, it got me thinking about Publix. I want to take my tape measure and go down to my local store and pull it out and walk up to each person that works there and then tell them that I think that they are "practically perfect in every way." I want to tell them not to change a thing. I want to tell them what a great job they do every day. I want to encourage them and let them know that their store is amazing and that I notice that it is spit-spot clean. I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart for all of the amazing deals that I get there every week.

So, this week, I want you to get out there and tell your managers, cashiers, baggers and anyone stocking shelves that you appreciate what they do. Tell them that you notice how hard they work and tell them that you appreciate them.

Then go out to the parking lot after your shop and count your blessings since God in His mercy not only causes the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous but also gives us life and breath and all things (including our most loveable Publix).

Ok, here's the shop (and what an awesome shop it was this week)! This is two shops combined:

MONEYMAKERS

12 Revlon $1.49-$2.49 ea.

-$1/1 from 08/16/09 SS (purchased)

-$2/1 Publix Q from Green Advantage flyer

= FREE + $.51 - $1.51 overage ea.

6 Axe Hair products $1.00 ea. (clearance price)

- $2/1 Publix Q from Green Advantage flyer

= FREE + $1.00 overage ea.

12 Oral B. Indicator Toothbrush $1.67 ea. (advertised sale)

- $1/1 Q from "Live Well" flyer (really old flyer)

- B1G1 Q 08/23/09 RP

= FREE + $.17 cents overage ea.

6 Crest Toothpaste (8.2 oz) $1.67 ea. (advertised sale)

- $1/1 Q from "Live Well" flyer (really old flyer)

- $.50/1 08/30/09 PG

= FREE + $.34 cents overage ea.

9 sugar $.85 ea.

- $1 off sugar wyb 5 Kool Aid Food Lion tearpad

= FREE + $.15 overage ea.

4 Mrs. Pauls $2.25 ea. (B1G1 price)

- $1/1 Q from "Toss for Cash" booklet (not in FL version)

- $3/1 Q printable (no longer available)

= FREE + $1.75 overage ea.

2 Mrs. Pauls $2.25 ea. (B1G1 price)
- $1/1 Q from "Toss for Cash" booklet (not in FL version)
- $1.50/1 Q printable (no longer available)
= FREE + $.25 cents overage ea.

4 Pork items $1.91-$2.75 ea.

- $6/1 Q printable

= FREE + $3.25-$4.09 overage ea.

STOCKPILE

5 Popsicle (24 packs) $2.00 ea. (B1G1 price)

-$1/1 Q "Raise your hand for savings" booklet

-$.75/1 Target printable
= $.25 cents ea.

4 Dannon Light and Fit 6-packs $1.25 ea (B1G1 price)

- $1/1 08/30/09 SS

- $.25 cents ea.

2 Superpretzel $1.50 ea. (B1G1 price)

- $.50/1 printable (zip 90210; thank you Beverly Hills)!

= $.50 ea.

2 Smucker's Uncrustables $2.00 ea (advertised sale)

- $1/1 printable

= $1.00 ea.

2 Barber Foods Stuffed Chicken $2.50 (B1G1 price)

- $1/1 printable (two separate Q's available here for the Barber)

= $1.50 ea.

2 Heluva Good Dip (hate that name) $1.00 ea (B1G1 price)

- $.50/1 printable (IE) or printable (FF)

= FREE

1 Lean Pocket $2.09 ea. (regular price)

- $1/1 peelie

= $1.09 ea.

2 Pillsbury Simply cookies $2.50 ea (advertised sale)

- $1.25/1 printable (IE) or printable (FF)

= $1.25 ea.

45 Kool Aid $.20 ea.

no coupons

= $.20 ea.

4 Mt. Olive pickles $1.40 ea (B1G1 price)

- $.50/1 07/19/09 SS, 08/16/09 SS

= $.40 ea

4 KC Masterpiece BBQ (seriously, shouldn't we own stock by now) $1.99 ea

$2 off KC Masterpiece wyb charcoal 06/21/09 RP

= FREE

4 bags charcoal $7.99 ea (advertised sale)

- $3/1 Q from "Fire up the Grill" booklet

- $3/1 FLIP

= $1.99 ea

THINGS I NEEDED

1 Sorrento Fresh Mozarella $3.99

- $1/1 blinkie

= $2.99 ea.

4 meat items $2.82 - $3.32 ea

- $2 off meat wyb charcoal Q (tearpad from Food Lion)

= $.82- $1.32 ea.

4 boxes regular Cheerios $2.00 ea (B1G1 price)

- $1/1 General Mills Target printable

- $1/1 printable from Cheerios 10% in one month promotion

= FREE

2 boxes Apple Cinnamon Cheerios $2.00 ea (B1G1 price)

- $1/1 General Mills Target printable

- $.75/1 printable for Apple Cinnamon, Banana, Frosted, Fruity, or Yogurt Burst

= $.25 ea.

2 Publix reusable shopping bags

- Buy two cheerios get one reusable shopping bag "peelie"

= FREE

1 pineapple $3.99

- $1/1 Target printable

= $2.99 ea.

Grapes $1.23

no coupons

= $1.23

Nectarines $1.40

no coupons

= $1.40

Peaches $1.91

no coupons

= $1.91

Bananas $.51 and $.68

- $.50/1lb. Target printable

= .19 total

Tomatoes on the vine $1.37

no coupons

= $1.37

Asparagus $2.34

no coupons

= $2.34

Two $5/50 competitor Q's

TOTAL: $363.70

TOTAL AFTER COUPONS: $13.76

SAVINGS: 96%

NOTE: Jason and I debated for a long time about whether or not we should use the $3/1 charcoal FLIP as a competitor coupon because it does not say "manufacturer" on it (even though many websites are reporting it as a manufacturer Q). It says store coupon and it has a Food Lion symbol on it. We decided to go ahead and use it as a competitor coupon. This was a personal decision and you may come to a different conclusion. We believe that the wording on the coupon regulates the use of a coupon but that's just our take on the ethics of this coupon.