One group of gray haired ladies and black nailed teenagers stand between you, and complete and utter bottom line ruin. And they are taking you there, one slow and steady step at a time.
Exhibit A: I give you Weis last week, where a hawk eyed, coupon snatching, argumentative cashier gave me problems about EVERY. SINGLE. COUPON. while simultaneously not ringing in at least one five dollar item. This five dollar item actually cost me 11 dollars and resulted in twenty five minutes of my time being spent at customer service where I first broke one customer service agent and then had the manager tapping away on an adding machine for what seems like a decade.
But seriously, being more concerned about my coupons than actually doing your job and ringing things in? Really?
Exhibit B: Let's go to Giant, the land where the highest prices in the world exist. If you spend a dime on anything that is NOT a loss leader, it's at least fifty cents more than it would be ANYWHERE else. Once again, MOST of the cashiers will read your coupon like there's going to be a pop quiz on it with a million dollar prize for getting a hundred, but will often forget to scan items. Now, I ask you, which is more important? Accounting for everything properly, or reading coupons for comprehension? Here's a hint- the word OR does NOT mean "must buy two products." That would be the word "AND". Giant side note- I'm actually pretty amazed at the night crew at my local Giant. They are friendly, helpful, and quick. DO NOT USE COUPONS THERE DURING THE DAY IF YOU CAN HELP IT AT ALL. The day people are so suspicious it's not even funny. They don't even scan the coupons to see if they work, no, each one is held up under complete and total scrutiny, as if I've presented them a phony five thousand dollar bill, rather than a coupon for twenty cents off Jello.
Yesterday, I got a couple of coupons in the mail for a couple of packages of dinner mixes from cafemom. I need to try them out this weekend, see how the kids like them, and post it up. Now, when I go into Giant, there are ONLY loss leaders or free items in my basket, grouped by coupon/deal, with the coupons in the corresponding order so the cashier can clearly see all the items. The first thing they do, every single time, is mix up the coupons. I don't know why. I guess it makes them happy. I don't know, but it costs me money almost every single time. I had the free items up front, with the coupons on top, and I explained to the girl that these were free and there were coupons for them. She rolls her eyes and takes off a dollar (MANUALLY) instead of four per box.
And yes, I am now THAT PERSON. I wouldn't be BUYING the box mixes if they weren't free. I got my four dollars, of course, joking lightly that I'm sure she was convinced that coupons were the devil.
*Big, Deep, sigh* The stories go on and on. But I do have one more I want to share.
Dunkin' Donuts. Now, I recently ended my year long boycott of the local Dunkin Donuts over a uniform dispute involving my daughter asking what it meant to "like head", which was added to an employee's uniform. After I explained what the slang meant to the young man who was managing, he blushed and asked the kid to take the sticker off the uniform. After the manager walked away, the kids laughed and whispered loudly about me being prudish. Prudish, I am not. Being forced by a bunch of snot nosed teenagers to explain to a nine year old what it means to "like head" is not my cup of tea. (and yes, I do realize that the fact that I just typed that sentence out means my internet age is 90. I don't care.)
Well, it appears Dunkin Donuts has a general policy of ripping their customers off. They have coffee deals and iced tea deals posts as value meals. If you do not SAY value meal, they will not give you the value meal pricing. Now, you KNOW a coffee and a sandwich is a value meal. But you don't ring it in that way unless the customer requests the discount. And they often ring things in incorrectly as well. Today's misring cost me 70 cents and five minutes. Rather than make a fuss, I just didn't make a donation into the tip cup. I'm not entirely sure that working behind the counter entitles you to a percentage of my meal as commission, especially when you aren't really helpful or kind or funny or attentive or, I don't know, active.
So, that's my rant for the week, which actually should have been TWICE as long since I've now taken to ringing up deals at Walgreens ONE. DEAL. AT. A. TIME. so I can keep a better eye on the cashiers and not have to discuss MULTIPLE mistakes in the same discussion.
It's not hard. Ring in the items. ALL of them. Ring in the coupons, again, ALL of them.
