Thursday, September 10, 2009

Loving my Walgreens, Hating my Target

It's the pros and cons of couponing. Some stores are truly Awesome (like my Publix and Walgreens), others really suck, like my Target and Wal-Mart.

We have one Target in my city. I shop there occassionally, but mostly I like to shop at the Nashville stores (there are quite a few- at least 8-10 to choose from). I told Natalya she could pick out some new sheets for her bed, so we went to Target. I have been trying to track down bags of Chef Michaels dog food, so I thought I'd check again to see if they had any. While there, I wanted to do the Fiber Once cereal deal again and get some more GM cereal cups before the Target q expires (Saturday).
Well, no Chef Michaels. No Fiber One cereal. I picked up 8 cereal cups and then N had her sheets and comforter and a couple of t-shirts that were on sale for the kids.
This store always gives me toruble with coupons. Forget about trying to use a coupon on a trial size item.
Over the last week I have bought cereal cups at a minimum of five different Targets and used the $1/1 Target q and the mq's, both the $.55/1 and the $1/2. None of these specify a size of cereal. At the last Target, the Target q automatically adjusted down to the price of $.95 since the cereal cups are now on sale.
So he rings up my items and then scans the q's. They won't scan. beep. beep. beep. beep. He looks all skeptical and calls over the "I'm in charge" of the moment. She says oh no, you can't use that on the small size. Oh really, I say, So the other five Target stores I shoped at all are doing it wrong. SHe says it's for the big boxes. Really? I say again. Where does it say that? She says, it's just not for that item. Sorry. And walks off.
You know what? Forget this Target. I NEVER have problems at the Target I like In Nashville. I would much rather give them my business. I never have trouble. It is so much more of a pleasure to shop and give my money to a store that APPRECIATES my business!
So I bought the sheets (becasue I promised N) but did not purchase the cereal. And honestly? I don't plan on going back to this Target. Ever. Unless it's an emergency. I even saw some Secret deo on clearance for $2 that would be free with the KMart booklet q, but I don't plan on even going back for them b/c I am so irritated.

Ugh.

On the other hand, my Walgreens? Awesome. :) I was going to do the Starbucks deal, but changed my mind since I don't really need more Starbucks ice cream. So I gave the cashier (my favorite) my last 3 $2/1 Starbucks ice cream q's. Unfortunately this now means I have $14 in rr's to spend that I didn't spend today. I also didn't get my Scrubbing Bubbles shower cleaner b/c they were out. :( The mgr told me to get a raincheck and they would just reduce the amount by $3 to make up for me not getting the rr this week. (Did I mention that I love this Wags?) So I am going to get my papers Sunday with my rr's that are expiring and I guess some clearance toys/summer for gifts for the kids. You'll also see I got overage on my Glad q's. That's because this Wags= Awesome. :D

Here's what I got:
Transaction 1
2 Glade 2 oz soy candles 2/$4
-$free candle q= Free {earn $1rr}
total tax: $.38
Total oop: $.38
Total rr's earned $1

Transaction 2
1 Glade Sense & Spray 5.99
-$free Sense & Spray q (home mailer)= Free {earn $2rr}
total tax: $.57
Total oop: $.57
Total rr's earned $2

Transaction 3
2 Glade 2 oz soy candles 2/$4
-$3/1 mq = -$2 {earn $1rr}
1 Carefree Pantiliner $1.99
-$1/1 Carefree mq= $.99 {earn $2rr}
1 Duracell AA 2.99
-$1/1 Duracell mq {earn $1rr}
total tax: $.85
Total oop: $1.83
Total rr's earned $4

Transaction 4
2 Glade 2 oz soy candles 2/$4
-$3/1 mq = -$2 {earn $1rr}
2 Thanksgiving decorations 2/$1
-no q's
1 Duracell AA 2.99
-$1/1 Duracell mq {earn $1rr}
total tax: $.76
Total oop: $1.75
Total rr's earned $3

Total Spent: $4.53
Total rr's earned: $10
Total saved: $43.23
--Total profit: $5.47

5 comments:

  1. Do you do wags in Nashville or up in Clarksville? Lately, I've honestly wanted to tell Walgreens to kiss my %#$ :o) They are making me crazy with their interpretations of "limit one per purchase" etc! I do have a couple that usually work out for me, but the problem I find is have to go to soooo many different stores to find the deals, clearance, etc that it just gets so frustrating when you don't know if they will accept your q's or not!

    I go through phases of boycotting, then I get sucked in by the good deals again! Got burned on the free candles with overage after RR so I haven't tried again although I do want to!

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  2. It's not just your Target - it seems to be a lot of Target's all over the country. Here in South Florida I continually have problems with using coupons at Target - even their own! If Target does not have enough sense to put descriptions or size limits on their coupons, then what do they expect? I was able to do the cereal deal, but not without some hassle. Target has now posted their coupon policy online but that won't help if they don't read it! Or follow it! The best policy is to just find the store that works best, find the full time clerk that knows the system and stick with it! And certainly don't shop at the stores that give you grief! Thanks for the great posts! Keep at it!

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  3. Stacey- my awesome Walgreens is one up here in Clarksville, but if you wanted to get a bunch of awesome deals- then it's an hour from Nashville. LOL. :D Everyone always says they hate Walgreens and love CVS, but we don't have CVS here (I have to go in nashville) and the CVS that is nearest my grandparents is not all that great. It used to be, but then they got new cashiers/managers and they're all coupon-drama now. I do know where a couple of others are that are pretty good though. ;)

    Andrea- I know- I've been hearing all kinds of bad things about Target lately. I am just going to stick with the GOOD Target that's close to the awesome Publix. (This is the one where I always get overage and no one ever hassles me about coupons).

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  4. This is my experience with Target too. Sometimes I hate them, sometimes they are ok.

    If I have too many Walgreens RR's to use at Wags, I use them at Publix. Mine accepts them as competitor coupons, or sometimes as just mfr. coupons.

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  5. Sorry for your trouble at Target....I can totally sympathize. The two Target's within reach of me are both horrible to coupon shop at. One of them, I know alot of other coupon shoppers shop there, so they should be much better versed in coupon useage than they are. Most times they act like they've never even seen a coupon when I use them there.

    Stacey, I do the same thing...I'll decide I'm going to cash in my RR's/ECB's/SCR's and be done with all that...then like the next week they'll have deals I can't pass up.

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