Thursday, September 3, 2009

More charcoal?

A few people have mentioned the new FLip for charcoal and wondered about it. If your plan is to get more charcoal this week, you may be looking at the new Food Lion printable for $3 off a Kingsford Charcoal and scratching your head. Is it a manufacturer coupon or a store coupon? It says store coupon on it, so it's a store coupon right? It has a scannable barcode so it must be a manufacturer coupon right?

Well, people make mistakes and I believe that the "store coupon" wording is a mistake. This coupon has a barcode beginning with a "5" that will be able to be scanned at any store. This is clue #1 that this is a manufacturer coupon. Clue #2 is that if you read the fine print, it has retailer information that allows for reimbursement by the manufacturer. That is a big red flag that this is a manufacturer coupon.

If you'd like to use this coupon as a competitor coupon at Publix, I would stop by and ask the CS Manager for their opinion before you shop. If they ok it as a competitor coupon, then go for it. I won't be using it as such though b/c I think it's pretty obvious this was a manuq that should have had "manufacturer coupon" on it instead of "store coupon".
(Like the Silk coupon in the Greenwise that was obviously a Publix coupon- it had an LU#, but had "manufacturer coupon" in the top. It obviously wasn't a mq, since it couldn't be scanned and didn't have retailer info and a mailing addy on it- that was just a typo)

My $.02

4 comments:

  1. Good point, when I looked at it I just saw Store Coupon and thought instant deal...

    It doesn't expire until 10/31, I think I may hold onto it for a bit and see what happens...

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  2. I took your advice and asked the CS mgr at my Publix store (Concord Rd). I explained to her that it looks like a Store Q, but the barcode & wording are like a Mfg Q. She said that Food Lion probably had some arrangement with the Mfg so they combined their deal so that customers would only have to use 1 Q (I hope I'm explaining that right!). Anyways, she said that I COULD use both my $2/1 Mfg Q AND the $3/1 FLIP together!

    If anybody else isn't, just ask the managers!

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  3. Drenn- I wanted you to know this wasn't directed at you! :) I've seen this question appear several places.

    Jennifer- Awesome! I'm glad she approved it! Yay! It pays to ask. Worst they can say is "no", right?

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  4. My local Publix let me use the FLip on my trip last night as well... I've been doing the coupon thing since mid-june and overall have saved 73% (over $2500)... the last couple of trips though have been closer to 85% (or above) savings.

    I've logged in a good week... spent $.83 and saved $40 at Publix Tuesday, spent $6 and saved $44 at Bi-lo Wed, and last night spent $42 and saved $199 ($20 in meat and $20 in produce).

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