Its a tip that I put in Carolina Bound's comments. The full tip is a really simple, second nature tip to me now but it has helped me out of a few jams and it lessens the Embarassment and Easy Es in the grocery line.
Grocery stores like to trick you a little bit - or, rather, fleece you a little bit if you're not alert. Sometimes they put branded sale items right next to very similar items branded, not on sale; sometimes the sale tag is not right next to the item; sometimes a coupon is maddingly precise (on the 24 oz item, not on the 20 oz item).
If I am unsure whether I will get the sale price or the coupon price of an item, I put that item in the back corner of the cart. If a store runs out of something and I want to get a raincheck, I write the brand, the size, and the item on a slip of paper and put that in the back corner too.
When I unload groceries on the belt, the items on the back corner get unloaded last and I put a little space (3-6 inches) between the questionable items, the slips of paper and the sure-thing items. Not a huge space, just a little breather so that the cashier will ring up the sure-thing items first and you know when to be on alert.
Now when the questionable items come up, you can watch how they ring up. If they don't ring up as the sale price, you can return them quickly, with less fuss, because they are at the end. And the slip of paper on the belt will remind you to ask for a raincheck. Sometimes the cashier says, "oh item x can substituted." Cool. If the stock boy doesn't run to fetch it and you don't have the time, write it out on the slip of paper with the deadline.
You get what you want, you know when to be alert, you have your fight at the end. And now I've trained all the cashiers in Seattle to roll their eyes when they see that space.
A1 Grocery Tip
May 22nd, 2006 at 02:28 am
May 22nd, 2006 at 05:01 am 1148270490
May 23rd, 2006 at 04:11 am 1148353919
May 24th, 2006 at 06:34 am 1148448850