My MOM is a coupon SC.

[sld72382]

Like any housewife, my mom always makes a point to cut out the coupons in the Sunday papers in an effort to save as much money as possible when going to the supermarket.

While this in itself is fine, it's the way she goes about doing and planning on how to use the coupons that makes me mad. She'll cut out a coupon that has a similar item to the one she's actually going to buy (most of the time by the same brand). When I tell her "That's not going to work, it's not for the same item." What does she say?

"That's OK SLD, I'll just go to a cashier that checks the coupons AFTER he/she rings up the items and I'll just pass it off on him/her. It will accept the coupon regardless."


This has actually worked out handsomely for a very long time (I will admit that almost all the time cashiers don't bother really inspecting the coupons and the supermarket we go to down here in FL doesn't flag that the item may not have been purchased).

One day though, she got a cashier that asked for the coupons ahead of ringing up the items so she could look at them. When the girl found a coupon for a mouthwash, she searched for it, and said "sorry, this isn't the same one that's on the coupon, I can't use it." What did my mom say? "You going to henpick over a dollar? Come on now!" I looked at my mom and said, "Mom it's a freakin' DOLLAR!" My mom said, "I spend over $1000 a month in the place, the least they could do for me is 1 dollar!"

Do this day she still does it, and I learned not to say anything because, well, it's useless.

[mrtauntaun]

Wow, that wouldn't work here, everything is computerized. The register will check to see if you have purchased the actual item. If not, you're outta luck.

[Velfarre2001]

They are the ones scamming people, and she is annoyed it didn't work..... glad you didn't get her scammer genes.

[Shengirl]

We're computerized here, too. It's inaccurate sometimes, but never in the customer's favor.

[BookstoreEscapee]

What did my mom say? "You going to henpick over a dollar? Come on now!"

But you're doing it! So can I! Humph! <crosses arms and stamps foot>

[Ill_Used_Heroine]

I think it's like, if your mom was an SC, and you went shopping with her all the time, then you are the antithesis of an SC.

See, my mom is the type to decide she doesn't want the ice cream she put in her cart while she's on the checkout line, so it would get shoved into the impulse rack. I spent my entire childhood running to put things back where they belonged because of her.

When I go shopping now, I'm fixing the meat displays, fronting the shelves, putting up signs that fell down (or were pulled down by SCs). My SO gets embarassed, but I can't help myself. Plus the fact that my mom would always say, "don't do that, they have people they pay to do that," which I never believed back then, and know better about now, having worked in retail. Sure, it's part of your job to neaten up, but no one gets paid enough to have to deal with SCs that are like tornadoes going through your store!

So, when I go shopping, I read the signs, find what I'm looking for, wait patiently in line, pay for it with a smile at the clerk and go on my way. Mainly because my mother was the exact opposite and I was constantly in a state of embarassment.

[Jester]

Heroine, to be honest, I think you go a little too far. If it makes you happy, great, but I don't go to the grocery store to pick up after other people's mess...I go there to shop. I do enough cleaning up of SC's at my own place of employment.

Don't get me wrong. I see stuff in the impulse rack, I will hand it to the cashier and tell them where I found it so it can be put away correctly. But picking up signs, fronting shelves, etc.? No. If there's a mess, I may call the staff's attention to it, but I bust my ass enough at my own job. In the same sense, I would never expect grocery store employees to pick up a mess a kid made at one of my other tables when they were in my restaurant. They are there to dine, not to work.

I hope this all makes sense. To me, it is one of my less coherent posts. And I am completely sober. (Maybe that's the reason....)

[powerboy]

When I go shopping, I might front something, but not everything.

[Ill_Used_Heroine]

Well, I don't go shopping to specifically front and fix. I do it when I'm standing around waiting for my SO to pick something out or find what she wants, which can sometimes take a while. She's the main shopper -- I'm there to state what we need, kibitz, and pay. I gotta do something useful and constructive while I'm waiting and I definitely don't front/fix everything ... I'd be there all day!

[Pixagi]

I hated it when people tried that at the store I used to work at. It NEVER worked, we all always looked at the coupons closely to make sure the customer wasn't trying to screw us. It was f--ing annoying, they'd keep bitching that it was only this, or only that. So stupid.

[Andara Bledin]

It was f--ing annoying, they'd keep bitching that it was only this, or only that. So stupid.

Well, if it's "only this" then you won't mind if we do it my way, then, right?

I won't front shelves, but I will pick things up and I will return things that should be kept cold to someone to put them away when I find them abandoned. I'll also bring up opened packages I find, too. Makes me wish I could find the people who pull that crap, though, so I could smack 'em with it, and maybe shame them into paying for it.

^-.-^

[HALFHUMANHALFZOMBIE]

I'm sorry but you're mom has to show a better example of her ways. Trying to scam coupons after everything is rung through. If She went through my till and did that I'd make her go through the bags to find the items for the coupons because I don't have a visual photographic memory for every item!

[DesignFox]

This story reminds me of one of the grocery stores I used to frequent while in college. Coupon scamming got SO BAD that they displayed signs at each register stating that the customer would have to wait while each coupon was examined upon check out. I guess the systems were not set up to double check and the store got tired of dealing with scammers similar to your mother...

The area it was in, I did not find the sign at all surprising considering I dealt with the customers from that area and they were constantly trying to get something for nothing...

Kind of like GK's 867...but you knew these people by their zip code.

[Pagan]

[QUOTE=Ill_Used_Heroine;166508]When I go shopping now, I'm fixing the meat displays, fronting the shelves, putting up signs that fell down (or were pulled down by SCs). My SO gets embarassed, but I can't help myself.QUOTE]

I have the same problem. If I'm looking at books, I'll face them. Looking at CDs, I'll flip them all back. One night I was at a Hasting's that I didn't work at with my friend. All of a sudden she told me to "Stop it!" I didn't realize that I was facing the rental DVDs. She made me put my hands in my pockets....And I've always straightened clothes on racks.

[42_42_42]

I don't usually front/fix other people's mess, but if I pick up a box or can or something to inspect it or compare it to another brand (i.e. ingredients/nutritional info) I always make sure I put it back in the right space facing front.

I will pull an item from the back that has a later expy date if it's something I know might go bad before DH and I finish it, otherwise, I just pull the one out of the front. But even when I'm trying for the farthest-out expy date, I don't make a mess of all the other ones in the front.