Last-minute checkout shenanigans

[Food Lady]

Tonight was the 2nd time in the last week I had a transaction go past closing.

Story the first: A few days ago we had a whole family of women doing this. They each came up with a huge cartful of stuff--multiples of the same items, like 15 or so. They had huge stacks of coupons. The savings on one transaction was like $300. I had to hand-enter the amounts on several coupons because they were for free items. I was there 15 minutes past closing, rapidly approaching the 6-hour mark. I believe they wait until the end of the night because they know we want to go home and just want to get them out of there, and the validity of their coupons won't be questioned. I'm 99% sure they will turn up at another of our stores to return the items and get the value of the coupon savings in cash. Stupid on my company's part or not, that's how our system works, and people make money off it.

Story the second: My last 2 customers were these girls who went through their cart, item by item, deciding what they wanted to keep. They kept changing their minds over and over and kept asking "How much is this?" All of the items were out of the value bin section, so the all had the prices on them. The clothes did too. They just kept asking me, and I kept telling them the prices were on the tags. They took forever to ring up. The kicker is that the one said to the other, "I'm sure they want to go home." ya THINK?

[Slayer]

Bah, that's why I try to make sure I arrive much earlier before closing if I have a many-item trip (coupons or not) since I can easily spend 30 minutes to an hour in the store gathering up what I need. So in order to get the $300 in savings with coupons (which, wow, most I've done is around $25), they were probably there for waaaay longer than an hour.

Even though the cash doesn't print what kind of coupons they had, doesn't it show that they did use coupons on the receipt?

And geez, those people that can't decide irk me, too. Just add in your head or use a calculator and read!

[Food Lady]

Actually, they came in an hour before closing. It's easy to pick up 20 of the same air freshener or whatever.

[Mytical]

*blinks*..*blinks again* Ok I know there are people who use coupons responsibly, intelligently, and nicely to save money .. but I am sorry..I just don't see the sense of getting 20 air freshners..or 30 packs of toilet paper..or whatever. Just does not compute.

[Kristev]

Well, I knew consumers at the Little shop of horrors who wanted to save on petrol by only shopping there once a month. And those who worked in restaraunts and hotels and wanted to re-stock between order periods.

But generally, they purchased more food than air fresheners.

[Slayer]

Actually, they came in an hour before closing. It's easy to pick up 20 of the same air freshener or whatever.

Ah, so they only bought air fresheners? lol, stinky house!

[Food Lady]

I mentioned in my op that they make money on this, but didn't elaborate. They print off large numbers of coupons and just buy all the same stuff, or large multiples of like items because it's easier for them. When they return those items, since we kept the coupon and got reimbursed for it, we give them the coupon value as part of the return in cash. Not all stores do this, but it's the way our system works. So if you saved like $300 by using coupons, you'd make $300. People do this over and over and make a living on it. They can afford to buy enough product to generate that $300 because they use a credit card to purchase it, and then just return the items, which puts the credit back on the card. It's shady, but not illegal. It is, however, fleecing the manufacturers, and I think that's sucky.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I hate to have to do this, but I bet at least one of the coupons will turn out to be a fake.

[Food Lady]

Oh, I already figured, Irv. The manager made sure I set them all aside for AP, especially since half were printed ones. Then it does become coupon fraud.

[Slayer]

Ouch, there definitely needs to be a better system for those coupons and returns.

Hopefully there aren't any fake ones. Sadly, there are fake printables that circulate the net. I've encountered three myself that, thankfully, looked so horrible printed that I couldn't bring myself to use them and looked them up. One was even the same quality as an expired coupon, except they erased the old date and put the new one in red, in a different font and in a completely different place. I'd be scared to think of how many there are roaming around for the states.

Then again, she could have faked some herself. There are people stupid enough for that (though since she used a credit card, hopefully not that stupid lol).

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

One company (Procter and Gamble, I think) sends around a bulletin to stores advising them on fake coupons for their products that are circulating.

The bulletin says they do not issue coupons via e-mail or the web, to be printed out at home. So a printed coupon, for say, Tide laundry detergent, would be a fake.

[Teefies2]

One company (Procter and Gamble, I think) sends around a bulletin to stores advising them on fake coupons for their products that are circulating.

The bulletin says they do not issue coupons via e-mail or the web, to be printed out at home. So a printed coupon, for say, Tide laundry detergent, would be a fake.

And yet it's the Proctor & Gamble White Strips coupon that works on EVERY dang P&G product! We have had this over and over at my company, with alerts being sent to all stores telling everyone NOT to accept that coupon!! People have even been fired for it! Still the customers insist that we should take it since "it's still a P&G product" Errrrrrrrrrggggggggg

Just realized ... does anyone even know which coupon I'm talking about?

[Slayer]

And yet it's the Proctor & Gamble White Strips coupon that works on EVERY dang P&G product! We have had this over and over at my company, with alerts being sent to all stores telling everyone NOT to accept that coupon!! People have even been fired for it! Still the customers insist that we should take it since "it's still a P&G product" Errrrrrrrrrggggggggg

Just realized ... does anyone even know which coupon I'm talking about?

I don't think I do. I'm in Canada so it might be different. I know the product, but not the issue with the coupon being used on other products.

The only P&G coupons I have access to are online (which are then mailed to me) and from whatever insert I'm lucky enough to get.

https://www.brandsaver.ca/en_ca/coupons/
^ is the online one

[Sableonblonde]

As for the second group of customers, I've known people who do stuff like that...go around the store filling up their cart with everything they WISH they could buy, then get to the register and then try to decide what they actually CAN afford. I unwittingly went shopping with someone like this once, and it was so embarassing.

[Kristev]

So you've met my mom.