I had an adventure in Target yesterday! Armed with Target coupons and manufacturer coupons, I went to do some Christmas shopping and pick up a few grocery items. Luckily, even though I am very late with Christmas shopping, I found all the gift items I was looking for. I also found that some local Targets are beginning to discount Christmas merchandise, including artificial trees, and labeling them as “clearance”.
While I was there, I took advantage of some coupon matchups. Kellogg’s cereals were priced 2.89-3.29, and the ones I wanted were Smart Start (2.96) and Special K (2.89). I took with me a buy 1 get 1 free Special K printable, a coupon for $1.50 off three Kellogg’s cereals from Coupons.com, and a Target coupon for $5 off Kellogg’s cereals. Final cost – $2.31, about .58 a box.
Nestle crunch Jingles were 2.99 each. I bought two, and used a Coupons.com coupon for $1/2 and a Target coupon for .50 off one. Final cost – $4.48, or $2.24 each.
My other purchases either involved just a coupons.com coupon, or a single Target coupon.
The line at the register was long and confusing. They have double registers – a single line and two registers one in front of the other. In a perfect world, this works, with everyone staying in line and the next person stepping up to whatever register is next. At Christmastime, of course what happens is that the next person in line goes to the front register when it is ready, along with the next and next and next person who thinks gee, they found a shorter line. Fortunately, I live in a reasonable civilized area where people tend to be polite, so the mutual confusion was not much of an issue. However, the lines were long because the registers in several lanes kept malfunctioning.
The register I was in line for locked up two customers ahead of me. It was the third register the cashier had been moved to on her shift.The customer whose order had already been partially rung up was moved to one register, and the customer in front of me and I were moved to a second register. The staff was very polite and helpful.
The customer in front of me moved very quickly. No coupons. Then it was my turn. Uh oh.
The register did not want to scan any coupons. The cashier had to make several attempts with each one. When she scanned the Target coupons, they would not go through, saying the items had not been purchased. I quoted her Target’s policy of accepting Target coupons and manufacturer coupons for the same item. She called a manager. Meantime, she put the coupons that had already been discounted in the cash register drawer.
The manager agreed with me, and said to enter the Target coupons manually, but first she wanted to see what coupons had already been taken off. It took two women a full ten minutes to open that drawer. Apparently the lock was very worn. Meantime, a long long long line was forming behind me. I guessed that it was full of people who probably don’t use coupons because they did not look to be of good cheer. To ring the rest of the order, the cashier had to leave the drawer open, and it banged against her the whole time.
The staff was WONDERFULLY cheerful, and happy to see me saving money. It’s just too bad that the registers in so many lanes were faulty, and not programmed in accordance with Target’s coupon policy.
When you go to any big box store, especially one that has a special policy regarding their own store coupons, bring a printed copy of the policy to the store with you. Sometimes the staff are not as wonderful or as knowledgeable as I encountered.