My day at Target

Well today was an interesting shopping trip to Target. I am going to do this a bit differently then I normal do my "haul" posts. As much as us new couponers have been getting a bad rep (don't steal inserts, don't clear shelves!) there are some cashiers who just do not like couponers period. I have been a cashier, I knew cashiers who were couponers. Yes, it takes a couple extra minutes to go over the coupons and ring them in. Yes, sometimes you have to manually key in the coupon if the printable coupon does not scan. And us NICE new couponers, will be patient and promise not to jump your tail end over every little coupon. If my coupon doesn't work I am ok with that, i will even put the item back FOR YOU.

(sigh) sorry ok little rant is over, needless to say I had a not so nice/smart cashier today at Target. Here is how my transaction should have gone. ( I do want to say that this is a good thing and a bad thing before I start this 'should have been' scenario and you will see why when i tell you what really happened.)

So as some of you may have noticed, I like going to Target now because you can stack a Target printable coupon with a manufacturers coupon.
I started out in the food section, my target is not a super target yet, so they have a very small food section. I printed out the new coupon from coupons.com for buy 3 pop tarts save $2.00, Target also had new coupons today that included a $1 off of three boxes. 

I had two of each coupon, so 6 boxes of pop tarts...yum!

6@ 2.65 ea = 15.90 - $6 = 9.90, or 1.65 a box.

Then I had 3 Hershey's chocolate bars from last Sunday's paper. $1 off of 2 pkgs. A while back I had printed the target coupon for .50 cents off of 1.

So I bought 6

6@ $2.49 ea = 14.94 - 3.50 = 11.44, or approx 1.91 a package

Target also has there back to school displays already started...my daughter just got out of school 3 weeks ago! However they had some great coupons for back to school at Target.com

Besides they had composition books for .25 cents, I got these really great deals

(whoa wow, I just realized that my not so nice cashier nor myself realized that I got the wrong pencils!)

Paper mate products, for 1.09 . $1 off target printable makes it .09 cents!

Bic writing utensils .99 cents each, I decided to be nice and buy 2. so original price was 1.98 - $1 target printable = .98 for 2

Sharpie permanent marker, original price 1.54 - $1 target printable = .54!

Then I needed to get storage bags...



These were on sale for $2.99 and yes I had $1 off target printable for this too so my total was 1.99 :)

(some locations you might be lucky enough not to have a peelie stealer and be able to get this down just a little bit more.)

... and to top off my shopping trip I needed dog food, Target had Kibbles and Bits on sale for 11.49...no coupon for this one, it was just a good deal :)

So the right way that my transaction should have gone. My 8 year old daughter would hand the coupons to the cashier who would say thank you and then would begin to ring up our transactions.

Here is how it should have came out: 21.34 in food stamps and 15.34 out of pocket, total = 36.68. Thank you and have a nice day :)

............................ Instead this is how my transaction really went.

-My daughter was making sure she had all the coupons when the lady held out her hand for them and put them on the counter.

-The lady rang up our order and then went to look at the coupons. She rubbed one printable coupon up against the scanner with force and says "These printable coupons never work, they are such a pain in the butt."

- Then instead of keying in the coupon sku she uses a master code to take off the coupon amount...of all the coupons!

Food Stamp balance, $27.84. Out of pocket cost $9.74 , total cost 37.58 (the main discrepancy being that I did not get the paper mate pencils, I accidentally bought the bic pencils which are 1.99)

Now like I said this is a good thing and a bad thing. It's a bad thing because the cashier did not do her job correctly...at all! She should be courteous to all patrons, check the coupons with the products and use the correct coupon codes, then we would have approx 5 more dollars on our food stamps.

However since she did not do her job correctly I do not feel bad that we only paid 9.74 for a big bag of dog food, storage bags and school supplies. What have you found out about cashiers when you use coupons? Have a safe and happy Fourth of July