The Day I Became a Moron

Dh and I went to the grocery store yesterday morning. Years ago, a visit to the grocery store was preceded by careful studying of the weekly ads, writing everything down carefully with the cost beside it. I no longer have any control over the amount of money spent in this household, so there's no point for my even trying to keep us to a budget. I'm not sure how to do it, without becoming a shrew.

At any rate we got to the store and it seems they are having this bizarre buy nine items get $9 off sale. First off, I thought you had to buy nine to get one free. So, ten for the price of nine. But I was wrong on that.

All over the store, there are ads like this:

Your Final Cost When You Buy 9... Buy 9, Save $9.

While looking at these crackers, we realize we can't use nine boxes in a year, so we don't get any.

At this point I called my boss and asked her if I should buy some for work. She asked me to pick up 18 bottles.

Here I'm wondering who in their right mind would buy nine super size bags of potato chips unless they were having a giant party?

At no time did I stop to read the fine print, which said, "Buy 9, Save $9 Instantly When You Buy Any Combination of Nine (9) Participating Products." DUH. Ding, I just turned into an idiot.

Apparently the limit of 2 credits, meant two per receipt!!

I'm entering the purchases into Quicken today, and realize they only gave us TWO CREDITS. I'm thinking, they cheated us out of FOUR credits! The 18 bottles of salad dressing was worth two all by itself.

So I call the store, and customer service explains we're only allowed two credits per receipt. I'm aghast and completely in shock by this statement. Thinking it can't be true. I laughed, and said, "Thanks, can I speak with a manager?"

Here's some more great customer service, as someone answers the phone:

"Hi, can I help you?"

Me: I was waiting to speak to a manager.

"You've got her, how can I help you?"

Me: Can I have your name, please?

"Rosemary."

Me: Okay, Rosemary, your customer service person is trying to tell me there was a limit of 18 items and all over the store and in the ad it says I have to buy NINE of one item in order to get the sale price.

She goes on to argue with me that it's in the ad, they have been handing out flyers at the door and telling people that is how the deal works AND they instructed the cashiers to tell people as they are checking out, how it works.

I was still aghast. I told her my cashier didn't say one word to me, and I even commented to him on how they must have brought in five truckloads in order for people to have to buy multiples of nine of everything. I think I even mentioned wondering how someone could use nine super size bags of potato chips. He didn't say a word to me. And there weren't many people in the store, so it's not like he was so busy and stressed out that he would have forgotten.

So finally she tells me they aren't restricting the number of items you buy, you just have to get separate receipts.

I'm still aghast.

Finally she sighs and says if I bring in my receipt they'll fix it for me.

Okay, here's how I would have handled that situation, as a manager.

"Hi, this is Rosemary, how can I help you?"

Me: Fuss, grumble, gripe, complain

"I'm sorry ma'am, we've had several complaints on this. We've been trying to bring this to our shoppers' attention by handing out flyers and our cashiers were instructed to mention it as well. I'm sorry if you weren't told about it, but if you bring your receipt in we'll be happy to fix it for you."

See how easy that could have been? Twenty-five years ago that's what would have happened, too.

I saw many other people with baskets loaded up with nine items of many things. I bet some people didn't even look at their receipt, just assumed they got the sale prices.

Dang it. Now we have to stop by the store after church tomorrow so they can fix the problem.