I am not sure what was biting her butt

So I went grocery shopping today (it is Monday after all and Monday means grocery shopping) and did decent considering I didn’t do a whole lot of grocery shopping last week. I think I was a tad over budget, but I haven’t totaled it up completely yet. I did really good with 44¢ and 45¢ transactions. You’d be surprised what you can get for 45¢ – Olay Quench moisturizing mousse, 4pk of Cottonelle toilet paper, and an 8oz single serve box of organic milk. *grin* I felt almost guilty for using my debit card for 2 tiny transactions but I really didn’t have cash on me. I expected them to be more than that but they were out of a couple of the “deals.” But all in all, I did pretty good today getting things we needed, things we wanted, and things we’ll eat.

Of course, it was only Pepsi products on sale at the 2 grocery stores. Well, one of them had Dr Pepper products. Neither of these will suffice as a Diet Coke. Nope, just isn’t going to happen. So back to Wal-mart to get the Diet Coke because it is clear highway robbery at either Randall’s or Kroger. It isn’t much better at Wal-mart but at least it didn’t feel like I was being taken out behind the playground by the classroom bully.

This leads to this week’s shopping experience. Normally, Wal-mart doesn’t bother me. They are busy. You just adjust to that. You deal. Normally, the employees are courteous and attempt to act helpful. And today, there were the encounters with all of them that were such, asking if I was finding everything OK, and whatnot. To those, I appreciate the efforts. However, I got to the cash register and the tolerable experience turned and headed for the hills.

It was busy and as usual Wal-mart doesn’t have enough cashiers there. I don’t mind standing in line as I wasn’t in a hurry and I didn’t have anywhere to be right then. I was just hungry, but I’m just chilling standing in line behind the person that clearly can’t (1) count, (2) read, or (3) follow directions. Twenty items or less means 20 physical items or less not 20 unique items even if you have duplicates of half of them. But I am being patient.

I picked up the All You Health edition – special edition. The last magazine had a coupon for it. As I am a new subscriber to the magazine and have only received 2 editions so far, I wasn’t sure if the subscription covered the special editions. I figure I’d grab one anyway since it certainly hasn’t come in the mail yet. So she totals it up and I had her my coupon for 50¢ off the magazine. She is STUDYING this coupon. I am kind of taken back by this as it was not hard to recall in those less than 20 items that I only had a single magazine. The fine print isn’t even all that fine, at least concerning the expiration date. It is good until the end of the month. *scratching head*

I then hear “I can’t take this coupon.” Excuse me? “I can’t take this coupon because it doesn’t say Manufacturer on it.” What?!?!?! You’re kidding right? This is “Wal-mart endorsed” magazine and you won’t take the coupon?!?! I then read the fine print for her where it clearly states that it is for use at “Wal-mart stores” which unless I was mistaken, I was clearly standing in. I mean, I suppose I could have been confused as I was hungry and my blood sugar was getting a little low, but I was pretty certain that the signage and name tags all indicated that I was in the “right store” to redeem my coupon. Even after I read the part about it being usable at Wal-mart stores, she insists that she “can’t take the coupon, that she’s been told if it doesn’t say manufacturer on it they can’t take them.”

Then we’re starting to have flashes about how this is false advertising and well…I told her that she needed to get a manager over to the register to verify this. I mean, you can tell me one thing and it is taken out of context a lot. So she pops an attitude like a 14 year old girl. I kid you not. If it hadn’t been for her color in a bottle covered gray hair and wrinkles, you’d have a hard time distinguishing the age of the individual that stood in front of me. She wanders off to get that manager, I guess. She never came back with one and I was sure they weren’t supposed to leave the register. Then she gets all snotty when she has to ring up my coupon. *evil laugh*

You’d think she would have just tried the coupon and see if it would go through and if it didn’t then we’d have this discussion. I mean, what if I had had 20 coupons? Would she have stood there with her magnifying glass inspecting each of the 20 coupons with as much scrutiny as she did this one. I mean, it was clearly torn out of a magazine and had a bar code, expiration date, and fine print. I don’t get it. No, instead of wearing her smile she threw a little fit about me having a legitimate coupon that she assumed she wasn’t supposed to take and then got hissier when she was told to grant me my coupon.

You’d think the regular cashiers would recognize those regular customers that are in there every week without fail for something or another. If not, they need to pay closer attention to their surroundings. I’ve been through her line multiple times before. I can’t say she’s always been happy and chipper like some of them are who always wear a smile, but I would have never thought she’d try to pull a stunt that would make many a shopper refuse to come back. She’s lucky. I will be back simply because it is convenient and there are things in there that price wise I can’t get cheaper anywhere else and get everything I need in one store so I only have to make 1 trip. I know plenty who would refuse to step foot in Wal-mart again due to this little tiff.

I think she better figure out what is biting her butt and get it fixed or I’ll be less inclined to go in there for even quick trips. I certainly will be making my complaint heard as my receipt has a phone number and a manger’s name. You’d think that no one voices their complaints as they continue to piss people off over stupid things over like a “redeem at Wal-mart stores” coupons for magazines that you buy right there at Wal-mart registers. That’s the thing…she didn’t just piss me off, you should have seen the looks on the faces in line behind me…3 people back. *shrug*

Oh and in general, grocery sackers really need to learn how to bag groceries. *rolling eyes* I have yet to find a store where they have half a clue when it comes to bagging groceries.